What japes and jokes have you got planned for this April Fool's Day?
There appears to be no agreed origin to define the 1st April as day of Fools but there are literary references to 1st of April being a day of japes and jests that can be found as far back as 1392 in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and in European literature of the Middle Ages. in many countries, including the UK and USA the jokes can only last until midday, and anyone who plays a trick after that time is the fool. In other countries around the world the jokes can last all day.
With April Fools almost upon us, it seems only right to compile a selection of some of the most well know and daring pranks and spoofs carried out on the first day of April. Hopefully it will act as inspiration for all those tricksters looking for ideas this year. Some are audacious in their execution and certainly tricked many people.
In 1949, Phil Shone devised a prank on April Fools' Day that has gone down in legend. Shone was a New Zealand D.J. and the hoax that put his name in the history books was about a vast wasp swarm that he announced to be headed towards Auckland. He even advised his listeners about essential safety measures to employ such as wearing their socks over their trousers when going outside and leaving honey smeared traps outside their doors to catch any stray killer wasps. Thousands of listeners were taken in and followed his directions diligently until he finally admitted that it was just an April Fools joke!
A man with the odd name of Porky Bickar created widespread panic and alarm amongst the residents of Sitka in Alaska in 1974 by throwing hundreds of old tires into the local, but long dormant volcano crater of Mount Edgecumbe and set them on fire causing billows of black smoke to belch from the mount. Many local people thought the volcano was about to erupt and mayhem and panic ensued.
In the mid 1950's, the well respected BBC television programme 'Panorama' ran a now famous April Fools hoax, showing Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees. They also claimed that the despised pest, the spaghetti weevil had been almost eradicated resulting in a bumper harvest. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. It was, in fact, filmed in St. Albans in England and not Switzerland at all.
1962 saw Swedish national television broadcast a 5 minute item on how viewers could get colour TV on their black and white sets simply by placing an ordinary nylon stocking in front of the screen. A rather in-depth description on the physics behind the phenomenon was included, I wonder how many people suddenly felt very foolish as they excitedly followed the advice and until it dawned on them that they were the victim of a clever hoax .
British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore advised his listeners on the BBC Radio 2 programme 'the sky at night' in 1976, that at precisely 9:47 a.m. that day a rare alignment of two planets in the solar system would result in an upward gravitational pull making people feel noticeably lighter. He invited his audience to experience "the strange floating sensation" by jumping up in the air. Strangely many of the listeners phoned in to say the experiment had actually worked!
in 1983 an Australian millionaire called Dick Smith claimed that he had towed a huge iceberg all the way from the Antarctica sea right into Sydney Harbour. He had actually covered a barge with lots of white plastic and fire extinguisher foam to convince the on lookers.
A classic April's Fool jest in 1998 saw Burger King ran an advertisement in the USA Today, informing that you could purchase a Whopper burger specially created for left handed people, it stated that the condiments were designed to drip out of the right side of the burger thus avoiding any mess. Not only did customers come in and order the new burgers, but some specifically ordered the "old", right-handed style burger. It must have annoyed some of their customers when they realised the trick, but surely would have boosted their sales all the same.
Another Kiwi jest featured the popular radio station the Edge's Morning Madhouse when they enlisted the help of their Prime Minister at the time, on April fools' day, to inform the entire nation that mobile phones would have to be banned in New Zealand. Hundreds of callers rang in to the station to complain at the unfairness of the proposed new law.
In 2007, an illusionist posted some images on his website claiming to be portraying the corpse of a tiny eight inch high figure, which he claimed to be the mummified remains of a real fairy. He later sold the 'fairy on eBay for £280 to a gullible buyer.
On April 1st 2008, the BBC reported on a remote colony of 'flying' penguins. They broadcast the item with an elaborate video sequence, featuring Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) walking among the penguins in Antarctica, and then followed their epic migration flight all the way to the Amazon rain forest.
Whatever plans you have to perform trick and joked this April Fools' Day why not consider sending a humorous Ecard. At Katie's cards we have two mind bending new April fools day e cards for you to send to friends and family.
With April Fools almost upon us, it seems only right to compile a selection of some of the most well know and daring pranks and spoofs carried out on the first day of April. Hopefully it will act as inspiration for all those tricksters looking for ideas this year. Some are audacious in their execution and certainly tricked many people.
In 1949, Phil Shone devised a prank on April Fools' Day that has gone down in legend. Shone was a New Zealand D.J. and the hoax that put his name in the history books was about a vast wasp swarm that he announced to be headed towards Auckland. He even advised his listeners about essential safety measures to employ such as wearing their socks over their trousers when going outside and leaving honey smeared traps outside their doors to catch any stray killer wasps. Thousands of listeners were taken in and followed his directions diligently until he finally admitted that it was just an April Fools joke!
A man with the odd name of Porky Bickar created widespread panic and alarm amongst the residents of Sitka in Alaska in 1974 by throwing hundreds of old tires into the local, but long dormant volcano crater of Mount Edgecumbe and set them on fire causing billows of black smoke to belch from the mount. Many local people thought the volcano was about to erupt and mayhem and panic ensued.
In the mid 1950's, the well respected BBC television programme 'Panorama' ran a now famous April Fools hoax, showing Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees. They also claimed that the despised pest, the spaghetti weevil had been almost eradicated resulting in a bumper harvest. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. It was, in fact, filmed in St. Albans in England and not Switzerland at all.
1962 saw Swedish national television broadcast a 5 minute item on how viewers could get colour TV on their black and white sets simply by placing an ordinary nylon stocking in front of the screen. A rather in-depth description on the physics behind the phenomenon was included, I wonder how many people suddenly felt very foolish as they excitedly followed the advice and until it dawned on them that they were the victim of a clever hoax .
British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore advised his listeners on the BBC Radio 2 programme 'the sky at night' in 1976, that at precisely 9:47 a.m. that day a rare alignment of two planets in the solar system would result in an upward gravitational pull making people feel noticeably lighter. He invited his audience to experience "the strange floating sensation" by jumping up in the air. Strangely many of the listeners phoned in to say the experiment had actually worked!
in 1983 an Australian millionaire called Dick Smith claimed that he had towed a huge iceberg all the way from the Antarctica sea right into Sydney Harbour. He had actually covered a barge with lots of white plastic and fire extinguisher foam to convince the on lookers.
A classic April's Fool jest in 1998 saw Burger King ran an advertisement in the USA Today, informing that you could purchase a Whopper burger specially created for left handed people, it stated that the condiments were designed to drip out of the right side of the burger thus avoiding any mess. Not only did customers come in and order the new burgers, but some specifically ordered the "old", right-handed style burger. It must have annoyed some of their customers when they realised the trick, but surely would have boosted their sales all the same.
Another Kiwi jest featured the popular radio station the Edge's Morning Madhouse when they enlisted the help of their Prime Minister at the time, on April fools' day, to inform the entire nation that mobile phones would have to be banned in New Zealand. Hundreds of callers rang in to the station to complain at the unfairness of the proposed new law.
In 2007, an illusionist posted some images on his website claiming to be portraying the corpse of a tiny eight inch high figure, which he claimed to be the mummified remains of a real fairy. He later sold the 'fairy on eBay for £280 to a gullible buyer.
On April 1st 2008, the BBC reported on a remote colony of 'flying' penguins. They broadcast the item with an elaborate video sequence, featuring Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) walking among the penguins in Antarctica, and then followed their epic migration flight all the way to the Amazon rain forest.
Whatever plans you have to perform trick and joked this April Fools' Day why not consider sending a humorous Ecard. At Katie's cards we have two mind bending new April fools day e cards for you to send to friends and family.