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*[http://AprilFoolsDayOnTheWeb.com/ April Fools' Day On The Web: The most complete listing of April Fools' Day Jokes that Web Sites have run each year from 2004 all the way until the present]
*[http://AprilFoolsDayOnTheWeb.com/ April Fools' Day On The Web: The most complete listing of April Fools' Day Jokes that Web Sites have run each year from 2004 all the way until the present]
*[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/ Museum of Hoaxes: Top 100 April Fools' Day hoaxes of all time]
*[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/ Museum of Hoaxes: Top 100 April Fools' Day hoaxes of all time]

*[http://litlurl.net/wikiaprilfool Famous Wikipedia April Fools Day prank]
==References==
==References==
* {{1911}}
* {{1911}}

Revision as of 00:47, 1 April 2009

This article is about the informal holiday. For other uses, see April Fool's Day (disambiguation) or April Fool.
April Fools' Day
April 1st 2001 in Denmark, regarding Copenhagen's new subway
Also calledAll Fools' Day
ObservancesHumor
DateApril 1

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on fool's errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, the jokes only last until noon: like UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool".[1] Elsewhere, such as in Ireland, France, and the USA, the jokes last all day.

Origins

Wikipedia's Main Page on April 1, 2007. The featured article write-up purposely confuses U.S. President George Washington with an inventor of the same name.

The origin of April Fools' Day is obscure. One likely theory is that the modern holiday was first celebrated soon after the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar; the term referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar which it replaced.[2] In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool was someone who did this prematurely. Another origin is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were taunted by their neighbors.[citation needed] In the eighteenth century the festival was often posited as going back to the times of Noah. An English newspaper article published on April 13th, 1789 said that the day had its origins when he sent the raven off too early, before the waters had receded. He did this on the first day of the Hebrew month that corresponds with April.[3] A possible reference to April Fools' Day can be seen in the Canterbury Tales (ca 1400) in the Nun's Priest's tale, a tale of two fools: Chanticleer and the fox, which took place on March 32nd.[4]

Well-known pranks

By radio stations

  • BBC Radio 4 (2005): The Today Programme announced in the news that the long-running serial The Archers had changed their theme tune to an upbeat disco style.[18]
  • Death of a mayor: In 1998, local WAAF shock jocks Opie and Anthony reported that Boston mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident. Menino happened to be on a flight at the time, lending credence to the prank as he could not be reached. The rumor spread quickly across the city, eventually causing news stations to issue alerts denying the hoax. The pair were fired shortly thereafter.[19]
  • Phone call: In 1998, UK presenter Nic Tuff of West Midlands radio station Kix 96 pretended to be the British Prime Minister Tony Blair when he called the then South African President Nelson Mandela for a chat. It was only at the end of the call when Nic asked Nelson what he was doing for April Fools' Day that the line went dead.[20]
  • Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect: In 1976, British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told listeners of BBC Radio 2 that unique alignment of two planets would result in an upward gravitational pull making people lighter at precisely 9:47 a.m. that day. He invited his audience to jump in the air and experience "a strange floating sensation." Dozens of listeners phoned in to say the experiment had worked.[21]
  • Shuttle landing: In 1993, Dave Rickards of Dave, Shelly, and Chainsaw, the morning show for San Diego's 101.5 KGB fooled many listeners into believing that the space shuttle had been diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and was about to make an emergency landing at Montgomery Field, a small local airport.[citation needed]
  • "National Public Radio" Every year National Public Radio in the United States does an extensive news story on April 1st. These usually start off more or less reasonably, and get more and more unusual. A recent example is the story on the "iBod" a portable body control device.[22] In 2008 it reported that the IRS, to assure rebate checks were actually spent, was shipping consumer products instead of checks.[23] It also runs false sponsor mentions, such as "Support for NPR comes from the Soylent Corporation, manufacturing protein-rich food products in a variety of colors. Soylent Green is People.”[24]

