From
television revealing that spaghetti grows on trees to
advertisements for the left-handed burger, the tradition of
April Fool's Day stories in the media has a weird and
wonderful history.
Here are 10 of the top April Fool's Day pranks ever pulled
off, as judged by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes for
their notoriety, absurdity, and number of people duped.
-- In 1957, a BBC television show announced that thanks to
a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti
weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop.
Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from
trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know
how to grow their own spaghetti at home.
-- In 1985, Sports Illustrated magazine published a story
that a rookie baseball pitcher who could reportedly throw a
ball at 270 kilometers per hour (168 miles per hour) was set
to join the New York Mets. Finch was said to have mastered his
skill -- pitching significantly faster than anyone else has
ever managed -- in a Tibetan monastery. Mets fans'
celebrations were short-lived.
-- Sweden in 1962 had only one television channel, which
broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert
appeared on the news to announce that thanks to a newly
developed technology, viewers could convert their existing
sets to receive color pictures by pulling a nylon stocking
over the screen. In fact, they had to wait until 1970.
-- In 1996, American fast-food chain Taco Bell announced
that it had bought Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, a historic
symbol of American independence, from the federal government
and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.
Outraged citizens called to express their anger before Taco
Bell revealed the hoax. Then-White House press secretary Mike
McCurry was asked about the sale and said the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington had also been sold and was to be renamed the
Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial after the automotive giant.
-- In 1977, British newspaper The Guardian published a
seven-page supplement for the 10th anniversary of San Serriffe,
a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of
several semicolon-shaped islands. A series of articles
described the geography and culture of the two main islands,
named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse.
-- In 1992, US National Public Radio announced that Richard
Nixon was running for president again. His new campaign slogan
was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it
again." They even had clips of Nixon announcing his
candidacy. Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing
their outrage. Nixon's voice actually turned out to be that of
impersonator Rich Little.
-- In 1998, a newsletter titled New Mexicans for Science
and Reason carried an article that the state of Alabama had
voted to change the value of pi from 3.14159 to the
"Biblical value" of 3.0.
-- Burger King, another American fast-food chain, published
a full-page advertisement in USA Today in 1998 announcing the
introduction of the "Left-Handed Whopper," specially
designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According
to the advertisement, the new burger included the same
ingredients as the original, but the condiments were rotated
180 degrees. The chain said it received thousands of requests
for the new burger, as well as orders for the original
"right-handed" version.
-- Discover Magazine announced in 1995 that a highly
respected biologist, Aprile Pazzo (Italian for April Fool),
had discovered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded
naked ice borer. The creatures were described as having bony
plates on their heads that became burning hot, allowing the
animals to bore through ice at high speed -- a technique they
used to hunt penguins.
-- Noted British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on the
radio in 1976 that at 9:47 am, a once-in-a-lifetime
astronomical event, in which Pluto would pass behind Jupiter,
would cause a gravitational alignment that would reduce the
Earth's gravity. Moore told listeners that if they jumped in
the air at the exact moment of the planetary alignment, they
would experience a floating sensation. Hundreds of people
called in to report feeling the sensation.