| Pranks performed on April Fool's Day range
from the simple, (such as saying, "Your shoe's untied!),
to the elaborate. Setting a roommate's alarm clock back an
hour is a common gag. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually
ends it by yelling to his victim, "April Fool!"
Some of the famous April Fools jokes often appear in the
National newspapers or as part of large company advertising
campaigns. Here is is few to ponder over:
Local April Fool's 2005
Here is a selection of the pranks played on All
Fools Day 2005 More...
Whistling Carrots April 2002
The British supermarket chain Tesco published an advertisement
in the Sun Newspaper announcing the successful development
of a genetically modified 'whistling carrot.' Tapered airholes
inside the vegetable cause it to whistle when properly cooked.
Pet Tax April 2002
WIOQ, A Philadelphia radio station, announced that the city
would be instituting a Pet Tax to raise money to offset the
debt. $10 for the first 10 pounds per pet and $1 for each
additional pound per pet. If the tax is not paid, the pet
would be taken and put to sleep (for tax evasion).
Sky Becoming Less Blue April 2001
The British Mail on Sunday announced that the sky was becoming
less blue. It cited a five-year study conducted at the Koenraad
University in Amsterdam which had used special digital cameras
and color charts to measure subtle shifts in the sky's color.
The study's researchers had found that the "'coefficient
of blueness'... has drastically diminished in five years from
9.3 per cent in 1996 to just 6.9 per cent this year."
They attributed this color change to the effects of air pollution
and the depleting ozone layer. The article explained that,
"Particles of airborne pollution are thought to be creating
a thick blanket of dirty grey." This blanket of pollution
was preventing the 'scattering' of sunlight as it passed through
the atmosphere, causing the sky to darken. Astronomer Patrick
Moore was quoted as saying, "There's an awful lot of
pollution, making the sky turn a strange russety colour."
The Mail on Sunday invited its readers to help the researchers
in Amsterdam by taking part in a "mass observation"
scheduled to occur between 10am and noon on April 1. A "Skyometer"
had been printed on the right side of the page that provided
a graded chart of different shades of blue. By holding this
chart up to the sky, readers could determine which shade best
matched the color of the sky. They were asked to mail their
results to the Mail on Sunday, which would forward them to
the Amsterdam researchers. The reference to astronomer Patrick
Moore should have given readers a clue that the article was
a hoax. Moore is famous for an April Fool's Day prank he perpetrated
on the audience of BBC Radio back in 1976 in which he claimed
that a rare alignment of the planets was temporarily going
to lessen the earth's gravity.
Dog Trainer Contracted Foot and
Mouth Disease April 2001
The Sunday London Times revealed that a famous British dog
trainer, Barbara Woodhouse, had once contracted foot and mouth
disease. Woodhouse, who died in 1988, was well-known as a
TV personality. As the Times noted, "Her ringing catchphrases
'Walkies!' and 'Sit-t!' swept the nation." The article
claimed that Woodhouse contracted the disease while working
as a "horse whisperer" on a ranch in Argentina during
the 1930s. She did not catch the disease from the horses,
however, but rather from the free-roaming Hereford cows that
lived in the region.
Downloadable Money April 2001
Abbey National, a British bank, revealed an April Fool's Day
joke that never came to fruition. It planned to offer its
customers the ability to download and print money from their
home computer. An Abbey National employee said, ""We
were going to say that it would suit all those couch potatoes
who don't want to go to the bank to get their money out. We
would make available a system where you could download money
from your personal computer and print it out on paper at home."
However, the Bank of England, citing concerns about encouraging
forgery, strongly advised Abbey National not to proceed with
their joke.
Internet Spring Cleaning April 1997
A message spread throughout the internet announcing that the
internet would be shut down for cleaning for 24 hours from
March 31st until April 2nd. This cleaning was said to be necessary
to clear out the "electronic flotsam and jetsam"
that had accumulated in the network. Dead e-mail and inactive
ftp, www, and gopher sites would be purged. The cleaning would
be done by "five very powerful Japanese-built multi-lingual
Internet-crawling robots (Toshiba ML-2274) situated around
the world." During this period, users were warned to
disconnect all devices from the internet. The message supposedly
originated from the "Interconnected Network Maintenance
Staff, Main Branch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology."
This joke was an updated version of an old joke that used
to be told about the phone system. For many years, gullible
phone customers had been warned that the phone systems would
be cleaned on April Fool's Day. They were cautioned to place
plastic bags over the ends of the phone to catch the dust
that might be blown out of the phone lines during this period.
Keep an eye out for this year's howlers..
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