1957: The respected BBC news show Panoramaannounced 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. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
1985: Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. This was 65 mph faster than the previous record. Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the “art of the pitch” in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the “great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa.” Mets fans celebrated their teams’ amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. In reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the author of the article, George Plimpton.
1962: In 1962 there was only one tv channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white. The station’s technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their tv screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process. Thousands of people were taken in. Regular color broadcasts only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970.
The Guardian today set up a ‘Royal Wedding Live’ blog in attempt to show ‘full throated support’ for the British Monarchy.
The tongue-in-cheek feature launched at 7:30 this morning and has vowed to give ‘committed, unrivalled coverage’ of the preparations for this year’s big Royal wedding. At 10:11AM news of the wedding cancellation hit the site.
At 11.38, however, the updates were apparently forced to stop after they received “a communication from Buckingham Palace suggesting that some of the contents of [the] blog could contravene the Treason Felony Act of 1848.”
Groupon “buy” April Fool’s Day
Groupon, the vouchers website, claims to have purchased the April Fool’s Day intellectual trademark, and giving it the official new title of Groupon Presents April Fools’ Day™.
Explaining its actions, Groupon say it “gives consumers more choices and better options” and that “You’ll never again be confused by other corporations’ April 1 pranks, since Groupon will be taking friendly, but swift, but hostile, legal actions against any nonlicensed April Fools’ Day™ joke.”
You can also see the Cease and Desist letters it has served to YouTube and others that are performing ‘illegal pranks’.
Youtube Cease and Desist order
To see exactly what it was that YouTube did to anger groupon’s legal department you merely need to go to their homepage.
With the logo changed to infer that the website was founded in 1911, users are given the choice to change the look of videos to make them silent and sepia-toned.
A collection of spoof videos from that year that mimic popular viral videos of today was also posted
In case people are fooled by this, Groupon helpfully point out, “nearly all technology necessary for Youtube.com or any other video website to function including the Internet, computers, speakers, and video sharing software were invented far after the purported advent of Youtube.com”
Google have found a way of combining your webcam and Gmail to dispense with outdated technology such as a keyboard and a mouse. By standing a safe distance from your computer, you will be able to issue commands by using different body shapes.
With a helpful motion guide, Google say that “movements are designed to be simple and intuitive for people of all skill levels”. Leaning to your left will go to your inbox, while bringing your right arm up to your head with a closed fist will reply to the email.
Unfortunately, if you click to try Gmail motion, you get the message, “Gmail Motion doesn’t actually exist. At least not yet… ”
Sir Richard Branson today released information about Virgin’s latest tourism-based business venture. Virgin news announced that the company has bought Pluto and will attempt to have it reinstated as a planet.
Sir Richard said: “Virgin has expanded into many territories over the years, but we have never had our own planet before. This could pave the way for a new age in space tourism.”
The company have even created a special vehicle – due to be launched this time next year – which they hope will be capable of ‘re-structuring’ Pluto by leaching on to asteroids and ‘bulking up’ the planet in order to reach the required planetary mass.
IGN reveal Harry Potter spin-off
IGN have created a trailer for an upcoming TV show that shows the gritty side of the Harry Potter universe. Called “The Aurors” it is about an elite unit of wizards fighting the most dangerous magical criminals across America.
IKEA Australia today announced their latest product as the ‘IKEA Hundstol’, also known as a highchair for dogs.
News of the product hit IKEA Australia’s facebook page, complete with a link to a Youtube video where an IKEA designer discusses the safety features of the ‘aesthetically pleasing’ chair.
British company ‘Micro Scooters’ announced their latest product to be the ‘Micro Zimmer’. This zimmer-frame-meets-skateboard is purposely built for adrenaline-seeking pensioners. The Micro scooter can allegedly reach speeds of up to 10MPH and is capable of preforming basic skating stunts such as the ‘bunny hop’ and ‘ollies’.
Designers took the needs of their target audience very seriously by building in useful features such as ‘a loud horn’, ‘glasses holders’ and ‘shopping bags’.
Qualcomm, an American wireless telecommunications research and development company, is behind viral Internet videos which surfaced this week appearing to show incidents of severe butterfly attacks in various locations across the USA.
The videos confront witty reports that their own prototype of Mirasol display is responsible for triggering aggression from the insects.
In acknowledgement of the upcoming royal wedding, BMW have announced a special Royal Edition of the BMW M3 Coupe which will apparently be available at BMW dealerships throughout the country from today and for one month only.
The special edition motor is available in three colours – Regal Red, Bridal White and Imperial Blue. This clever little prank is quite easy to fall for after seeing some of the quirky Royal Wedding memorabilia which has surfaced in the run up to the April event.
As can be seen in the press release, the classic M3 logo has been turned upside-down to read “Will”
Anyone interested in the car was asked to contact BMW via email at pauline.yorlegg@bmw.co.uk….
The puzzle that April Fool’s Day presents to cultural historians is that it was only during the eighteenth century that detailed references to it (and curiosity about it) began to appear. But at that time, the custom was already well established throughout northern Europe and was regarded as being of great antiquity. How had the tradition been adopted by so many different European cultures without provoking more comments in the written record?
References to April Fool’s Day can be found as early as the 1500s. However, these early references were infrequent and tended to be vague and ambiguous. Shakespeare, writing in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, made no mention of April Fool’s Day, despite being, as Charles Dickens Jr. put it, a writer who “delights in fools in general.”
Many theories have been put forward about how the tradition began. Unfortunately, none of them are very compelling. So the origin of the “custom of making April Fools” remains as much a mystery to us as it was back in 1708.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/April_Fools_Day_-_Origin/
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