Some of the greatest April Fool’s pranks ever pulled
FROM UFOs to spaghetti trees, frog-cake stadiums and 10-hour clocks, April Fool’s Day is the day to mess with people’s minds. Here are some of the best pranks ever pulled.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
PEOPLE have been playing tricks on each other for April Fool’s Day for centuries, and some pranks have truly caught many, many people out. Here are some of the best over the past few decades from across the world.
Swiss Spaghetti Trees (1957)
Money might not grow on trees, but spaghetti sure does — if a 1957 news report by the BBC is to be believed.
The program Panorama told of Swiss farmers enjoying a bountiful spaghetti harvest, largely thanks to the disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.
Viewers were captivated by vision of farmers in rural Switzerland plucking strands of spaghetti dangling from trees.
“The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer,” the earnest reporter says.
“There’s always a chance of a late frost which, while not entirely ruining the crop, generally impairs the flavour.”
The report fooled huge numbers of viewers who came in to nurseries to ask to buy spaghetti plants, and it is known as one of the great April Fool’s hoaxes.
Stockings make instant colour TV (1962)
We take colour television for granted these days, but not that long ago people had to make do with plain old black-and-white.
So when Swedish TV station SVT told its viewers in a highly technical 1962 news broadcast that they could instantly convert their TV sets to colour, thousands took note.
All they had to do was stretch a stocking over their TV and the light would bend to produce a full colour image. Needless to say, it was a hoax, and hilarity ensued across the Scandinavian nation.
Mums and dads scrambled to find a pair of old nylons, presumably in the hope of seeing Pippi Longstocking’s bright red hair for the first time.
They would actually have to wait another eight years for regular colour broadcasts to arrive.
Adelaide Town Hall gets 10-hour metric clock (1975)
ABC current affairs program This Day Tonight had a special report in 1975 that revealed the nation would soon be adopting “metric time”.
This involved 100-second minutes, 100-minute hours, 20-hour days and 10-hour clocks.
The maths is confounding but with then Deputy South Australian Premier Des Corcoran in on the gag, viewers took the bait.
Corcoran talked up the benefits of the innovative time system, while images of a new 10-hour metric clock on Adelaide Town Hall were beamed out to the nation.
Some viewers were irate, while others went to David Jones and asked how they could convert their newly bought clock to metric.
Antarctic iceberg in Sydney Harbour (1978)
Famed Australian businessman Dick Smith had been promising to tow an iceberg from Antarctica to Sydney Harbor and in 1978 he delivered.
A large berg was spotted being dragged behind a large boat into the middle of the Harbor, with media covering the event excitedly.
Smith, ever the entrepreneur, promised to cut it up into small ice cubes called Dicksicles and sell them for 10 cents apiece.
But when it started to rain, and the foam washed away to reveal a misshapen structure covered with plastic sheets, the truth came out.
Well played, Dick.
UFO lands in London (1989)
Londoners had the fright of their lives when they spotted a flying saucer descending upon the city on their way to work.
The mysterious craft landed in a soccer field on the outskirts of town and many locals called police, fearing an alien invasion was upon them.
But there were no Martians aboard the shop. In fact it was none other than roguish billionaire Richard Branson in a custom hot air balloon shaped to look like a UFO.
He’s pulled a few stunts in his time, old Branson, like when he drove a tank through Times Square and blew up a Coca-Cola sign to launch Virgin Cola in 1998.
But none have been more alarming than this April Fool’s classic.
Frog Cake Stadium (2009)
This prank was pulled by yours truly, The Advertiser, and involved the coupling of two South Australian icons: Adelaide Oval and Balfours Frog Cakes.
An exclusive story on April 1, 2009 revealed that a mysterious consortium was planning to build a spectacular $300 million stadium next door to the historic Adelaide Oval.
“The 45,000 seat stadium, built totally with private-sector backing, will pay homage to a South Australian culinary favourite — the frog cake,” the story read.
“Plans obtained by The Advertiser show the stadium ... will have a lime green, retractable roof. A set of black eyes will be painted on one half of the roof, giving the impression that the frog stadium is ‘smiling’ whenever its roof is open.
“Hundreds of fluorescent bulbs will illuminate the exterior of the stadium at night, bathing the nearby Oval and River Torrens in a soothing lime green light.”
It would’ve been an architectural masterpiece. Sadly it was only an April Fool’s Day hoax.
How did April Fool’s Day start?
THE origin of April Fool’s Day isn’t clear, but appears to partly date back to 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII ordered a change to the Gregorian calendar.
This moved New Year’s Day to January 1 rather than on or around March 25 or April 1, and France changed in that year.
People began to make fun of the traditionalists who continued to celebrate the new year at the start of April, which led to them being tricked or sent on “fool’s errands”. Gradually the practice spread to other countries.
But it doesn’t completely explain April Fool’s Day’s history, because England didn’t adopt the Gregorgian Calender until 1752 — and by then, April Fool’s Day was a regular celebration.
Other ancient festivals — the Roman Hilaria, the Indian colour festival Holi, the Jewish Purim and the Medieval Feast of Fools all incorporated elements of lightheartness or playing tricks on friends. Most of these are set sometime during March.
Some scholars have noted the northern hemisphere link between winter turning to spring that falls around April 1.
Curiously, the first recorded link between April 1 and foolishness is in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, from 1392 but this may have arisen because of a mistranslation.
Other early references to April Fool’s include a French poet who wrote of poisson d’avril (April fool, or April fish) in 1508 and the first clear British reference to April Fool’s was in 1686, when writer John Aubrey wrote of “Fooles holy day”.
In 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to see the annual “washing of the lions”.
Mugshots: Faces of South Australia’s criminal past
These are the haunting faces of South Australia’s rich criminal history. From murder and theft to the “crime” of fortune-telling, delve into these fascinating records of our villainous past.
Memorial Drive steels itself for new, top end summer tournament
A $10 million upgrade of one of South Australia’s most well known sports facilities saw a major leap forward today with the installation of the first of six, 50 tonne steel trusses.