By television stations

  • After 50 years, the 1957 BBC report of the purported bumper annual spaghetti harvest (see Spaghetti trees above) remains one of the most successful TV hoaxes of all time.
  • The Trouble with Tracy: In 2003, The Comedy Network in Canada announced that it would produce and air a remake of the 1970s Canadian sitcom The Trouble with Tracy. The original series is widely considered to be one of the worst sitcoms ever produced. Several media outlets fell for the hoax.[25]
  • In 2008, the BBC reported on a newly discovered colony of flying penguins. An elaborate video segment was even produced, featuring Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) walking with the penguins in Antarctica, and following their flight to the Amazon rainforest. [26]
  • In 1980, the BBC reported a proposed change to the famous clock tower known as Big Ben. The reporters stated that the clock would go digital. [27]
  • On Comedy Central, the creators of South Park aired a fake episode of Terrance and Phillip titled "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus instead of running the season premier which was supposed to reveal the father of Eric Cartman.

By magazines, newspapers, and books

  • George Plimpton wrote a 1985 article in Sports Illustrated about a New York Mets prospect named Sidd Finch, who could throw a 168 mph (270 km/h) fastball with pinpoint accuracy. This kid, known as "Barefoot" Sidd[hartha] Finch, reportedly learned to pitch in a Buddhist monastery. The first letter of each word in the article subhead spelled out the fact of its being an April Fool joke.[28]
  • Lies to Get You Out of the House: In 1985, the L.A. Weekly printed an entire page of fake things to do on April Fools' Day, by which hundreds of people were fooled.[29]
  • Comic strip switcheroo: Cartoonists of popularly syndicated comic strips draw each others' strips. In some cases, the artist draws characters in the other strip's milieu, while in others, the artist draws in characters from other visiting characters from his own. Cartoonists have done this sort of "switcheroo" for several years. The 1997 switch was particularly widespread.[30]
  • Coldplay to back the Tories - On April 1 2006 the UK Guardian journalist "Olaf Priol" claimed that Chris Martin of rock band Coldplay had decided to publicly support the UK Conservative Party leader David Cameron due to his disillusionment with previous Labour Party prime minister Tony Blair,[31] even going so far as to produce a fake song, "Talk to David", that could be downloaded via the Guardian website.[32] Despite being an obvious hoax, the Labour Party's Media Monitoring Unit were concerned enough to circulate the story throughout "most of the government".[33]

By game shows

  • As part of an April Fools' joke on April 1, 1997, Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak switched hosting duties. Sajak hosted Jeopardy! that day and Trebek hosted Wheel of Fortune where Sajak and Vanna White played as contestants. Jeopardy! announcer Johnny Gilbert did double duties that day. A puzzle during the episode also featured Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as an answer.[34]
  • On April 1, 2008, Jeopardy! played another joke by having Alex Trebek appear with a false mustache, a reference to the minor controversy that followed when he shaved his off in 2001. The fake was gone by the Double Jeopardy round.
  • A common The Price Is Right gag is an April Fools' Day themed showcase featuring assortments of gag prizes (such as trips to made up locations) or by staging the entire showcase to fall apart. However, once the deception was revealed, the real showcase the contestant was to bid on usually consisted of extravagant prizes, such as two cars, or a premium car (Cadillac or Corvette). The practice is best known from the 1980s, but was revived in the Drew Carey era in 2008. The 2009 April Fool's Day gag will also feature the show's increased use of guests; Kathy Kinney, who played Carey's nemesis on his eponymous sitcom, makes an appearance during the Showcase.[35]
  • In 2003, Hollywood Squares producers played an April Fools joke on host Tom Bergeron and the stars by booking two of the most difficult contestants ever. The contestants were in fact actors.[36]

