If with our April fools to the max we bite some friends, there are those who move to another level and throws the hook to millions of mouthfuls. By now we should be used to taking any news circulating on April 1st with a grain of salt, and instead we fall for it again and again. Here are some of the pranks that have gone down in history, starring among others a fake Richard Nixon, the spaghetti trees, those unrepentant scoundrels of Google and Richard Branson.
Nixon reappears for president
In 1992 Richard Nixon, the least loved (euphemism) president in US history, announced to NPR radio microphones the intention to reapply, twenty years after his resignation following the Watergate scandal. The slogan of the new campaign: “I have done nothing wrong, and I will not do it again”. In the second part of the program it is revealed that this is a joke and that Nixon’s voice was that of comedian and imitator Rich Little. In the meantime, however, the editorial staff it had been studded with phone calls by the listeners, who wanted to let the former president know that even no, thank you, once was more than enough.
Spaghetti grows on trees
One of the most famous fish ever conceived. On April 1, 1957, the BBC broadcasts a report on the spaghetti harvest – especially abundant that year thanks to the mild winter – grown on trees in Switzerland. Spaghetti was not a common dish in the UK back then and many were unaware of how it is made. The next day hundreds of viewers call the broadcaster to ask how they can grow their own pasta tree at home and the BBC replies: “Put a handful of spaghetti in a can of gravy and cross your fingers.”
A UFO over London’s skies
On the night of March 31, 1989, hundreds of people sighted in disbelief a UFO flying over the skies of London. When the spaceship lands just outside the city, the alarmed police rush to the scene. The door of the aircraft opens and comes out… ET? It is actually a man disguised as the extraterrestrial in the film, the flying saucer is just a hot air balloon equipped with stroboscopic lights and inside is Richard Branson, the multimillionaire boss of Virgin. The cops threaten to arrest the two jokers, but in the end they too laugh and let it go.
No internet if you are drunk
An article published in 1994 in the PC Computing magazine reveals the background of a bill under discussion in Congress, which would ban the use of the Internet to people in a state of intoxication. Despite the name of the contact mentioned in the piece, Lirpa Sloof (read backwards as April Fools), many readers drink the hoax.
Google’s fish
The Google folks have a real passion for April fools: they started with the first joke in 2000 and haven’t skipped a year since. Among the various jokes: the Google Gulp drink that improves the ability to use the search engine increasing your intelligence; Gmail Paper, a free service where you can ask Google to print your emails on paper and send them to you by post; Google Play for Pets which distributes apps for dogs and cats; the announcement of the creation of the first human settlement on Mars (in collaboration with Branson’s Virgin, again him), complete with an application form to join the expedition.
The Liberty Taco Bell
On April 1, 1996, the fast food chain Taco Bell published the announcement in several national newspapers that it had purchased the Liberty Bell, one of the greatest symbols of the United States, which will be renamed Liberty Taco Bell. The protests of thousands of American citizens explode, before the chain reveals the joke.
Pi, goodbye
3.1415926535… Pi is a fundamental mathematical constant, but let’s face it, it’s too complex. And so in 1998 the news circulated that the state of Alabama was going to fix the value of Pi by law to a more comfortable, simple and round 3. The Alabama administration is studded with phone calls, but then it turns out that the news is an April fool circulated by physicist Mark Boslough, known for the joker spirit.
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