[nanza]

#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
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, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
Related:
• The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (full-length article)
• April Fool's Day Botany
• April Fool's Day Hoaxes of the BBC
Comments (65) | Permalink
#2: Sidd Finch
1985: Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. This was 65 mph faster than the previous record. Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa." Mets fans celebrated their teams' amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. In reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the author of the article, George Plimpton.
Related:
• Sidd Finch (full-length article)
• April Fool's Day Sports
Comments (33) | Permalink
#3: Instant Color TV
1962: 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.
Related:
• Instant Color TV (full-length article)
• April Fool's Day Television Hoaxes
Comments (79) | Permalink
#4: The Taco Liberty Bell
1996: The Taco Bell Corporation announced 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, he said, as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
Related:
• Taco Liberty Bell (full-length article)
• Unlikely Acquisitions announced on April 1st
• April Fool's Day hoaxes involving national landmarks
Comments (49) | Permalink
#5: San Serriffe
1977: The British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic said to consist of several semi-colon-shaped islands located in the Indian Ocean. 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. Only a 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.
Related:
• San Serriffe (full-length article)
• Fictitious Geography of April Fool's Day
Comments (36) | Permalink


#6: Nixon for President
1992: National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech. Listeners responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding the show with calls expressing shock and outrage. Only during the second half of the show did the host John Hockenberry reveal that the announcement was a practical joke. Nixon's voice was impersonated by comedian Rich Little.
Related:
• April Fool's Day Political Hoaxes
Comments (25) | Permalink
#7: Alabama Changes the Value of Pi
1998: 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. Soon the article made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly spread around the world, forwarded by 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 physicist Mark Boslough.
Related:
• Stupid Laws of April Fool's Day
• Religion-Themed April Fool's Day Hoaxes
Comments (78) | Permalink
#8: The Left-Handed Whopper
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."
Related:
• April Fool's Day Food and Drink
• Left-Handed Products of April Fool's Day
Comments (59) | Permalink
#9: Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers
1995: Discover Magazine reported that the highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had found a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These fascinating creatures had bony plates on their heads that, fed by numerous blood vessels, could become burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds. They used this ability to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the penguins and causing them to sink downwards into the resulting slush where the hotheads consumed them. After much research, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying. Discover received more mail in response to this article than they had received for any other article in their history.

[PostFactum]

Have a nice time guys)))

[bootlegga]

Top 5 April Fool's jokes of all time?

Quote:

While playing an April Fool's Day prank may land you in hot water, many media outlets and major companies have dared to orchestrate impressive hoaxes over the years. Here are the top April Fool's Day pranks of all time:


1. Left-Handed Whopper

Canadians and Americans are world-renowned for their love of fast food, so it's no surprise that this prank fooled many on both sides of the border. In 1998, Burger King published an ad in USA Today heralding the launch of an exciting new product: the "Left-Handed Whopper." The burger was described as having the same ingredients as a regular Whopper, but with all the condiments rotated to optimize flavour for leftie customers. The next day Burger King announced that thousands of customers had requested the sandwich, while many others specified that they wished to continue receiving the right-handed product. After all, you don't mess with a classic.

2. Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

Historically, the British have not been known for their culinary sophistication, and this 1957 hoax helps explain why. When the BBC news program Panorama ran a piece on how the defeat of the spaghetti weevil in Switzerland had led to a bumper crop of the pasta, many viewers called in asking how to grow their own spaghetti tree. At the time, many Britons still considered pasta an exotic product and were therefore fooled by the BBC's instructions to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

3. Even less legroom

Many airlines have begun charging extra for legroom but WestJet decided to take the trend even further with this 2008 hoax. The Canadian airline announced that it would begin converting overhead compartments to sleeper cabins and that the new accommodations would be available for the small fee of $12. Although the announcement was totally untrue, WestJet did use the joke as an opportunity to advertise that their overhead compartments "are among the most spacious of any airline." And although such small accommodations may seem far-fetched, don't be surprised if airlines look to this Japanese innovation in the future.

4. The Taco Liberty Bell

Recently, the U.S. government has been hoping health reform will take a bite out of the nation's mammoth debt, but in 1996 Taco Bell announced a different, and far less probable, solution. The fast-food chain took out an ad in seven newspapers announcing that they had bought Philadelphia's iconic Liberty Bell and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell" in a bid to help reduce the country's debt. Indignant citizens immediately contacted the relevant authorities to voice their displeasure. The joke, which Taco Bell claims as a one of their most successful ad campaigns ever, even spread to the White House briefing room, where then press secretary Mike McCurry quipped that Washington would also be selling the Lincoln Memorial to Ford and "renaming it the Lincoln-Mercury Memorial."

5. CBC punks 'Jimmy Carter'

Canadians have been known to poke fun at our southern neighbours for their supposedly backward ways, but this 2001 prank by the CBC took things a step further. During an interview with former president Jimmy Carter, radio host Michael Enright called the native Georgian "a washed-up peanut farmer from Hicksville." Seemingly amazed by the taunt, Carter called Enright a "rude person" and promptly hung up. The host then explained that the argument had been in jest and that Carter had actually been impersonated by a Toronto comedian. Despite the disclosure, The Globe and Mail reported the exchange as fact on its front page the following day.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/yahoocanada/ ... f_all_time

[nanza]

very cool bootlegga....some i hadn't seen