What are some of your most memorable April Fools Day Pranks?

Locally Mike Cooper's someone is out to kill me prank comes to mind, but I haven't fact checked that one to see if it was done on April 1st...I do remember listening to Pete and Geets while on air at CFNY...refused to leave the studio and were on air until 6 pm...

Here are a few classic media April Fools Day pranks, Please share and our comment on what your favourite media moments were on this the 1st of April...oh shit, that reminds me, my rent cheque is due!

Here below are a few of the best April Fools Day Pranks...


Cheers!


April 1, 1957: As usual, the BBC broadcast its highly regarded current affairs program, Panorama, narrated by the distinguished broadcaster, the late Richard Dimbleby.
 
It should be remembered that in 1957 spaghetti was not a widely-eaten food in the UK and considered an exotic delicacy.
 
In a three-minute segment, the program featured a family from Ticino in Switzerland, carrying out their annual spaghetti harvest. It showed women carefully picking strands of spaghetti from a tree and laying them in the sun to dry.


Picking spaghetti during the harvest ... The BBC’s classic April Fool's Day joke in 1957.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEqp0x6ajGE

Dimbleby told viewers that the end of March is a very anxious time for spaghetti harvesters all over Europe as severe frost can impair the flavour of the spaghetti. He also explained how each strand of spaghetti always grows to the same length thanks to years of hard work by generations of growers.
 
Some viewers called the BBC to find out where they could get their own spaghetti bushes. This prank is voted the all-time best by website Museum of Hoaxes.
 
 
April 1, 1962: Sweden’s SVT (Sveriges Television) brought its technical expert, Kjell Stensson, onto the news to inform the public that, thanks to new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display colour reception. At the time, there was only the one TV channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white, so this was major news.

Instant colour TV in Sweden in 1962

Stensson explained that all viewers had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their TV screen, and the mesh would cause the light to bend in such a way that it would appear as if the image was in colour. He proceeded to demonstrate the process.

Thousands of people were taken in.

A serious segment on the main news bulletin ... 'Technical expert' Kjell Stensson shows how to place a nylon stocking over a TV screen to view colour images. Picture: YouTube / Web GrabSource:YouTube
Many Swedes today still report remembering their fathers rushing through the house trying to find stockings to place over the TV set. Regular colour broadcasts began in Sweden on April 1, 1970.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZa3Xrc1eqU


 
April 1, 1978: “We are going to float an iceberg from Antarctica into Sydney Harbour, ”said adventurer and entrepreneur Dick Smith. He added that when the iceberg reached the harbour he was going to carve it into small ice cubes and sell them as ultra pure “Dicksicles”, which he promised would improve the flavour of any drink.
The "iceberg" being towed into Sydney Harbour ... Dick Smith's most famous April Fool's Day prank. Picture: Sydney Opera House / Facebook Courtesy: Museum of Hoaxes / Lost SydneySource:Facebook
Slowly the iceberg made its way into the harbour. Radio stations provided blow-by-blow coverage of the scene. Only when the iceberg was well into the harbour was its revealed as a prank. It started to rain, and the firefighting foam and shaving cream that the iceberg was really made of washed away, uncovering the white plastic sheets beneath.

 
 
 
April 1, 2008: The Flying Penguins documentary, hosted by Monty Python star Terry Jones, was an episode of the BBC’s natural history series, Miracles of Evolution. It showed remarkable footage of penguins flying — camera crews had discovered a colony of Adélie penguins while filming on King George Island, 1200km south of the Falkland Islands.

His name should have been a clue ... Terry Jones (bottom left) with fellow Monty Python members Terry Gilliam (top left), John Cleese (top right) and Michael Palin.Source:News Limited
“We’d been watching the penguins and filming them for days, without a hint of what was to come,” Jones said in publicity before the show.

“But then the weather took a turn for the worse. It was quite amazing. Rather than getting together in a huddle to protect themselves from the cold, they did something quite unexpected, that no other penguins can do.”
Jones said the penguins took to the air and flew thousands of kilometres to the rainforests of South America where they “spend the winter basking in the tropical sun.”

It was used to promote the BBC iPlayer and the video is one of the most watched on the internet.
Flying Penguins - April Fool's Day prank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfWzp7rYR4
 


 

Last edited by Muffaraw Joe (April 1, 2017 3:25 am)