Happy April Fool’s Day everyone! This list contains some of the best April Fool’s Day hoaxes of all time. You have the spaghetti on trees, the people who found Nessie, the color tv in Sweden and many more. Enjoy! And think twice if you read or see some surprising news today…
1. 2008: BBC finds flying penguins.
The BBCs natural history series “Miracles of Evolution” announced that they had found something truly extraordinary. Filming near the Antartic they captured footage of flying penguins. And there was a pretty solid explanation to this mystery; the penguins preferred a sunny climate in the winter! The clip went viral and millions of people watched it (the numbers of fooled people remains uncertain).
Below you can hear the presenter Terry Jones explaining. And you can see FLYING penguins!
A follow-up video explained how the BBC created the special effects of the flying penguins.
2. 1994: New rule: You can’t drink and go online.
“Congress apparently thinks being drunk on a highway is bad no matter what kind of highway it is”, John Dvorak stated and referred to the fact that Internet was described as an “Information Highway”. This was back in 1994 and John Dvorak’s article in an issue of PC Computing Magazine stated that a bill going through congress would make it illegal to use the internet while drunk. Even to discuss sexual matters over the public network would be illegal. Passage of the bill: “Who wants to come out and support drunkenness and computer sex?”.
Senator Edward Kennedy had to release an official denial of the rumor since people went bananas.
Imagine this in 2015!?
3. 1972: “We found the Loch Ness Monster!”
Sensational news! Newspapers all around the world went bananas when the body of the Loch Ness Monster was found. It was a team of zoologists from Yorkshire’s Flamingo Park Zoo that worked at the Loch and reported that they had found the dead body. They tried to take the corpse back to Yorkshire, but Scottish police stopped them citing an old law concerning Loch Ness. But the excitement over the finding quickly turned into disappointment. After examination, it was determined it wasn’t Nessie. It was a large bull elephant seal from the South Atlantic… Who pranked the whole world? A man named John Shields. The seal had died one week earlier at Dudley Zoo and Shields had prepared it and later dumped it in Loch Ness to play an April Fool’s prank on his colleagues. He admitted the joke got out of hand.
4. 1934: German pilot flies – by own lung power!
German pilot Erich Kocher blew into a box on his chest… And flied away! It was sensational. The “news” was reported in the April Fool’s Day edition of the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. The Germans was aware of the prank. The Americans on the other hand… Many American newspapers printed the story along with the photograph of the flying German pilot and wasn’t aware of its origin. It made its way to America thanks to Hearst’s International News Photo agency which distributed it to all its U.S. subscribers.
The name Erich Kocher is a pun on the German word “keuchen”, meaning to puff or wheeze.
5. 1962: Sweden are introduced to color television.
People thought that It was just a regular news broadcast. But when a technical expert occurred in the studio something special was going on. The technical expert, Kjell Stensson, told the viewers that he was gonna show something remarkable. A new invention that would leave the black and white era of television in the past. He demonstrated: Put nylons on your television and you will have color instead of just black and white. Millions of Swedes followed… But nothing happened. One of my favorite hoaxes of all time. Below you can watch the broadcast and his demonstration of the technique. It’s in Swedish, but you know what to look for (NYLONS!).
6. 1957: Spaghetti grows on trees in Switzerland.
Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees… That was top news when BBC news show “Panorama” aired on April 1. Viewers were breath taken and many of them called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. Below you can watch the segment on the show.
7. 2014: Netflix produces new movies.
April 1, 2014 Netflix announced two new movies to air. But it was titles that raised some questions… The first one was named “Sizzling Bacon”. An action movie that involved a frying pan and a pack of bacon in the leading role… The other one was called “Rotisserie Chicken”. It was a 73 minutes long drama containing a chicken that was prepared for dinner…
8. 1965: Smellovision!
BBC reported that a professor at Boston University had found a new technique that he called “Smellovision”. The advanced technology made it possible to feel the smell from the tv studio right into your living room. He demonstrated by putting coffee beans and onion in the Smellovision machine. Then he asked to viewers to report if they could feel the smell. Loads of viewers all over England called and confirmed that they could feel it…
9. 2010: Ferrets delivering broadband.
The Daily Telegraph revealed that a group of specially trained ferrets, through new technique, been used for over a year to deliver broadband to the countryside. The ferrets worked in special jackets with a microchip that made it possible to analyze damage and problems with the underground network. But The Daily Telegraphs news was too remarkable to reach the world press…
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Source/Pictures: Hoaxes.org.
