The 27th annual San Francisco St. Stupid’s Day parade was held appropriately enough on April Fool's Day. Like other things only in San Francisco, this parade was pure quirkiness.

The parade began across from the Ferry Building at Justin Herman Plaza around noon. For the most part, the parade was just plain silly fun and gave the participants a chance to let down their hair and have a good time.

However, there were a few political undertones (all in good fun), like the effigy of
Vice President Dick Cheney’s face. It had a sign that read, “Pull His Feeding Tube,” and attached to it was an oil can, funnel and tube leading back to Cheney’s mouth.

The marchers were a motley bunch, from the very young to those who, while older, were certainly young at heart. Some were dressed in full costume, while others wore a softer look.

Jill Cordner was there with her group of 3- to 6-year-old kids from the Belvedere Montessori Preschool. One of her charges, Matthew, smiled and said he thought the parade was “cool.”

Two horny nurses, with white caps and dressed in typical nurse garb, stood ready to celebrate. To complete their look, they carried golden troubadour horns and sported a picture of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on their backs with the caption, “Screw Arnold.”

Leading them all was Bishop Joey, the pontiff of the First Church of the Last Laugh.

Ed Holmes, a performer with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, who is Bishop Joey, first came up with the idea in 1979 after he and a group of friends were discussing different cultural celebrations.

“I had a degree in theatre from Cal State Hayward and knew about the Feast of Fools in Europe where there’s a parade and the scandals are celebrated,” he said. With that, St. Stupid, the church and parade were hatched.

Chiding temples is part of the celebration in Europe. Holmes said in this country our temples are financial institutions. “We decided to flip the temples off,” he said.

"We’re making fun of the buildings, not the people who work in them. We’re (also) making fun of the religion of business and the business of religion,” he said.

At the parade, he clarified his vision of awakening about the FCLL and its patron saint.

“St. Stupid is a little known saint; 4-foot-2 4-foot-3; patron saint of civilizations and parking meters. I bet you didn’t know that and you aren’t Catholic are you - I didn’t think so,” he told the crowd of around 200.

He re-membered the faithful and the lost of the church, having them pledge “allegiance to the allusion to the pyramid scheme for which it stands, one species, in denial, in terror and excess by all.”

“We do not fear stupidity, but we are here to pay homage to it,” the bishop told the crowd. “Everyone in the world is a member of the First Church of Last Laugh because the church represents the one thing in his DNA that everyone has and that’s stupidity. We’re not here to worship it, but to give homage to it.”

The parade made stops at the seven crosses of the stupid including the Federal Reserve Bank, where homage was paid to a government that has gone from an industrial nation to one of casino mentality.

At the old Pacific Stock Exchange building a “sock exchange” took place. Hundreds of socks were tossed into the air and at those in the crowd.

Heidi Wohlwend, who completed both her undergraduate and master’s degrees at SF State, was at the parade with her husband, Brian Patterson.

“This is my first year with no job and I thought ‘that’s stupid,’ plus my birthday’s tomorrow, so that’s why I’m here,” said Wohlwend, who resembled a cross between a scary Alice in Wonderland and Pippi Longstocking. “I’m dressed in ‘stupidly pink,’ the new black,” she said.

Mark Ruisi, a transplant from Rhode Island, was wearing a wide-brimmed black hat and a salmon-colored taffeta ball gown bunched up in his underwear.

“I like how crazy and funny the people are and it’s done with a lot of humor,” he said. “I really like the age range; it seems like there are a lot of devoted fans.”

When asked if this was the kind of event that would take place in Rhode Island, he laughed and smiled. “Are you kidding? No way.”