April Fools’ Day | April Fools’ day famous Pranks
April Fools’ Day | April Fools’ day famous Pranks: April Fools’ Day is celebrated in the Western world on the 1st of April of every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools’ Day, April 1 is not a legal holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day which tolerates practical jokes and general foolishness.
The day is marked by the commission of good humoured or funny jokes, hoaxes, and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, teachers, neighbors, work associates, etc.
There were a number of festivals that focused on fun and foolery. Saturnalia was a topsy-turvy celebration in ancient Rome. During the holiday, social order was reversed. Slaves could pretend they ruled their masters, and an ordinary citizen was chosen to be “king” as long as the parties lasted.
Another Roman holiday was Hilaria, which involved putting on disguises. (And notice how Hilaria sounds like “hilarious,” which means very funny.)
The frequency of April Fools’ hoaxes sometimes makes people doubt real news stories released on April 1
Famous April Fools’ pranks
Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to “reduce the country’s debt” and renamed it the “Taco Liberty Bell”. When asked about the sale, White House press secretary Mike McCurry replied tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Lincoln Mercury Memorial
Left-handed Whoppers: In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side.[13] Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the “old”, right-handed burger
Three-dollar coin: In 2008, the CBC Radio program As It Happens interviewed a Royal Canadian Mint spokesman who broke “news” of plans to replace the Canadian five-dollar bill with a three-dollar coin. The coin was dubbed a “threenie”, in line with the nicknames of the country’s one-dollar coin (commonly called a “loonie” due to its depiction of a common loon on the reverse) and two-dollar coin (“toonie”).
Cellphone ban: In New Zealand, the radio station The Edge’s Morning Madhouse enlisted the help of the Prime Minister on April 1st to inform the entire country that cellphones are to be banned in New Zealand. Hundreds of callers rang in disgruntled at the new law.
Neopets: The popular site Neopets runs regular hoaxes, year after year. These can be anything from changes in site design to announcements of free prizes. In fact, when new designs for the Neopets pets were released, several users complained and demanded to know if it was a “late April Fool’s joke”. It wasn’t.
NASA: NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day posts a comical image with a seemingly serious description on April the 1st, with examples including ‘Evidence mounts for water on the Moon’ and ‘Astronaut’s head upgraded during spacewalk.
President Barack Obama pulls fundings for NASCAR: On April 1, 2009, on the heels of the auto industry bailout, Car and Driver claimed on its website that President Barack Obama had ordered Chevrolet and Dodge to pull NASCAR funding. The article was removed from the website and replaced with an apology to readers, after upset NASCAR fans protested on the Car and Driver website.
April 1, 2010, the official Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains blog reported that writer Stephen Volk was set to contribute to an upcoming episode of The Simpsons for Hallowe’en and that he would make a cameo appearance as himself alongside fictional character, Pipes. A hidden message on the site read, “…April Fools’, Ghostwatchers!”
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