This article has nothing written in it. April Fools'! April 1st marks the day when people in many countries all over the world celebrate by hoaxing, playing practical jokes, with the aim of embarrassing the gullible. Even though most of these pranks are personal, some large associations have come up with their own hoaxes on this day, fooling several people. Here are my top 10 favorite April Fools' jokes of all time, in no particular order.
10. Spaghetti Trees - 1957
On April 1st 1957, BBC broadcasted a spoof documentary on "spaghetti crops" in Switzerland, including a video of the above woman plucking spaghettis from trees and carefully laying them out in the sun to dry. An approximate 8 million people watched the programme, and some even called in the next day to ask how to grow their own spaghetti trees!
9. Alabama changes the value of Pi -1988
The April newsletter of New Mexicans of Science and Reason (NMSR) published an article in their 1988 issue claiming that the Alabama state legislature passed a law to change the value of Pi to 3.0, and also elaborated on its implications such as "affecting the way math will be taught to school children”.
8. Water on Mars - 2005
On April 1st 2005, the official NASA website uploaded a news story regarding the discover of water on Mars. Upon clicking the link, readers were just greeted with the above picture of a glass of water on a Mars bar.
7. Youtube"s Rickroll - 2008
On April 1st 2008, YouTube changed all their featured video hyperlinks to lead to a video of a "Rickroll", a popular internet fad which is actually a video of Rick Astley's “Never gonna give you up”. The video was posted under the username YTRickRollsYou.
6. Electronic Gaming Monthly Annual Hoax - various years
In its April issue every year, popular gaming magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly will publish a hoax. Some examples include the infamous “Mushroom Kingdom Hearts” hoax, where an article regarding a new game featuring a crossover of Mario into the Kingdom Hearts series was published, and also the “Sonic and Tails in Super Smash Brothers Melee” hoax where the magazine announced Sega mascots Sonic and Tails as secret characters in the acclaimed Nintendo fighting game.
5. Annual BMW Innovations - various years
BMW has a tradition of publishing a hoax across British newspapers on April Fools' Day each year. Examples include “BMW Instant Messaging” and “MINI cars being used in space missions to Mars”.
4. Jovian Plutonian gravitational effect - 1976
On March 31st 1976, British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio that at 9:47 PM the planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told the listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurs, they would experience a strange floating sensation. Surprisingly, many listeners called in later that day to say that the experiment worked!
3. Assassination of Bill Gates - 2003
In 2003, a hoax from a highly accurate spoof CNN website claimed that Bill Gates had been assassinated. As a result, Korean TV reported the false news, and the Korean stock market dropped by 1.5%, resulting in a loss of more than 3 billion. The Chinese media also fell for the story.
2. Google Hoaxes - various years
Every year, Google will come up with an April Fools' day hoax. A few examples would be “Gmail Custom Time”, a feature in which users can edit the time attached to their email. “Google TISP (Toilet Internet Service Provider)”, an internet connection that supposedly used sewage lines, and “Google Gulp”, a fictitious drink announced by the company that supposedly optimize the use of Google's search engine by increasing the consumer's intelligence.
1. Wikipedia “Hoaxes” - various years
Wikipedia "hoaxes" its readers every year by displaying unusual articles that seem like hoaxes on the main page. However, these articles are actually true and just seem false. In 2008, the main page displayed information like “Ima Hogg”, an enterprising circus emcee, and “Wiener sausages are named after mathematician Norbert Wiener”.
Year by year, April Fools' day provides entertainment to many people around the world. Who knows what new hoaxes and jokes will appear next year?