By websites

File:Wikipedia Main Page April Fools' Day 2008.png
The 2008 April Fools version of Wikipedia
  • Kremvax: In 1984, in one of the earliest on-line hoaxes, a message was circulated that Usenet had been opened to users in the Soviet Union.[37]
  • April Fools' Day RFC
  • Google's hoaxes
  • Dead fairy hoax: In 2007, an illusion designer for magicians posted on his website some images illustrating the corpse of an unknown eight-inch creation, which was claimed to be the mummified remains of a fairy. He later sold the fairy on eBay for £280.[38]
  • NationStates runs an annual hoax on April 1st. In 2004, the hoax was that there was a population bug and all nations' populations would be reset to 5 million people. In 2005, there was a message (supposedly from the Department of Homeworld Security) that NationStates was illegal by US law. In 2006, NationDates was created. It used a quiz similar to the one taken at the sign-up page, and matched that nation with a random country in the same region. In 2007, many users received "Regional moderator" icons with the promise that they would be able to "wield their awesome power" over other users. For April Fools' Day 2008, NationStates has created a new "World Assembly" in the place of the United Nations, as they had received a cease and desist notice from the United Nations for using its name without consent.[39] This was later revealed to be a non-hoax, and that the inspiration to use it as an April Fools joke came from the assumption it was too unbelievable [40]
  • Water on Mars: In 2005 a news story was posted on the official NASA website purporting to have pictures of water on Mars. The picture actually was just a picture of a glass of water on a Mars Candy Bar.[41]
  • Microsoft Research Reclaims Value of Pi: In 2008, an executive with the Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments posted on his personal blog an updated spoof of the 1998 April Fools hoax claiming Alabama's state legislature had rounded the value of pi to the "Biblical value of 3." The 2008 hoax claimed that Microsoft Research had determined the true-up value of pi to be a definitive 3.141999, or as expressed in company literature, "Three easy payments of 1.047333."[42]
  • Assassination of Bill Gates: In 2003, many Chinese and South Korean websites claimed that CNN reported Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was assassinated, resulting in a 1.5% drop in the Korean stock market.[43]
  • SARS Infects Hong Kong: In 2003 during the time when Hong Kong was seriously hit by SARS, it was rumored that many people in Hong Kong had become infected with SARS and become uncontrolled, that all immigration ports would be closed to quarantine the region, and that Tung Chee Hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong at that time, had resigned. Hong Kong supermarkets were immediately overwhelmed by panicked shoppers. The Hong Kong government held a press conference to deny the rumor. The rumor, which was intended as an April Fools' prank, was started by a student by imitating the design of Ming Pao newspaper website. He was charged for this incident.[44]
  • www.howstuffworks.com does an annual bogus article. In 2006, it was "How Animated Tattoos Work"; in 2007 "How Phone Cell Implants Work"; in 2008 "How the Air Force One Hybrid Works"..[45]
  • Motoshi Sakriboto: In 2007, the Square Enix fansite Square Haven reported that game music composers Motoi Sakuraba and Hitoshi Sakimoto had announced a merger. The resulting amalgamated life form was named Motoshi Sakriboto. The hoax played off the fact that when rival role-playing game developers SquareSoft and Enix merged on April 1, 2003, many believed the news to be an April Fools' joke.[46]
  • In 2008, Australian video gaming website company MyMedia, released information and previews on MyMedia: The Movie, the supposed upcoming movie was to be animated and produced by the Australian Film Commission, it was confirmed fake a few days after.[47] The movie was supposedly based on a comic series created by one of the site's editorial staff, Matt Kelly.[48] This has since become an on going website gag about over hyping the non-existent movie through various additional trailers.[49]
  • ScoringSessions.com announced that composer John Williams was replaced by Danny Elfman on the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - and provided photos from the scoring sessions.[50]
  • RISKS Digest often publishes a special April 1st issue. [51]
  • ThinkGeek sends an e-newsletter containing mostly false products each year. [52] Several of these products have actually become real products due to customer demand, for example the 8-Bit Ties.
  • IGN, a famous video game website, created a Legend of Zelda movie trailer which looked realistic on April Fools Day. Many people were excited and tricked into believing that a real Legend of Zelda movie was coming out, but then IGN revealed that it was a fake. Later rumors were spread that a REAL Legend of Zelda film is going to be made.

