12 incredible April Fool’s Day pranks from history
Here are 12 rather elaborate pranks that have well and truly gone down in the historical hall of fame.
Image: In 1980, BBC World Service announced that 'Big Ben' would be renamed 'Digital Dave' | Shutterstock.com
Playing a light-hearted joke on our friends and family on 1st April is one thing. But here are 12 rather more elaborate pranks that have well and truly gone down in the historical hall of fame.
1. The great spaghetti harvest
In 1957, the BBC pulled off what still ranks as one of the most famous April Fool’s Day gags of all time. Eight million people tuned in to watch Panorama’s three-minute feature on the ‘Swiss spaghetti harvest’.
After an unseasonably warm winter brought an end to their dreadful spaghetti weevil pest control issue, the region of Ticino near the Italian border was said to have yielded an ‘exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop’. The footage showed people picking strands of spaghetti off trees and bushes before tucking into their home-grown feast.
The prank occurred long before pasta became a staple in the average British diet, making the audience ripe for the picking. When viewers phoned in to find out how they could purchase their own spaghetti trees, the BBC told them to ‘place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best’.
2. The washing of the lions
It was in 1698 that people were first tricked into attending the ‘washing of the lions’ at the Tower of London. That makes it one of the oldest-known pranks in the historical record, and it would be repeated multiple times during the 18th and 19th centuries.
One iteration occurred in 1848 when a journalist distributed cards inviting the public to the washing of the lions. As an onlooker wrote: ‘I was not prepared for the extraordinary credulity of the British Public. They flocked up in shoals to see the lions washed. The warders were almost at their wits’ end. They had the bits of pasteboard flourished in their faces, with angry gestures and angrier imprecations, by the indignant crowd of sight-seers and seekers.’
3. Big Ben goes digital
In 1980, the BBC World Service announced that London’s most famous landmark was getting a facelift. The broadcaster told listeners that, to help tourists tell the time, the Big Ben clocktower would be going digital, and would henceforth be known as ‘Digital Dave’.
The new and improved monument wouldn’t just tell the time – it would also issue a five-minute news bulletin every night. On top of that, the iconic bongs would be replaced with beeps. While some listeners clocked that this was an April Fool’s jest, many others rang in to express their outrage. A BBC spokesperson commented: ‘Surprisingly, few people thought it was funny.'
4. The incredible colour television hack
In 1962, years before colour television was rolled out in Sweden, viewers of Sveriges Television were tricked into believing they could transform their black and white screens with an easy DIY hack.
Kjell Stensson, a ‘technical expert’, went into intricate detail on how stretching a mesh sheet over their screens could bend the light’s wavelengths, allowing viewers to see in full technicolour. Luckily, this could be easily achieved with an item found in many homes: nylon stockings. As it was the only TV network in Sweden at the time, enjoying the trust of the population, thousands of people fell for it.
5. The Jovian-Plutonian effect
Renowned astronomer and beloved presenter of The Sky at Night, Patrick Moore, had the credibility and stern air of authority which allowed him to pull off a prank that was out of this world. In 1976, Moore told radio listeners that, due to a rare planetary alignment of Pluto and Jupiter, the Earth would experience a shift in its gravitational forces that morning, allowing them to float into the air.
At precisely 9:47am, Moore instructed the listeners to ‘Jump now!’. Within minutes, calls were coming in reporting that they had felt the impact of the Jovian-Plutonian effect. One caller claimed that she and her eleven friends had ‘orbited gently around the room’. Another complained that he had risen so high that he hit his head on the ceiling and demanded compensation.
6. Edison’s miraculous machine
In the year following his invention of the phonograph in 1877, the New York Graphic jumped on the opportunity to trick their readers into thinking Thomas Edison had created a new machine capable of turning dirt into meat and water into wine.
‘Edison invents a machine that will feed the human race!’
ran the sensational headline. It was, of course, a total fabrication. The writer even admitted this at the end of the article, concluding that he woke up and it was all a dream. This didn’t stop several American newspapers from reprinting the story believing it to be true. In their next edition, the Graphic condemned the ‘hasty reading’ by their gullible audience under the tongue-in-cheek caption: ‘They Bite’.
