Best April
Fool’s Day
Hoaxes
Submitted by Becca Commissaris
Western Michigan University
#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that
thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the
dreaded 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 up
wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees.
To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that they should
"place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for
the best."
#2: The Taco Liberty Bell
In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought
the Liberty Bell from the federal government and was renaming it
the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called up the
National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell is housed to
express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco
Bell revealed that it was all a practical joke a few hours later. The
best line inspired by the affair came when White House press
secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale, and he
responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold, though
to a different corporation, and would now be known as the Ford
Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
#3: Alabama Changes the Value of Pi
The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and
Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama
state legislature had voted to change the value of the
mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the 'Biblical value' of
3.0. Before long the article had made its way onto the Internet,
and then it rapidly made its way around the world, forwarded by
people in their email. It only became apparent how far the article
had spread when the Alabama legislature began receiving
hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The
original article, which was intended as a parody of legislative
attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, was written by
a physicist named Mark Boslough.
#4: The Left-Handed Whopper
In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA
Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a
"Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million lefthanded Americans. According to the advertisement, the new
whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper
(lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments
were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed
customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up
release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a
hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to
request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press
release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."
#5: Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers
In its April 1995 issue Discover Magazine announced that the
highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had discovered
a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer.
These fascinating creatures had bony plates on their heads that,
fed by numerous blood vessels, could become burning hot,
allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds. They
used this ability to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the
penguins and causing them to sink downwards into the resulting
slush where the hotheads consumed them. After much research,
Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been
responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic
explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would
have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying.
Discover received more mail in response to this article than they
had received for any other article in their history.
#6: Planetary Alignment Decreases
Gravity
In 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC
Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event
was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very
own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter,
temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would
counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his
listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this
planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange
floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive
hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the
sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven
friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.
#7: The Case of the Interfering
Brassieres
In 1982 the Daily Mail reported that a local manufacturer had sold
10,000 "rogue bras" that were causing a unique and
unprecedented problem, not to the wearers but to the public at
large. Apparently the support wire in these bras had been made
out of a kind of copper originally designed for use in fire alarms.
When this copper came into contact with nylon and body heat, it
produced static electricity, which, in turn, was interfering with local
television, and radio broadcasts. The chief engineer of British
Telecom, upon reading the article, immediately ordered that all his
female laboratory employees disclose what type of bra they were
wearing.
#8: The Sydney Iceberg
On April 1, 1978 a barge appeared in Sydney Harbor towing a
giant iceberg. Sydneysiders were expecting it. Dick Smith, a local
adventurer and millionaire businessman (owner of Dick Smith's
Foods), had been loudly promoting his scheme to tow an iceberg
from Antarctica for quite some time. Now he had apparently
succeeded. He said that he was going to carve the berg into small
ice cubes, which he would sell to the public for ten cents each.
These well-traveled cubes, fresh from the pure waters of
Antarctica, were promised to improve the flavor of any drink they
cooled. Slowly the iceberg made its way into the harbor. Local
radio stations provided excited blow-by-blow coverage of the
scene. Only when the berg was well into the harbor was its secret
revealed. It started to rain, and the firefighting foam and shaving
cream that the berg was really made of washed away, uncovering
the white plastic sheets beneath.
#9: Michigan Shark Experiment
In 1981 the Herald-News in Roscommon, Michigan reported that 3
lakes in northern Michigan had been selected to host "an in-depth
study into the breeding and habits of several species of freshwater sharks." Two thousand sharks were to be released into the
lakes including blue sharks, hammerheads, and a few great
whites. The experiment was designed to determine whether the
sharks could survive in the cold climate of Michigan. The federal
government was said to be spending $1.3 million to determine
this. A representative from the National Biological Foundation was
quoted as saying that there would probably be a noticeable
decline in the populations of other fish in the lake because "the
sharks will eat about 20 pounds of fish each per day, more as they
get older." County officials were said to have protested the
experiment, afraid of the hazard it would pose to fishermen and
swimmers, but the federal government had ignored their
complaints. Furthermore, fishermen had been forbidden from
catching the sharks.
#10: Big Ben Goes Digital
In 1980 the BBC reported that Big Ben, in order to keep up with
the times, was going to be given a digital readout. It received a
huge response from listeners protesting the change. The BBC
Japanese service also announced that the clock hands would be
sold to the first four listeners to contact them, and one Japanese
seaman in the mid-Atlantic immediately radioed in a bid.