Real news on April Fools' Day

The frequency of April Fools' hoaxes sometimes makes people doubt real news stories released on April 1.

The 1946 April Fools' Day tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii.
  • The 2005 death of comedian Mitch Hedberg was originally dismissed as an April Fools' joke. The comedian's March 29, 2005 death was announced on March 31, but many newspapers didn't carry the story until April 1, 2005.
  • Gmail's April 2004 launch was widely believed to be a prank, as Google traditionally perpetrates April Fools' Day hoaxes each April 1 (see Google's hoaxes.) Another Google-related event that turned out not to be a hoax occurred on April 1, 2007, when employees at Google's New York City office were alerted that a ball python kept in an engineer's cubicle had escaped and was on the loose. An internal e-mail acknowledged that "the timing…could not be more awkward" but that the snake's escape was in fact an actual occurrence and not a prank.[54]
  • The merger of Square and its rival company, Enix, took place on April 1, 2003, and was originally thought to be a joke.
  • British sprinter Dwain Chambers joined English rugby league team Castleford Tigers shortly before 1st April 2008. The athlete was attempting a return to top flight athletics at the time following a high profile drugs ban, and his apparent unfamiliarity with rugby led many people to assume this was an April Fools' Day prank.
  • On April 1, 1984, singer Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father. Originally, people assumed that it was a fake news story, especially considering the bizarre aspect of the father being the murderer.

Other prank days in the world

Iranians play jokes on each other on the 13th day of the Persian new year (Norouz), which falls on April 1 or April 2. This day, celebrated as far back as 536 BC, is called Sizdah Bedar and is the oldest prank-tradition in the world still alive today; this fact has led many to believe that April Fools' Day has its origins in this tradition.[citation needed]

The April 1 tradition in France and French-speaking Canada includes poisson d'avril (literally "April's fish"), attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. This is also widespread in other nations, such as Italy (where the term Pesce d'aprile (literally "April's fish") is also used to refer to any jokes done during the day). In Spanish-speaking countries, similar pranks are practiced on December 28, día de los Santos Inocentes, the "Day of the Holy Innocents". This custom also exists in certain areas of Belgium, including the province of Antwerp. The Flemish tradition is for children to lock out their parents or teachers, only letting them in if they promise to bring treats the same evening or the next day.

In Poland, prima aprilis ("April 1" in Latin) is a day full of jokes; various hoaxes are prepared by people, media (which sometimes cooperate to make the "information" more credible) and even public institutions. Serious activities are usually avoided. This conviction is so strong that the anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I signed on April 1, 1683, was backdated to March 31.

In Scotland, April Fools' Day is traditionally called Hunt-the-Gowk Day ("gowk" is Scots for a cuckoo or a foolish person), although this name has fallen into disuse. The traditional prank is to ask someone to deliver a sealed message requesting help of some sort. In fact, the message reads "Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile". The recipient, upon reading it, will explain he can only help if he first contacts another person, and sends the victim to this person with an identical message, with the same result. Also Scotland has 2 whole days for pranks, April 1 and April 2.

In Denmark the 1st of May is known as "Maj-kat", meaning "May-cat", and is identical to April Fools' Day, though Danes also celebrate April Fools' Day ("aprilsnar").

Some Jewish communities have a traditional event called a Purim spiel, which is similar in many ways to April Fools' Day. Fake newspaper articles are common.

April Fools' Day in media

See also


External links

Wikinews has related news:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to April Fools' Day.

