April
Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, is a notable day celebrated in
many countries on April 1. The day is
marked by hoaxes and jokes. There are many theories concerning its origin but
the most prevailing one is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year
in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed
with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were
taunted by their neighbours.
Among the Top 100 April Fool's Day
Hoaxes of All Time
(as judged by notoriety, creativity, and number of people duped) are the following:
(as judged by notoriety, creativity, and number of people duped) are the following:
#1: The Swiss Spaghetti
Harvest
1957: The
respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter,
Swiss farmers were enjoying a spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement
with a video of Swiss peasants pulling 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
some spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best".
#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,
etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for 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 ask for the new sandwich. Also, according to the press
release, "many others asked for their own 'right handed' version.
#11: UFO Lands in London
1989: On
March 31, 1989 thousands of drivers outside London looked up in the air to see
a flying saucer descending on their city. Many of them stopped to watch the
strange craft in the air. The saucer finally landed in a field where local
people immediately called the police to warn them of an alien invasion. Soon
the police arrived on the scene, and one brave officer approached the craft. When
a door opened, and a small, silver-suited figure emerged, the policeman ran in
the opposite direction. The saucer turned out to be a hot-air balloon that had
been specially built to look like a UFO by Richard Branson, the 36-year-old
chairman of Virgin Records. The stunt combined his passion for ballooning with
his love of pranks. His plan was to land the craft in London's Hyde Park on
April 1.
#12: Flying Penguins
2008: The BBC
announced that camera crews filming near the Antarctic for its natural history
series Miracles of Evolution had filmed penguins flying in the air. It
even offered a video clip of these flying penguins, which became
one of the most viewed videos on the internet. Presenter Terry Jones explained
that these penguins took to the air and flew thousands of miles to the
rainforests of South America. A follow-up video explained
how the BBC created
the special effects of the flying penguins.
