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Get inspired for next April Fool's
© by Mike Keenan 
Now that April has finally arrived and April Fool's Day has just passed, it's safe to describe the top hoaxes of all time. It would not have been fair to impart this information earlier because it might have destroyed your creativity. You would be inclined to simply reproduce one of these wonderful jokes.
The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest of 1957 leads the pack. A respected BBC News show announced that due to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. The funny part was that they showed footage of Swiss peasants pulling long strands of spaghetti down from the trees. Many viewers were taken in. The BBC received calls asking how to grow spaghetti trees. Think of the fun you can have with your senior friends next April Fools. Point out some strange-looking growth in your garden and identify it as a spaghetti tree or lasagna bush or penne shrub. I for one, would be fooled. I still don't know if a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable. Next is the Sidd Finch story printed by Sports Illustrated in 1985. Sidd was a rookie pitcher reporting to the Mets. He threw a baseball at 168 m.p.h. with amazing accuracy. Never before playing the game, Sidd mastered the "art of the pitch" at a Tibetan monastery. The Mets fans responded with waves of joy demanding to know more about young Sidd. You can try this on your senior friends, but it doesn't have to focus on baseball. You and your spouse spent a week in a Tibetan monastery and you learned how to... make up a ridiculous outcome such "predict the rise and fall of the TSX" or "how to turn animal fat into nutritious vegetarian snacks." Keep a straight face. In 1962, there was only one TV station in Sweden in black and white. A station technical expert advised viewers they could convert their black and white sets to colour by pulling a nylon stocking over their sets. Thousands were taken in. Hmm. I think we've already been exposed to a TV hoax, the assertion that there are 100's of channels out there with great content. Hard to believe. In 1996, Taco Bell announced that it has purchased the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and that they were renaming it the "Taco Liberty Bell" Outraged citizens phoned in complaints. You can fool your friends by a similar name change, for example the Ford dealer buying the Lincoln Memorial and changing its name to the "Ford, Lincoln Mercury Memorial." Try to go with a Canadian theme for example The Royal Canadian Un-mounted Police because they no longer use horses. In 1977, The Guardian in Britain published a seven-page supplement devoted to Sans Seriffe, a small republic said to consist of several semi-colon-shaped islands located in the Indian Ocean. Its two main islands were Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse; the capital was Bodoni; and its leader was General Pica, all printing terms. The Guardian's phones never stopped ringing with people trying to discover more information about this holiday spot. All you have to do here is borrow terminology from a handy source, a medical encyclopedia, or curling handbook or perhaps a cookbook. In 1998, Burger King published a full-page ad in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to its menu, a "left-handed Whopper" designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. The ingredients were the same, but the condiments were rotated 180 degrees. Thousands ordered the new burger and thousands demanded the right-handed version. Wow. Think what you could do with this! You could have a dinner party with special arrangements for left-handed friends or you could encourage table manner parity in your family by having right-handers eat with their left hands and vice versa. The table setting offers unlimited opportunities. Besides I can never remember where the fork and spoon and knife go anyway. You have less than a year to get ready for next April Fools. Get started. |
