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As judged by notoriety, absurdity, and the number of people duped.
#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in, and many called up wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." Check out the actual broadcast archived on the BBC's website (You need the RealVideo player installed to see it, and it usually loads very slowly). -More- Comments (61) #2: Sidd Finch In its April 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch and he could reportedly throw a baseball with startling, pinpoint accuracy at 168 mph (65 mph faster than anyone else has ever been able to throw a ball). Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa." Mets fans everywhere celebrated at their teams's amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. But in reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the writer of the article, George Plimpton. -More- Comments (27) #3: Instant Color TV In 1962 there was only one tv channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that thanks to a newly developed technology, all viewers could now quickly and easily convert their existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their tv screen, and they would begin to see their favorite shows in color. Stensson then proceeded to demonstrate the process. Reportedly, hundreds of thousands of people, out of the population of seven million, were taken in. Actual color tv transmission only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970. Comments (58) #4: The Taco Liberty Bell In 1996, American fast-food chain Taco Bell announced that it had bought Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, a historic symbol of American independence, from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Outraged citizens called to express their anger before Taco Bell revealed the hoax. Then-White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale and said the Lincoln Memorial in Washington had also been sold and was to be renamed the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial after the automotive giant. Comments (41) #5: San Serriffe In 1977 the British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement in honor of the tenth anniversary of San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semi-colon-shaped islands. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Few noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that then gripped the British tabloids in the following decades. Comments (28) #6: Nixon for President In 1992 National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech. Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing their outrage. Only during the second half of the show did the host John Hockenberry reveal that the announcement was a practical joke. Nixon's voice was impersonated by comedian Rich Little. Comments (18) #7: Alabama Changes the Value of Pi The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the 'Biblical value' of 3.0. Before long the article had made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly made its way around the world, forwarded by people in their email. It only became apparent how far the article had spread when the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The original article, which was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, was written by a physicist named Mark Boslough. Comments (59) #8: The Left-Handed Whopper In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version." Comments (42) #9: Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers In its April 1995 issue Discover Magazine announced that the highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had discovered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These fascinating creatures had bony plates on their heads that, fed by numerous blood vessels, could become burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds. They used this ability to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the penguins and causing them to sink downwards into the resulting slush where the hotheads consumed them. After much research, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying. Discover received more mail in response to this article than they had received for any other article in their history. -More- Comments (39) #10: Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity In 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.
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LMAO #4: The Taco Liberty Bell In 1996, American fast-food chain Taco Bell announced that it had bought Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, a historic symbol of American independence, from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Outraged citizens called to express their anger before Taco Bell revealed the hoax. Then-White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale and said the Lincoln Memorial in Washington had also been sold and was to be renamed the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial after the automotive giant. Comments (41)
Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006
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I haven't, the only one I really could would be my husband and I just think he wouldn't understand it.... I could play a prank on my family with a phone call overseas or an email but I don't want anyone to panic (tell them I went into labor?). I do miss the april fools pranks though You are so mean with the easter bunny, you should have been REALLY mean and said the easter bunny is not coming this year because of something YOUR SON did...muhahahhaa! ok, that would be bad...
Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006
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No, I reserved this last year already for him when St. Claus supposed to come!
You know it's always so strange for my kids because they never saw him. Every Christmas just our door bell rings and by the time they make it to the living-room he's already gone and just left many presents. I explained to them that St. Claus doesn't have any time because he's so busy giving presents away to all the children and no one wants to be forgotten!
But seriously we had chicken today with peppers and rice - the meat wasn't just the one from the Easter bunny!
And you still have a chance to get your family back in the US into a panic. Tell them you just found out that you will expect triplets and they will come very very soon (maybe as early as next week!), be mad on the phone about your Egyptian doctor! Tell them that's so typical for Egypt and they will understand. Come on be creative, it's now early Sunday morning back in TX, give them a shocking call!!!! Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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Yeah, it sort of loses its fun when people do not know about April Fool's Day. I have had 2 tricks played on me today already and I am gearing up for getting some people with mine now!
Posts: 1161 | From: wo xiang xiao bian ji si le | Registered: Oct 2005
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I always loved the april foolsyokes we had in healthcare on the wards. Unfortunately people got so damn serious these days that I did not see one in ages.
They used to send newbees to the maternityward to collect a 'peniscrutch'!:-) The silly thing does exist but is hardly ever found if ever on a maternityward!:-)
They 'had' me one day coming in at 11.00 p.m. for my nightshift to find an elderly lady who came into the residencefacility days to early for having high bloodpressure and since there was no registered nurse available in the evening this had to wait till I came in. I recently had a doctor pissed at me for calling him in the middle of the night for someone with high bloodpressure where they could have called him earlier, so I was eager to follow-up right away! They sort of improvised the appartment with all sorts of stuff suggesting someone was there but the assistents on the ward kept sending me to different levels where this lady would be for visiting acqaintences or having a meal with some other groupward or whatever. I got really annoyed and finally called the headnurse that was on duty. While I was calling her they all gathered round and it was, of course, april fools day!:-)
I payed them back next year when due to financecuts all weekend would be deprived of registered nurses. My colleague and I made up a bed in sickbay where we supposedly took someone in from the neighbourhood with status epileptics. The crisis was done but the man should be watched carefully and checked every half an hour to see if the seizures were coming up again to give him some suppositorium and call the doctor. We made up a status and some personalia. The assistents were this scared they called the cook, the only professional man in the building to enter the sickroom together for the first time, where we had a trainingdoll hidden under the blankets in the dark!:-)
Local television once had an item on taxes for catowners. Starting april 2nd new catowners should have to pay some yearly sum of taxes to help the city to attend to the overload of cats in the streets. There were newsitems and people interviewed, asylums that were in immediate moneyproblems by it. However, if you would register at least april 1st you could avoid paying for another year to enhance registration. For that purpose civil servants would keep the office open till 9.oo p.m. Guess who was on the Waterloosqueare looking at a closed building, all by herself!:-)
Posts: 1419 | From: Amsterdam, Netherlands | Registered: Aug 2003
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This happened when I was a teenager. I used to stay with some close friends who lived on a country club grounds. (the husband was superintendant of the grounds) So although they lived there, most of the time, they did not consider it their home.
They did however about a year before buy a lakehouse. That was home. They loved that home. Wife's brothers and their families all went up to stay that weekend. They called her like 5am. Really upset. They had us ALL fooled.
JOKE: Bev.....we got up early to go fishing. Made some breakfast. The bacon caught on fire. And well..........ummmm.....the kitchen caught on fire. Then....the house. We did everything we could. But we just couldn't save it. We got everyone out though.
Well this went on and on, and the story got more and more detailed. I mean it sounded soooooooo legit. We were all on the phone talking to different people for 1 hr. It was horrible. What made it worse was that the house next door had recently burned down. So it was even more real.
Finally.....the oldest brother. The only one brave enough, told her.
This was after we had made plans to rush up there and see what was left, talk to fire department, all that. We had even packed and some of us were in the car.
She didn't believe them at first. None of us did. It was wild. I still think it was pretty cruel. But it was also are darn good stunt! They couldn't have pulled it off better.
Another story:
My uncles birthday is April 1st. We were all like 9 yrs old. (cousins, me, neighborhood friends) We'd been playing jokes on each other all day. Finally we mentioned it was his birthday. No one believed us. We tried and tried to convince them. Nope. Not true. lol
I really don't think they ever believed it. Posts: 2133 | From: Redneckland | Registered: Oct 2006
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