Top 10 April Fool's Day Hoaxes

[Fru T. Bunn]

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."

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.

3: Instant Colour 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 colour 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.

4: The Taco Liberty Bell
In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought the Liberty Bell from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called up the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell is housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed that it was all a practical joke a few hours later. The best line inspired by the affair came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale, and he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold, though to a different corporation, and would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

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.

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 responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding the show with calls expressing shock and 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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

[Laura M]

I thought my runing into my housemates bedroom claiming there was a dead body in the garden and he believing me was rather funny. He's still getting over it as we speak.

[englishangel]

I had been married about 3 years when I rang home on April 1st (a Sunday) and asked to speak to my sister. when Mum had got her out of bed to the phone

I said "Hello Auntie Sarah",

"Mary, you're not?"she exclaimed.

"No, April Fool".

She had been laying in bed thinking that as she was aware no-one would be able to fool her......

She wouldn't speak to me for weeks.

[sejintenej]

and that name has to be an April Fool's joke

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.

I used to work for a City merchant bank which, somehow, seemed to get involved in such jokes.

One manager whom I will call Norman (his real name!) was being sent to audit our large South African subsidiary - his first overseas trip. Of course he had told auntie this in Australia, uncle that in America, old uncle Tom Cobley and all.
2 days before his flight the international director went to the head of communications and they engineeered a telex from "Johannesburg" with all the correct headers etc which was sent from one to another of our machines telling Norman that as the Reserve Bank of South Africa had started a surprise audit his trip had to be postponed if not cancelled.
He was not amused to have to tell everyone and even less pleased to hear that it was a hoax.

Subsequently Norman was summoned by the same director, shown the San Seriffe pullout and ordered to be there within 5 days. Norman actually rang the bank's travel agents and booked his flight! I heard that the UN sent copies to all their offices worldwide.

Another 1st April the Financial Times published the news that Hill Samuel was so hard up that its staff would no longer receive their allowance of 1 plain and 1 sweet biscuit with their afternoon tea.
A week later the FT had to publish a followup stating that the story was not an April Fool's joke; a few days later they published the further news that the bank's Dublin subsidiary (?) had sent one packet and the New York correspondent had sent aone mouldy biscuit by way of "famine relief".

Our biscuits were restored!

[marty]

Got my flatmate today! He owns the house we live in and received a letter this morning 'from' the council advising him that planning applications had been made to build an 8 storey block of flats in the street for sheltered accommodation. I went shopping this morning and returned to be told by our other flatmate that he went berserk, phoned his parents for advice on how to block the building work and then went and knocked on every door in the street and even FORMED A COMMITTEE to tackle the council! I had to go round knocking on all the doors this afternoon to tell them it was all a hoax! I didn't think he'd fall for it in such a big way especially as I put a joke bit at the end saying the letter was available in Braille, big print and audio for the visually impaired - in font size 6...

[englishangel]

Got my flatmate today! He owns the house we live in and received a letter this morning 'from' the council advising him that planning applications had been made to build an 8 storey block of flats in the street for sheltered accommodation. I went shopping this morning and returned to be told by our other flatmate that he went berserk, phoned his parents for advice on how to block the building work and then went and knocked on every door in the street and even FORMED A COMMITTEE to tackle the council! I had to go round knocking on all the doors this afternoon to tell them it was all a hoax! I didn't think he'd fall for it in such a big way especially as I put a joke bit at the end saying the letter was available in Braille, big print and audio for the visually impaired - in font size 6...

Probably a bit too accurate to be thought a hoax, just wait till the real thing comes through the letterbox next week.

[cj]

Husband asked me to marry him (see RRs birthday thread). But, ha-ha, the joke's on him as I said yes! He's still laughing after 6 years. At least. I think that's the expression on his face ..