All the other holidays are so loaded with expectations and obligations that whatever larger meaning they're supposed to bear gets lost in the shuffle. But April Fool's Day celebrates the things I like most: fun, creativity, imagination, humor, levity, smiles. It's like being a kid again for a moment.
I have to admit it's been a good long time since I pulled a prank specific to the First of April, but I haven't forgotten the eager anticipation I had every single year. I'm kind of disappointed in myself for not having been an active participant in the madness in recent years, but maybe that's because I spread my foolishness throughout the year. (I completely admit I'm a fool).
While I rack my brains trying to remember my best April Fool's Day prank, here's a link to the Top 110 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time as tallied by San Diego's Museum of Hoaxes. I hope giving you a few only inspires you to go out and pull someone's leg today:
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, wiss 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.
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 left-handed 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."
Article comments
1 - bhw
I haven't pulled off any April Fool's jokes of note, but Orson Welles' broadcast of "War of the Worlds" has to fit somewhere on the hoax list, doesn't it?
2 - Eric Olsen
is this the day when we pinch people for not wearing green? I love that
3 - Alex
bhw, there's a good reason the War of the Worlds broadcast wouldn't be included in a list of great April Fool's jokes. It was broadcast the night before Halloween.