Flying penguins
The BBC’s documentary division has wowed audiences worldwide with their incredible wildlife photography, journeying to the far reaches of the globe to witness wonders never seen before. In 2008, BBC reported on an intriguing new evolutionary step. A newly found colony of flying penguins that migrated hundreds of miles from Antarctica to luxuriate in the dense climate typical of a tropical forest. In actual fact, the film clip was a smart work of computer animation and managed to fool millions of viewers all over the world.
Stretching Nicholas Sarkozy
On April 1, 2008, The Sun tabloid reported that French President Nicolas Sarkozy will have “pioneering stretch surgery” to increase his height from 5’5” to 5’10” – an inch higher than his wife, model Carla Bruni.
The fastest pitcher of all time
George Plimpton, a witty writer, made up the story of Mets pitcher Siddhartha “Sidd” Finch for Sports Illustrated. The story of Finch, who could throw 168 miles per hour, appeared in the April 1, 1985 issue of the magazine, and eagle-eyed readers immediately noticed: the first letters of the words in the story spelled “Happy April Fool’s Day”. Others, though, questioned if the Mets would add another fireball to their top staff. Plimpton then converted the story into a novel.
The Taco Liberty Bell
In this classic 1996 hoax, Taco Bell ran a newspaper ad claiming it had purchased the Liberty Bell to help pay off the national debt. Some senators were even fooled and the National Park Service even staged a press conference to dispute this information. The fast-food chain acknowledged the joke and said it was donating US$50,000 towards the care of the historic bell at midday. The value of the joke remains priceless.
Pasta grows on trees
The BBC television programme Panorama aired a segment about the Swiss pasta harvest enjoying a “bounteous year” thanks to mild favourable weather and the eradication of spaghetti weevil on April1, 1957. Many gullible Britons were duped. The narrative was shown on television, which was a relatively new invention at that time. The Museum of Hoaxes website, a great source for all things stupid, named the tale as the No.1 April fools’ hoax of all time.
Telepathic Google searches
Even Google took a chance to fool their valuable followers. An announcement was made in 2000 about their newly-developed Mentalplex Technology, which was designed to look like areal search engine. It purported to read your mind using brainwave activity, browser activity, current weather conditions, and mouse movement speed to figure out what web you were trying to get to.
Redefining pi
Are there too many numbers in pi? Alabama lawmakers reportedly thought so, passing a law in 1998 redefining 3.14159 simply as 3. Although the news was a fake perpetrated by a man named Mark Boslough, it was widely publicised. In good spirit, the Indiana Legislature tried to pass a bill that set pi to 3.2 in 1987.
Virgin Airlines pivots to UFOs
Virgin founder Richard Banson’s finest achievement happened in 1989, when he claimed he would fly a UFO. He planned to land in London’s Hyde Park on April 1. Unfortunately, the UFO was blown off track and came down in a field near Surrey. When police officials proceeded to the area to investigate the alleged UFO, two silver-clad men emerged. (Brandon with his friend, Don Cameron.) The flying saucer was actually a hot air balloon. They were nearly jailed as a result of their hoax.
Gravity-defying prank
English astronomer Sir Patrick Moore went on BBC Radio 2 in 1976 to declare that the public would be able to experience a lack of gravity and an almost floating sensation at exactly 9.47am because of the ‘Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect’, in which the Earth aligns with Pluto, gravity on Earth becomes reduced. Of course, we do not know how many individuals attempted it, but it certainly got folks talking.
YouTube shuts down
On April 1, 2013, a video was released to YouTube in which the company teased that it would be shutting at midnight so their tech staff may go through every clip in order to select the best video in the world. Of course, considering all of the video entries it had received over the years, it estimates that the finest one would be eventually announced in 2023.
Big Ben’s Digital Face
In 1980, Big Ben was exploring upgrading the electronics within its system. At least, that’s what the BBC said. On April 1, they declared that Big Ben was turning digital, and that not only would it have a digital face, but its iconic gongs would be replaced with beeps as well. BBC told World Service listeners that the first persons to contact the show would also have a chance to win the clock’s hands. The piece sparked a lot of issues, and the BBC had to apologise several times in the end.
Left-Handed Whopper
In 1998, Burger King announced in a full-page newspaper advertisement that it had created a Whopper particularly for the 32 million left-handed Americans. All of the components were the identical, but the condiments were turned 180 degrees for the advantage of their left-handed consumers. Customers were clamouring for the new Whopper in droves. According to the company, many people also requested “right-handed” version of the burger. The idea that a burger is simply a circle evidently never occurred to them.
Panda prank
A hoax news story with the title “Pandemonium breaks out at Taipei Zoo” was reported in the Taipei Times in 2009. According to the report, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, the two pandas that arrived as presents from China in December, were confirmed to be Wenzhou brown wild bears painted black and white after zoo workers saw unusual sexual behaviour. The article was rapidly shared on a variety of sites all around the world. Although the majority of readers recognised it as an April Fool’s joke, some fell for it.
