The Greatest April Fools' Pranks

Hey all. I came across an article in Time listing some of the best April Fools' pranks. Some I had heard of, most I had not. I do remember one that is not on this list that involved "Internet Spring Cleaning Day" sometime in the early 2000's. The internet would be shut down for 24hrs to "clean" all the abandoned web pages.

Does anyone have any other April Fools' pranks? Please post them here. One year I posted to Facebook that wife had accepted a job in New Zealand (we lived in Ohio at the time). I started getting phone calls from panicked family members, lol.


The Greatest April Fools' Pranks

Wisconsin Capital Collapses – 1933
The Madison Capital-Times’ 1933 April Fools’ edition included a doctored photo of the Wisconsin state capital in ruins. The accompanying story claimed that the building was felled by a serious of unusual explosions caused by hot gas produced by the “verbose debates” in the chambers. Readers weren’t amused by the trick, but Washington, D.C., had to be relieved it was merely a hoax. If such explosions were possible, there would be nary a building left standing in the District.


The Spaghetti Tree – 1957
Switzerland is known for banks and chocolate, not spaghetti, right? Tell that to the millions who fell victim to a BBC April Fools’ report touting the bumper harvests from Swiss spaghetti trees. The report, which ran three minutes, even led some to ask how they could have a spaghetti tree of their own. The Beeb’s response? Put a strand of spaghetti in tomato sauce and “hope for the best.”


Do-It-Yourself Color TV – 1962
Color television wasn’t widespread until 1966, but some Swedes armed with nylon stockings tried to get it four years earlier. They fell victim to a hoax by Sweden’s Sveriges Television, which trotted out a “technical expert” to explain on-air — in thoroughly technical terms — how a thinly stretched nylon screen in front of a television would bend light’s wavelengths and produce a color image. The thousands who tried it learned quickly that there was no such trick — and were out a pair of stockings to boot.


Planetary Alignment – 1976
The British media have a unique affinity for pulling April Fools’ pranks, matched only by the British public’s unique ability to fall for them. On April 1, 1976, BBC Radio 2 astronomer Sir Patrick Moore gave listeners some bunk about how, at 9:47 a.m., Pluto and Jupiter would align in such a way as to temporarily reduce Earth’s gravity. Moore told listeners to jump at exactly that time to experience the once-in-a-lifetime effect. At 9:48, callers flooded the lines, eager to describe how they had briefly floated. News that Moore had played them no doubt brought everyone crashing back to earth.


Sidd Finch – 1985
A fastball that cracks 165 m.p.h. A devoted student of “yogic mastery.” A name like “Hayden Siddhartha Finch.” A baseball player like that has to be too good to be true — and he was. Sidd (for short) was merely the figment of Sports Illustrated writer George Plimpton’s imagination. That was enough to get him a 1985 article in the magazine. Mets coach Mel Stottlemyre got in on the ruse, posing for a photo talking to “Sidd,” who was actually an art teacher masquerading as the fake baseball player.


Richard Nixon for President – 1992
“I never did anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.”
Certainly not the makings of a great campaign slogan, but it’s the memorable line from Richard Nixon’s ill-fated 1992 campaign for President. Never mind that Nixon himself wasn’t involved — comedian and Nixon impressionist Rich Little and NPR’s John Hockenberry teamed up to pull off the prank on the radio network’s Talk of the Nation program. Befuddled listeners called in to let “Nixon” know just how certain they were that they didn’t want to give him the chance to, um, not do anything wrong again.


The Taco Liberty Bell – 1996
Freedom doesn’t ring as sweet when Taco Bell is footing the bill. America was outraged when the fast-food chain took out a full-page ad in six major newspapers, claiming it had purchased the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. But no worries — they planned to leave it on display. The prank’s real victims were hapless National Park Services employees manning the phones at the Liberty Bell. Unaware of the media blitz, they spent their April Fools’ Day reassuring Americans that no, their national monument hadn’t been sold off to the highest bidder.


