Image Credential: John Franklin, engraving by Edward DalzielJohn Franklin, engraving by Edward Dalziel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

It is April Fools’ Day, a time for jests and japes—two of the fey folk’s delights. In fact, they may cherish these pranks excessively, as folklore abounds with stories of jokes turned dangerous. Let us be thankful that April Fools’ Day does not exist in the Feengrenze. Instead, let us explore how the fey entertain themselves at mortal expense, so we might best avoid becoming their punchline.

Pranks

First, the people of the Metauniverse of Faerie love pranks. Faerie and, by extension, faerie forests exist in an unending now. There is no future, and there is no past. This breeds a peculiar kind of boredom. With no future to anticipate and no past to reflect on, the fey seek stimulation wherever possible—most often in each other.
There is a consensus among the feyfolk that the sort of pranks that mortals would find droll, things like joy buzzers, whoopee cushions, and kick me signs, are  played out. In stark contrast to mortals’ lighthearted pranks, the fey prefer Looney Tunes–esque antics that would make Bugs Bunny seem like a rank amateur. Their pranks escalate far beyond mortal conventions: they will cut whole sections out of bridges and hide the holes with magic just to watch carriages and travelers fall into the water below. Meals may be sabotaged with ingredients ranging from live bees to potent hallucinogens. Every prank is more than a joke—it’s an event designed for maximum chaos.
Unfortunately, mortals are a favorite target. The fey find our reactions to the unexpected and bizarre always novel. We take ages to catch on. A mortal in a faerie forest may find paths looping impossibly, signposts pointing in opposite directions, or their own body changed for a joke whose punchline only the unseen audience understands.
To the fey, these tricks are nothing but harmless fun, though mortals may sometimes see things differently.
In Faerie, death does not exist in any form. Even the worst wounds heal almost instantly. Faerie forests, as extensions of Faerie, show similar traits, though potency varies. This makes even cruel jokes temporary and reversible.
In faerie, dropping a safe on a goblin isn’t murder; it’s a traditional prank. The victim gets up, dusts himself off, and laughs at the absurdity. To the fey, there’s no prank in bad taste. Mortals, however, do not have the same luxury. The fey do not understand that we cannot walk off the consequences of their fun.

Puns

The other major forms of fey humor are heavily reliant on puns. The fey are attracted to puns like moths to a flame. From the highest archfey to the lowest goblin, no matter how obvious or stupid the wordplay, the feyfolk cannot help but giggle at a joke or prank based on a pun.
A common Fey joke is to create an object, room, location, or situation based on a pun. This might be a visual or auditory gag, like an installation art piece. For example, a common joke is to plant an oversized wooden fork in the middle of a road at random. They then refer to the “fork in the road” when giving directions.
Mortals like us may groan at a ballroom overflowing with rubber balls. The Fey are helpless before the urge to make words literal. They experience an almost obsessive need to shape reality according to language, even when the joke is ill-suited. Feyfolk typically recognize that they’re twisting the meaning of a ‘staff’ room or a ‘boxing’ match. Nonetheless, they believe the world is richer when puns become tangible.
These examples may suggest fey humor stops at bad wordplay, but there is a darker side. Human idioms inspire both visual and situational jokes, since most fey have access to magic. If a mortal says, “I’m about to blow my top,” a goblin may make their head explode for real. Say you are bent out of shape, and a pixie might try to bend you back. Many harmless phrases can become suggestions to feyfolk.
The feyfolk consider such gags to be a masterpiece of comedy writing. To we mortals, surviving the punchline is the concern.

Fey Humor in the Feengrenze

Unlike in Faerie, where humor is boundless due to magic and invulnerability, Feengrenze’s half-fey have lost much of this comedic tradition. Their separation from Faerie means pranks and puns are now constrained by mortal limits: they lack the effortless magic and resilience that once allowed for dangerous, grand-scale humor. The divide between the two worlds is reflected in what jokes are possible.
Now, jokes that mortals can appreciate are the most common. Wordplay, practical jokes with cantrips, and novelty toys have become the half-fey’s bread and butter. Instead of rewriting reality, they only inconvenience it slightly.
However, that is not to say that the sort of dangerous humor the full-fey enjoy is nowhere to be found.
Like most echoes of Faerie, real fey humor can be found in New Mountainheart.
The clearest example is found at the Comedy Factory.
Sliberberg is home to many makers of novelty gag toys, such as whoopee cushions and fake vomit. The Comedy Factory is the biggest and most infamous of them all. It is proudly goblin-owned and operated. On the surface, it produces the finest novelty goods in the Feengrenze. It is also one of the largest jokes in the Feengrenze.
The owner of the Comedy Factory, the mysterious Mr. J, follows New Mountainheartain workplace and product safety laws to the letter. He gleefully undermines their spirit. The factory is filled with peculiar design choices that encourage strange situations. Floors near stairs, long drops, and open hatches are slick with oil and grease. Goblins regularly get catapulted into wagons and vats of unpleasant substances. Things fall on employees with suspicious regularity.
Everything seems choreographed to create constant slapstick. It’s rarely deadly, but recalls the fey humor of old. Goblin employees appear to understand Mr. J’s intent and join the mayhem. They set up scenes resolved in cartoon style. Watching through the doors and windows has become a lunchtime tradition. For many in nearby workshops, it’s a rare safe way to enjoy classic fey humor—because, for once, they are not the punchline.