7. The volcanic eruption that wasn’t
One of the most audacious pranks of all time was the fake eruption of the Mount Edgecumbe volcano in Alaska. It was carried out not by a media outlet, but by a local logger named Oliver ‘Porky’ Bickar and was a hoax years in the making. Bickar diligently collected 70 tyres which he stashed away in an airplane hangar, waiting for an April Fool’s Day with clear enough skies and the right weather conditions to pull off his plan.
That day came in 1974 when Bickar used a chartered helicopter to deposit the tyres into the volcano’s crater. He then doused them with fuel and set them alight, causing a satisfyingly thick and ominous plume of smoke to billow up.
Local townsfolk rushed into the streets, fearful that the long-dormant volcano was going to blow. While the police and fire service were in on the joke, Bickar had forgotten to inform the Coast Guard. They flew over to inspect the situation, but instead of seeing molten lava, they saw the old tires ablaze, surrounded by giant spray-painted letters reading ‘APRIL FOOL’.
8. The Norwegian wine hoax
The 1950 Norwegian wine surplus hoax went down in history as a clever example of how to build a top-shelf prank out of everyday plausibility. It all started with an announcement in Aftenposten, Norway's largest printed newspaper. The headline? Vinmonopolet (the country’s government-owned wine retailer) had a surplus of wine and nowhere to store it. It called on Norwegians to bring whatever they had on hand to capitalise on heavily discounted wine. They answered the call in droves and turned up with buckets, bottles, and really, anything short of a bathtub.
This one worked so well because it played on the genuine postwar wine shortage. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a good freebie? There’s also the element of a trusted broadcaster speaking in a calm, confident voice that says, ‘Yes, this improbable thing is definitely real.’ Can you blame the Norwegians for falling for it?
9. The Dublin to Drogheda train route
What’s an April Fool’s countdown without a nod to the Dublin to Drogheda gem? This stroke of genius is proof that if you offer people something for free, they will at least consider it. It dates to 1844 and saw posters appear around Dublin advertising free, return train rides to Drogheda (a rather uninspiring industrial port town on the east coast of Ireland) on 1st April.
Railway travel still had that modern sheen, so the offer drew a crowd. The snag? There was no free ride. The scene reportedly turned chaotic when the truth emerged, with frustrated would-be passengers up in arms and railway staff stuck in the middle.
10. Tricky Dicky, one more time
By 1992, the trusted voice that spurred so many public April Fool’s pranks had moved from print sources like newspapers and posters to radio. That year, NPR’s Talk of the Nation show aired a spoof announcement that former U.S. president Richard Nixon was running again. It even included an interview with Nixon. Except the voice listeners heard was actually impressionist Rich Little.
Like so many pranks before it, the trick worked because Nixon was already in the public eye. After the whole Watergate Scandal and high-profile resignation in 1974, the headline “Richard Nixon is back” sounds absurd. But also…for a split second you can see why people bought it.
11. Flying penguins on the BBC
And then we get to the BBC’s flying penguins. Aka a masterclass in slick presentation. In 2008, the BBC released a glossy clip showing Adélie penguins soaring through the air and migrating from Antarctica to the South American rainforest. It was narrated by legendary Welsh actor Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) and produced with the kind of serious, David Attenborough-inspired nature documentary grandeur that makes people trust what they’re seeing. That’s a powerful kind of credibility to borrow for what, in hindsight, was a bit of an absurd joke.
12. A taco-themed Liberty Bell
The Taco Bell Liberty Bell stunt from 1996 is maybe the sharpest example here of a prank built around cultural mood. On 1st April, the fast-food chain ran newspaper ads claiming it had bought the Liberty Bell to help reduce the U.S. national debt. They didn’t stop at that. The ads also announced that the monument would now be called the ‘Taco Liberty Bell’. It stirred up a whole lot of controversy to say the least. But as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity!
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