Heather Yaxley has beaten me to it and published some of today’s April Fool’s Day stunts which have hit the headlines.
The Daily Mirror claims that ITV has come up with Dancing On Ice using greyhounds to try and top the Strictly Come Dancing ratings. A Greyhound Racing Association spokesman is quoted as saying: "It is great to see the dogs enjoying it. Some are better suited to the surface…probably more so than Greg Rusedski."
BMW is a regular joker and has announced its new Canine Repellent Alloy Protection system which is designed to stop dogs fouling against the sparkling alloys of new BMW cars. I’m sure it could make a fortune if it could produce such an ingenious item.
I remember once playing a good stunt with some fellow hacks -including Alan Rusbridger – and it wasn’t April 1 either. We called a local weekly paper and said that Skylab had landed in a field nearby, that we had seen it. This was a bit cruel as it was their press day and they literally would have dropped everything to race out and look for this fictitious object.
Here are a few classic April Fool’s Day stunts:
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. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
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 new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their tv screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process. Thousands of people were taken in. Regular color broadcasts only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970.
In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
In 1977 the British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to 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 gripped the British tabloids in subsequent decades.
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.
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."
There’s loads more April 1 stunts you can read about here. Do share any others that you come across today, or tell us about your pranks.
Radio 4’s one this morning was that there’s a follow-up to the Great Garden Bird Watch’s finding that there are many more finches than usual in British gardens: the people who took part in the survey are to be gives cages to trap the finches so that they can be flown back to Denmark. The RSPB is in talks with BA to get a plane for the purpose to fly out of T5.
There are some good ones there! I had completely forgotten that it’s April 1st today.
I remember some of those!!
General Sir Peter de la Bilierre, as a young lad, phoned his mum posing as a police officer, “Your son has been killed in a terrible accident.” He also took to her an open bottle of undiluted amonia and said “Sniff that – it’s perfume.”
I was once creating the fridge scene from 9 1/2 weeks with Mrs E-K – she was blindfolded. I burst a codliver oil tablet in her mouth.
None of these were April Fool’s jokes btw.
And in 1984 the Gulf Oil logo disappeared, but I GOOGLED it and found that an investment trust in the Cayman Islands is run by some guys in England for the branding of gas stations here in the USA. I miss the orange round logo!
The spaghetti harvest and sans seriffe was fun but I’m one of those old Hectors who generally don’t find cruel lies amusing, there has to be some wit – I didn’t like those progs that simply lied to z-list celebrities, who had no reason to disbelieve them. The reveal was stupid and cruel.
Ellee I’m looking forward to your comment on my latest post :-))
It seems to have been pretty lifeless this year.
When I was teaching, the kids would always try to “fool” me. But it was a quiet morning today. I just hope my diet consultant doesn’t phone me later to tell me “April Fool!” and that I really didn’t lose over 5 lbs last week!
LOL! I “got” my younger son in a text saying I was due to escort the Prince of Wales around Cumbria to demonstrate the habitat of the endangered Natterjack Toad. Hook, line and sinker!
My other attempts didn’t work though!
Maalie, that’s a good one!
Leslie, that’s too cruel re the diet.
Pip, I’m just popping over to visit.
Kevin, the mind boggles!
WW,I’ve told lots of people about the Radio 4 spoof, so hilarious.
No one fooled me today.
Some really good one there Ellee. I forgot it was April 1st today too.
Ellee – great review of the classic spoofs, thanks. I only beat you to this because I was in France yesterday and so an hour ahead for fooling.
I still think the “spaghetti harvest” was the best ever!