Posted on 04/02/2009 1:46:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway
April Fools’ Day hoaxes always seem so far-fetched — once you know they’re hoaxes.
“In a sense, we’re all gullible,” said Alex Boese, the leading expert on April Fools’ hoaxes. Or so he says. “Come up with the right story and you can fool anybody.”
So be en garde today. Here’s a sample of famous hoaxes perpetrated on past April Fools’ Days. They’re from Boese’s Top Ten, and they fooled an awful lot of people.
•A BBC news show announced that a mild winter and low weevil population combined to produce a bumper spaghetti crop for Swiss farmers. Photos showed peasants pulling spaghetti from trees. Viewers wanted to know how to grow their own spaghetti. (1957)
•Burger King ran a newspaper ad promoting its new “Left-Handed Whopper,” with the condiments rotated 180 degrees. At stores that day, thousands of customers requested the new sandwich. Many others demanded the old right-handed version. (1998)
•Discover magazine told readers about a new species, the “hotheaded naked ice borer,” found in Antarctica. A bony plate on their heads became burning hot, which allowed them to melt ice from below so they could hunt, and eat, penguins. Mail flooded in from amazed readers. (1995)
Boese, a 40-year-old from San Diego, earned his master’s degree in the history of science and was going for his Ph.D. when he glommed onto the hoax thing and instead opened the online Museum of Hoaxes.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
Abel is best known for his work as a professional prankster. He has been pulling the wool over the eyes of the media for the past half-century. His hoaxing career began in the late 1950s with S.I.N.A., the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals. This tongue-in-cheek moral crusade, whose purpose was to clothe all animals for modesty's sake, was actually a commentary on censorship. After launching the campaign, however, Alan soon found himself in the midst of a national craze. Newspaper, radio and television reporters couldn't seem to get the story fast enough. Abel realized that, with very little funds and very few props, with a straight face, he could convince America, and the media, that an absurd idea like S.I.N.A. truly existed....
I swear to God, if I drive all the way out there and there’s nothing there ...
LOL LOL oh my, LOL
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