If you can’t make it to the famed Museum of Hoaxes in San Diego, curator Alex Boese has compiled the Top 100 April Fools’ Day pranks of all time at www.museumofhoaxes.com. The top 5:
1. The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest: In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were going great guns with their spaghetti crop, thanks to a warm winter and the eradication of the spaghetti weevil.
2. Sidd Finch: Sports Illustrated ran an April 1985 story about baseball rookie Sidd Finch, who could throw a 168 mph pitch, studied in a Tibetan monastery and was going to play for the Mets. It was all made up by George Plimpton.
3. Instant Color TV: A technician for Sweden’s only TV station, which broadcast in black and white at the time, appeared on the news in 1962 and reported that slipping a nylon stocking over the screen would convert the set to color. Ironically, according to Boese, color TV transmission began in Sweden – on April 1, 1970.
4. The Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out full-page newspaper ads saying the company, in an effort to help reduce the national debt, bought the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. White House press secretary Mike McCurry jokingly told reporters that the federal government would also be “selling the Lincoln Memorial to Ford Motor Co. and renaming it the Lincoln-Mercury Memorial.”
5. San Serriffe: England’s Guardian newspaper ran a supplement in 1977 about a republic of “semicolon-shaped” islands in the Indian Ocean. The larger isle was named Upper Caise, the smaller, Lower Caise. San Serriffe was ruled by General Pica and its capital was Bodoni.
Boese also lists the worst April Fool’s Day pranks. The top 5:
1. Hijinks of Hussein and Son: On April 1, 1998, the Babil newspaper, owned by Saddam Hussein’s son Uday, informed its readers that President Clinton had decided to lift sanctions against Iraq, only to admit later that it was just joking. In 1999, Uday announced that the monthly food rations would be supplemented to include bananas, Pepsi, and chocolate. Again, it was just a joke. In 2000 they recycled the sanction-lifting gag, and in 2001 they reran the ration-supplement joke.
2. Releasing The Prisoners: In April 2000, 60 people read in the Opinia newspaper that their loved ones were going to be released from the Baia Mare prison in Romania. They made the long journey to the prison, only to learn that the paper had played an April Fools’ joke on them. The Opinia later published an apology.
3. The Phony Deadline: Glenn Howlett’s colleagues at London city hall sent him a memo telling him that a really big report he was working on was going to be due early. The memo was dated April 1st, but Howlett, who was on vacation, didn’t realize it was a joke. He immediately cut his vacation short and phoned the office to tell everyone to get busy. Worried about the new deadline, he worked himself up into an increasing state of panic until he began to experience heart palpitations. He collapsed from the stress and had to take leave from work. As he was recovering he realized it wasn’t worth risking his health, so he filed for early retirement. At which point someone told him the early deadline was just a joke. He sued for damages.
4. The Dead Dog: The film “National Lampoon’s Vacation” includes a scene in which Chevy Chase ties a dog to the bumper of his car, then forgets the dog is there and drives away. Inspired by this scene, Paul Goobie tied a dead Chihuahua to the bumper of his co-worker’s car. His co-worker, Kevin Meloy, got in the car and drove off, unaware that the Chihuahua was there. Obviously passing motorists were horrified. But what made the situation even worse was that Meloy was deaf, so he couldn’t hear the other motorists frantically honking at him. He drove on for miles until finally someone was able to get his attention. Police charged Goobie with unlawful disposal of a dead animal.
5. A Fake Hanging: Randy Wood decided to play a prank on his ex-wife. He called her up and asked her to come over, telling her that he had something to show her. She drove over, only to find him hanging by a noose from a tree in his front yard. Terrified, she dialed 911. Emergency services, including firefighters, policemen, and paramedics, soon showed up. But when they went to cut Wood down they discovered he wasn’t dead. He wasn’t even hurt. He had strung himself up as a prank to scare his ex-wife, using a lineman’s harness similar to those used by utility crews. The authorities warned that he would face a fine of up to $1,000 and a year in jail for his prank.
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