Playing jokes and pranks on someone can really be fun, but on April Fool’s Day everyone goes nuts, trying to take the hoax to the next level and get as many people as possible. You know there’s a certain satisfaction at the end of the day, when you are able to say that everything people were scared of, amazed or simply amused by, was in fact a very well elaborated prank, of course, directed by you.
Make your own color TV
In 1962, Sweden only benefitted from a single, black and white TV channel. Wanting to play a good prank on the people, the TV station’s technical expert, Kjell Stensson announced on the news that, due to a revolutionary technology, all viewers could easily convert their black-and-white TV screens into full color ones. The revolutionary technique involved placing a nylon stocking over the TV screen, and the colours would become visible; Stensson even made a demonstration. The result: thousands of people in Sweden believed him and tried it. Unfortunately, color television only commenced on April 1st, 1970.
Changing the value of Pi
1998 was a good year for April Fool’s Day pranks, so here is another one: the New Mexicans for Science and Reasons newsletter oriented an issue, announcing that the state of Alabama voted to change the value of Pi from 3.14159 to 3.0 or the Biblical value. Soon, the news went viral on the internet, and thousands of people started to call and protest against the proposed legislation. The original article was in fact an April Fool’s Day prank on the teaching of evolution, written by physicist Mark Boslough.
Left-handed whopper
1998 was the year when Burger King pulled off a huge prank on its customers, announcing their new item to the menu, the “Left-hand Whopper”. The burger would have the exact same ingredients, but they would all be rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of the approx. 32 million left-handed Americans. After the advertisement was released, thousands of customers went into Burger King restaurants and asked for the famous Left-hand Whopper. At the same time, many other asked for the normal Right-hand burgers.
Rare and fake planetary alignment that reduces gravity
In 1976, a rare astronomical phenomenon was announced by astronomer Patrick Moore that at a certain time in the day, 9:47 to be more precise, planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would reduce earth’s own gravity. Moore recommended his listeners to jump at the exact moment of the alignment as they would experience a slight sensation of floatation. Hundreds of listeners called in after 9:47 AM to confirm the event, and one woman actually said her friends had risen from their chairs and started floating around the room. Needless to say what a good prank this is!
UFO in London
On March 31st, 1989, several bikers claimed to have seen a glowing UFO descending on their city, in a field on the outskirts of London. The police were also announced and arrived at the scene, approaching the craft. When the door opened, a small figure appeared, dressed in a silver suit, so of course, the police officer ran away terrified. It all sounds pretty realistic, but the truth is that, there wasn’t any UFO, but a specially designed hot-air balloon, and no alien, but 36-year-old Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Records. His prank was highly successful as he managed to scare numerous people, although his initial plan failed, as he attempted to land on April 1st in London’s Hide Park.
Kremwax
Possibly the very first prank on the Internet, the Kremvax was a hoax played by a European man, named Piet Beertema. He sent a message on the Usenet (an old online messaging community, back in the Stone Age of Internet) saying that the Soviet Union was joining the Usenet, which was indeed a great shock to many users. To top it all off, the message was sent from an address, chernenko@kremvax.UUCP, belonging to Konstantin Chernenko, so everyone was intrigued as they thought that the cold war security would prevent such link-up. Two weeks later, the prank was revealed, but six years later, when Moscow did link-up to the Internet, it adopted the “Kremvax” domain name, in honour of the successful prank.
The predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff
A former anonymous astrologer in London, named Isaac Bickerstaff, published in February 1708 an almanac predicting the death by fever of his more famous rival, John Partridge. Although the latter denied the prediction that he would die on March 29th, the next day, Bickerstaff released a pamphlet confirming his prediction: that Partridge was dead. On April 1st, obviously Fool’s Day, Partridge was woken up by a sexton who wanted to know if there were any organizational plans for his funeral. People were even looking awkwardly when Partridge walked down the street, scared and terrified, as when seeing a ghost, because they were convinced that he had actually died.
The eruption of Mount Edgecumbe
Another good April Fool’s prank took place in Alaska, 1974, when the inhabitants of Sitka were alarmed by s thick, black smoke coming out of the long-dormant volcano, Mt. Edgecumbe. All the people ran into the streets to better observe the volcano, but the smoke was actually caused by a man named Porky Bickar, who set fire to hundreds of old tires inside the volcano to scare the people in the area.
Signal jamming brassiers
A prank involving 10,000 “rogue bras” that were supposedly sold was announced by the Daily Mail in 1982, claiming that the lingerie items caused powerful interference with local television and radio broadcasts due to the support wire that was made out of a type of copper used in fire alarms. When in contact with nylon or body heat, these bras could cause strong signal jamming, so as a precaution measure, the chief engineer of British Telecom, who immediately bought the joke, told all his female employees to disclose what type of bras they were wearing.