#11: Retrobreeding the Woolly
Mammoth
In 1984 Technology Review published an article titled
"Retrobreeding the Woolly Mammoth" that described an effort by
Soviet scientists to bring the woolly mammoth species back from
extinction. The technique being used was the insertion of DNA
from woolly mammoths found frozen in Siberian ice into elephant
cells. The cells were then brought to term inside surrogate
elephant mothers. The head of the project was said to be Dr.
Sverbighooze Yasmilov. The story was widely reported as a
factual event.
#12: Hong Kong Powdered Water
In 1982 the South China Morning Post announced that a solution
to Hong Kong's water shortage was at hand. Scientists, it said,
had found a way to drain the clouds surrounding the island's peak
of their water by electrifying them via antennae. The paper warned
that this might have a negative impact on surrounding property
values, but the government had approved the project nevetheless.
Furthermore, more clouds could be attracted to the region by
means of a weather satellite positioned over India. And finally, as
a back up, packets of powdered water imported from China would
be distributed to all the residents of Hong Kong. A single pint of
water added to this powdered water would magically transform
into ten pints of drinkable water. Hong Kong's radio shows were
flooded with calls all day from people eager to discuss these
solutions to the water shortage. Many of the calls were very
supportive of the plans, but one woman pointed out that the
pumps needed to supply powdered water would be too
complicated and expensive.
#13: Total Home Remote Electricity
In 1999 executives at 130 major companies received a
professionally designed package of information about an exciting
new product: Total Home Remote Electricity. Forget wireless
computers. This technology, created by Ottmar Industries of
Switzerland, allowed electricity itself to be beamed wirelessly
anywhere within a house. Simply plug one of the small "projectors"
into a wall outlet, and a safe electrical "aura" would envelop the
home. Then attach a converter to any appliance, and the
appliance would be able to receive power at any location within
the aura, even outside on the roof. "Did you ever imagine making
toast on your roof?" the promotional material asked.
Accompanying the ads was a letter that included a phone number
the executives could call for more information. Reportedly, about
30 people called the number, including three high-level
executives. But the number really connected them to the
advertising agency, Hoffman York that had sent out the fake ad as
an April Fool's Day publicity stunts.
#14: Man Flies By Own Lung Power
In 1934 the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung ran an article about a
miraculous new invention that allowed men to fly using their lung
power as the sole source of propulsion. Users of the device simply
blew into a box attached to their chest. This activated rotors that
created a powerful suction effect that then lifted the user up into
the air. Skis were worn as landing gear. Accompanying the article
was a photograph of the device in action. The picture was picked
up and widely distributed in the United States by International
News Photo.
#15: Miller Lites
In 2000 Miller Beer announced that it had struck an agreement
with the town of Marfa, Texas to become the exclusive sponsor of
the phenomenon known as the Marfa Mystery Lights. These are
spherical lights that appear south of the town each evening,
seeming to bounce around in the sky. They’re rumored to be
caused by ghosts, swamp gas, or uranium (though they're
probably caused by the headlights from the nearby highway).
Miller announced that under the terms of the agreement the Marfa
Lights would be renamed the Miller Lites. The local paper, which
was in on the joke, printed the news on its front page.
#16: PETA’s Tournament of
Sleeping Fish
In 2000 the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
warned that it planned to sabotage the bass fishing tournament in
East Texas's Lake Palestine by releasing tranquilizers into the
lake before the tournament. Their announcement stated "this year,
the fish will be napping, not nibbling." State officials took the threat
seriously and stationed rangers around the lake in order to stop
any tranquilizer-toting PETA activists from drugging the fish, and
numerous newspapers reported the threat. Eventually PETA
admitted that it had been joking.
#17: Viagra for Hamsters
In 2000 The Independent reported that Florida researchers had
developed a Viagra-like pill to treat sexually frustrated pets,
including hamsters. Veterinarians were said to have greeted the
news with derision, but the article pointed out that there are few
things as sad as a pet suffering from feelings of sexual
inadequacy, noting that "It's not unknown for a guinea pig to sit in
its cage thinking, 'I haven't had sex for months. Am I so
unattractive?’” Owners were instructed to simply grind the pills up
and sprinkle them in the pet's food. Laying some newspaper down
on the floor once the pills began to take effect was also advised.
The pills were to be marketed under the brand name Feralmone.
#18: Eiffel Tower Moves
The Parisien stunned French citizens in 1986 when it reported that
an agreement had been signed to dismantle the Eiffel Tower. The
international symbol of French culture would then be
reconstructed in the new Euro Disney theme park going up east of
Paris. In the space where the Tower used to stand, a 35,000-seat
stadium would be built for use during the 1992 Olympic Games.