References

  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  1. ^ KIDPROJ Multi-Cultural Calendar
  2. ^ April Fools' Day Encyclopaedia Brittanica
  3. ^ Olmert, Michael (1996). Milton's Teeth and Ovid's Umbrella: Curiouser & Curiouser Adventures in History, p.186. Simon & Schuster, New York. ISBN 0684801647.
  4. ^ thirty-two days since March began
  5. ^ "Museum of Hoaxes". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  6. ^ Still a good joke - 47 years on (BBC News, April 1, 2004)
  7. ^ "Original press release". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  8. ^ "Follow-up press release, revealing the joke". Retrieved 2008-02-07.
  9. ^ "Entry at Museum of Hoaxes". Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  10. ^ Report: San Serriffe. The Guardian, April 1, 1977 (7pp)
  11. ^ "April Fools' Day, 1993". Museum of Hoaxes. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  12. ^ "April Fools' Day, 1965". Museum of Hoaxes. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  13. ^ BBC Smell-o-vision
  14. ^ "Practical joking: The art of April Fools'". The Examiner. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  15. ^ "The origin of the WOM - the "Write Only Memory"". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  16. ^ "Traders have last laugh, drive down loonie in wake of April Fools' prank". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  17. ^ www.bmweducation.co.uk Annual BMW Innovations
  18. ^ "New Archers Theme Tune". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 2007-07-05.
  19. ^ http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_text_direct-0=0EADF91DBB78428F&p_field_direct-0=document_id
  20. ^ "Millennium TimeLine - 1998 April". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  21. ^ Fooling around, book extract in The Guardian dated March 30, 2007, online at books.guardian.com (accessed 29 March 2009)
  22. ^ www.npr.org IBOD story
  23. ^ http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/01/april_1st/
  24. ^ www.NPR.org
  25. ^ "Something fishy about finale". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  26. ^ Flying penguins found by BBC programme - Telegraph
  27. ^ London April Fools
  28. ^ Fred Fedler, Media Hoaxes, Iowa State University Press, 1989, p.201.
  29. ^ "Lies to Get You Out of the House". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  30. ^ "The story behind The Great Cartoon Switcheroonie". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  31. ^ "Their wives met at yoga. Now Chris Martin plans to rock the vote for Cameron's Tories". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  32. ^ Song download (mp3)
  33. ^ "Coldplay defection gives Labour a bad hair day". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  34. ^ "Jeopardy! Episode Guide". TV.com. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  35. ^ "Official Price is Right Q&A". CBS. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  36. ^ www.youtube.com: Hollywood squares
  37. ^ Raymond, E. S.: "The Jargon File", Kremvax entry, 2006
  38. ^ "April fool fairy sold on internet" from BBC News. Retrieved on July 31, 2007.
  39. ^ "NationStates: The World Assembly" (PDF). NationStates. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  40. ^ "Max Barry - News Archive". Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  41. ^ "APOD: 2005 April 1 - Water on Mars". NASA. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  42. ^ "Microsoft Research Reclaims Value of Pi". Retrieved 2007-04-01.
  43. ^ "Bill Gates hoax hits Korean market". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  44. ^ "Announcement of Hong Kong Government denying this rumor". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  45. ^ "How the Air Force One Hybrid Works". Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  46. ^ "Hitoshi Sakimoto and Motoi Sakuraba announce merger". Retrieved 2007-06-28.
  47. ^ "April Foolz - MyMedia: The Movie". Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  48. ^ "MyMedia Comic Series". Retrieved 2008-09-01.
  49. ^ "MyMedia: The Movie Teaser Trailer - Star Trek Edition". Retrieved 2008-09-01.
  50. ^ "Elfman replaces Williams on Indiana Jones; Shaiman and Newman team up to write songs". Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  51. ^ Risk Index of back issues April 1, 2006 April 1, 2007 (March 31, 2007)
  52. ^ [1]
  53. ^ "Vance, Bill. "AMC Gremlin, 1970-1978", Canadian Driver, July 19, 2004]". {{cite web}}: Text "accessdate-2008-05-30" ignored (help)
  54. ^ "Rumormonger: Python on the loose at Google". Valleywag. {{cite web}}: Text "accessdate-2007-04-01" ignored (help)
  55. ^ "Borås loses out in Uefa burger battle". The Local. The Local Europe. 21 July 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
  56. ^ ANNOUNCEMENT: The Future of Epiphany
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