The Left-Handed Whopper – 1998
Burger King cooked up a whopper of a different sort in 1998, but that didn’t mean fast-food customers were any less willing to swallow it. In a full-page ad in USA Today, Burger King announced a solution for the 1.4 million left-handed customers visiting their restaurants every day: the Left-Handed Whopper. Burger King said all the condiments were rotated 180° to suit the left-handed burger connoisseur. Southpaws eagerly tried to order the burger the next day, but they had to wait in line behind right-handed folks equally caught up with making sure they got the correct Whopper. The thought that a burger is basically, you know, a circle apparently never crossed their minds.


Alabama Redefines Pi – 1998
Scientists aren’t exactly friendly toward Alabama’s efforts to push intelligent design in schools, but one hit below the belt when he published an article in the April 1998 issue of New Mexicans for Science and Reason suggesting that the Alabama legislature was tampering with the mathematical constant pi. The article, penned by physicist Mark Boslough writing under the pseudonym April Holiday, suggested Alabama was redefining pi as 3.0 instead of 3.14 to keep it closer to the “biblical value.” State legislators were swamped by angry callers beseeching them to leave pi alone.


Gmail Paper – 2007
“You click. We stack. You get.”
Google has long encouraged users of its Gmail service to archive, rather than delete, their e-mail. But paper archives too? That was the idea behind the 2007 launch of Gmail Paper, which promised to provide on-demand printed copies of e-mails for users. The massive costs of printing and shipping would be offset by advertisements on the back of each sheet, printed in “red, bold, 36-pt. Helvetica.”
The hoax website lives on today. But paper lovers beware — there’s still no word on how Google planned to handle the Viagra ads and Nigerian e-mail scams that would undoubtedly clutter every shipment.


Highchair for Dogs – 2011
This video uploaded by IKEA Australia unveils the IKEA HUNDSTOL, a highchair for dogs with a hole in the back for tails and water plus built-in bowls for water and food.



The YouTube Collection – 2012
YouTube announced it was putting every video ever uploaded onto DVDs, which would initially be delivered in 175 trucks — pack mule for users who live in rural areas. To make a comment, users would have to complete a paper form and mail it to the video creator directly.



Military Working Cats – 2013
The U.S. Army announced it was enlisting cats to reduce military spending. The news release said “a young, healthy cat can jump over eight feet in a single bound so if an enemy approaches a cat, the cat will be able to jump on him and either disable him, or claw him to death if he fails to stop resisting capture.”

TIME

Awesome stuff. My April Fool's is that I met this guy who looks incredibly similar to Ryan Reynolds. I took a picture with him and am going to post it on Facebook. I'll let my friends draw their own conclusions.

Watching my dad clean the "moon dust" off his car this morning had me in stitches. I egged him on for a while.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I enlisted into the Army 1 April 1991, after I finished all the paperwork, was sworn in and got a shipping to basic date, I told my recruiter I changed my mind, can I cancel this, I dont wanna go. The look on his face was PRICELESS

HomerinNC
I enlisted into the Army 1 April 1991, after I finished all the paperwork, was sworn in and got a shipping to basic date, I told my recruiter I changed my mind, can I cancel this, I dont wanna go. The look on his face was PRICELESS

Did you end up going anyway?

We had two radio hosts hold a telethon for the victims of the Schumaker-Levy comet-imbeciles actually donated.

I had thought about playing a joke on my husband but decided that it was too cruel.

Was going to have the kids hide in their closets but leave their pajamas from the night before on the bed. Then wake up my hubby screaming they've been Raptured, lol.

Now, calm down I didn't do it, thought it was too cruel, gave me a chuckle thinking about it though.

My brother and I all through growing up played tricks on each other, super gluing shoes to the floor, butter on door handles, saran wrap on toilet seats, you name it we did it. April Fool's is fun but I've run out of jokes to play.

AfterInfinity

HomerinNC
I enlisted into the Army 1 April 1991, after I finished all the paperwork, was sworn in and got a shipping to basic date, I told my recruiter I changed my mind, can I cancel this, I dont wanna go. The look on his face was PRICELESS

Did you end up going anyway?

Of course I did LOL

Another April Fools joke me and my son's mom played was telling everyone she was pregnant and I was leaving her. Problem was at the time, we didnt know she was preg at the time WITH him, so the joke was on us LOL

My daughter's school's teachers got together and printed signs for the vending machines saying that they were all voice activated now...She said it was hysterical!