Top 10 April Fool's hoaxes

telegraph ^ | 01 Apr 2009

[JoeProBono]

1. In 1957 the BBC's Panorama news programme announced that due to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in and many called the BBC asking how they could grow their own spaghetti tree....

[JoeProBono]

[skinkinthegrass]

Barrack Hussein Obambi....you ax for for it.

[Panzerlied]

Barack Hussein Obama. Now THERE’S a hoax for ya!

[cowboyway]

Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

[scotiamor]

The list excludes the famous Wall St. Journal April 1st article approximately 30 years ago about a fictional congressman who had submitted a bill outlawing all publicly owned land over 10 acres, which would in effect eliminate 90% of golf courses. The WSJ “discovered” that the congressman's mother and siblings had been ruined by the golf addiction of his father and this was revenge.

The real Congressional switchboard became overloaded with calls to representatives to stop this bill from becoming law.

The WSJ had a history of April 1st columns -placed on page 1 in the center.

[TomGuy]

Eventually, global warming/global cooling/global climate change (a.k.a., the 4 seasons) will be listed.

[JoeProBono]

LOL!

[massgopguy]

Syd Finch, the best pitcher there never was.

[Alberta's Child]

The very best April Fool's prank I can remember was the infamous "Sidd Finch" hoax that was perpetrated by Sports Illustrated in a 1985 article.

Finch was supposedly a freak of nature who was signed by the New York Mets as a pitcher and had been working in secret during spring training that year. He wore one shoe on the mound (a work boot of some kind), and could throw a baseball an amazing 165+ miles per hour.

Sidd Finch Hoax

[Alberta's Child]

LOL. You beat me to it!

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

In 1996, I believe, there was a full page ad in USA Today stating that Taco Bell had bought the Liberty Bell from the U.S. Parks Department, and it would be known as “The Taco Liberty Bell” from then on. The Taco Bell logo on the ad had been modified to have the iconic Liberty Bell crack on it.

There were a lot of very angry people over that one.

[Domandred]

10. In 1994, BMW continued its tradition of running hoax adverts on April Fool's by touting the latest advancement for its cars – pivoting convex lasers mounted in front of each wheel to melt ice and snow on the road.

LOL omg that would be freaking awesome!

[the long march]

And they say the Brits have no sense of humor. I have always loved the spaghetti trees and the BK ad still is a hoot

[fnord]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/882156/posts

blast from the past

[JoeProBono]

[InABunkerUnderSF]

I like the flying penguins video from last year.

[Non-Sequitur]

George Plimpton’s finest moment.

[JoeProBono]

[mockingbyrd]

I remember that one....hilarious!

[alfa6]

Back in 1976 a Kansas City radio station broadcast an ad for a Beatles re-union concert with the Moody Blues as the opening act for APRIL 31stt. This was about 7pm.

Dang near slagged the telephone exchange as I recall

Regards

alfa6 ;>}