When April Fool’s Day rolls around each year, it’s like a holiday meant just for Jim. Everyone has become accustomed to his practical jokes, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still try and catch everyone unaware and snare them into some sort of scheme or another. But this year it seems that the festivities will be marred a bit by a sadder event, for band regular Beltzman (Mark Beltzman) passed away.
This isn’t really surprising, as he tends to eat fried chicken quite a bit, but it’s still a sobering moment for everyone. That is, until Jim realizes during the wake that Beltzman stole his precious Ernie Banks rookie card, and it’s sitting on Beltzman’s fireplace mantle. It gets worse when Beltzman’s wife (Jane Morris) decides to bury him with it.
Of course, nothing is sacred around Jim, and he and Andy lead an impromptu prayer during the ceremony that is nothing more than a disguised attempt to get Jim into the coffin (literally – he climbs into the coffin to get the card) while everyone has their eyes closed.
When Cheryl gets home and finds out what happened, she isn’t happy, but they go to bed and all seems forgiven. Then Jim hears something downstairs and he finds chicken frying on the stove, and a ghostly Beltzman outside the window writes THIEF on the frost of the window pane. As Jim retreats from this image, he ends up in the living room and everyone is waiting for him to spring the practical joke of all time. Very nicely done.
