• From bait-and-switch lunch pranks to ¬¬¬¬¬¬a man who faked a volcanic eruption, we count
eight insane April Fool’s Day pranks!
8 • What could be worse than seeing a gross
cockroach scuttle across the floor of your home?
Well, how about finding out a family of them have taken up residence under your lampshades?
That’s the idea behind this arty, crafty – and also very sneaky – DIY April Fool’s
prank.
• Simply print the cockroach-shaped template on some paper or cardboard then stick them
to the underside of your lampshade.
Ask an unsuspecting guest or family member to turn the lamp on for you and – voilà!
– change of underwear required!
• The templates also come in spider flavour for arachnophobes.
7 • Unless it’s a metaphor for ejaculation,
there’s nothing all that funny about volcanic eruptions.
At least not to a normal person.
They pretty much just cause death and destruction.
• Still, on April 1st, 1974, Alaskan man Porky Bickar thought it would be hilarious
to scare his neighbours by simulating an eruption.
He secretly flew hundreds of old tyres into the crater of the nearby dormant volcano,
Mount Edgecumbe.
Clouds of black smoke poured from the crater and everyone in town was scared shitless,
fearing an eruption.
• Eventually it came out that the whole thing was a hoax.
It’s amazing the townspeople didn’t throw Porky in there as payback.
But they did think he was responsible when another volcano, Mount St. Helens, erupted
six years later.
Come on, Porky, didn’t your mother ever teach you not to cry wolf or throw fucking
tyres into volcanoes?
6 • On April 1st 2000, a company called Esporta
Health Clubs unveiled a revolutionary new weight loss product called ‘FatSox’.
These magical socks promised to suck body fat out of sweating feet and ‘banish fat
forever’.
Yes!
So long, cankles!
• Naturally, the target demographic rejoiced.
I mean, at that point they’d tried every quick-fix solution out there.
They’d almost resorted to eating better and going for a walk.
Talk about a close call…
• The man behind this product, Professor Frank Ellis Elgood, made some sciencey claims
about the magic material, FloraAstraTetrazine.
But it was all bullshit.
Poor overweight people in the New Millennium…
They were probably still getting over their Y2K fears, and now this.
At least pizza never lies to you… 5
• If someone at your workplace has an out-of-control doughnut habit, why not spoil their day with
a big box of disappointment?
• This classic lunchtime bait and switch involves buying the biggest, most delicious-looking
box of doughnuts and replacing each one with a doughnut’s exact opposite: broccoli!
Tell the person you picked this sweet treat up for them and watch as anticipation turns
to crushing disappointment!
• If you’re on the receiving end of this prank and want some revenge, try eating all
that broccoli in one sitting.
Stick close to your prankster’s work station all day and let rip your meanest broccoli
farts.
Revenge has never smelt worse.
4 • Here’s further proof that humanity is
mostly made up of gullible idiots.
You wouldn’t need an electrified fooling machine to fool this lot.
• On April 1st 1998, Burger King published a full-page ad in USA Today announcing its
newest burger: the Left-Handed Whopper.
According to the ad, it had been strategically designed so condiments would drip out the
right side.
The ridiculous ad fooled hundreds, with many restaurants reporting orders for the new Lefty
Whopper.
• This one’s a little more forgivable.
On the same day in 1962, Sweden’s only TV channel had their resident ‘tech expert’
Kjell Stensson go onto the air and explain to viewers that they could easily convert
their black and white televisions into colour.
• All they had to do was take a nylon stocking, of all things, and stretch it over the box.
Stensson demonstrated this live on air, but since everyone was watching in black and white
they kind of had to take his word for it.
• The next day thousands of women went out and bought new nylons.
You can’t really blame them, though.
At the time colour TV was still some crazy sci-fi technology, and it’s not like they
could’ve Googled the truth!
3 • If you think the world of academia is
a dull, dry place where practical jokes are frowned upon … you’d be right!
Except, of course, on April 1st, when anything goes!
• One professor exhibited this spirit of mischief by printing fake notices with the
official University of Cambridge letterhead on them.
The notices read ‘Please note: the door access system has been upgraded to include
voice recognition.
Speak your name towards the card reader to gain entry’.
• This meant hundreds of scarf-wearing eggheads would’ve began their day speaking to a wall.
But don’t feel too bad, guys.
Sometimes talking to inanimate objects is the only way to have an intelligent conversation.
I’m sure they could’ve twisted it to find some academic merit.
Pretend they were participants in a social experiment, or some shit.
2 • I’m sure everyone’s fantasized about
going to cool fictional places like Westeros, Mordor, Neverland or that damn island from
Lost.
Well, that’s okay; at least you know they aren’t real – unlike the gullible readers
of The Guardian newspaper!
• That’s right, on April Fool’s Day 1977, The Guardian writers tricked hundreds
of recreational holidayers into enquiring about an island they had completely made up.
Their seven-page prank described a small republic called San Serriffe, which was made up of
semi-colon-shaped islands.
• The articles described the obscure region’s geography, culture, capital and national leader.
Each detail was named after a printing terminology, so only publishing nerds saw through it.
• The Guardian’s phones rang all day as readers sought more information about this
idyllic holiday spot.
The hoax was so successful that it made April Fool’s Day pranks a tradition for British
tabloids. 1
• While some music stars are self-serious assholes, others get into the April Fool’s
spirit by trolling their audience.
• For instance, in 2011, Nineties heartthrobs Hanson announced they had no Mmmbops left
to give and would reinvent themselves with an album of Slipknot covers.
Unfortunately, it never came about.
Was probably too fucking hardcore for this world.
• In 2010, rap stars Drake and Nicki Minaj trolled their Twitter fans with a fake marriage
announcement.
Many people were fooled – even though the pair hadn’t even dated.
The next day they fake-annulled their fake union, giving their crazed fans emotional
whiplash.
Celebrities usually take marriage so seriously…
• Coldplay have twice trolled their fanbase: once with a fake fragrance called ‘Angst
by Coldplay’, and the other time claiming they were recording their next album aboard
a Boeing 727 in zero gravity.
Chris Martin said, with a straight face, that zero gravity was needed to record the perfect
snare drum sound.
At the time Coldplay were working with eccentric producer Brian Eno, who is known for pretentious
gimmicks.
Because of this the ridiculous claim was
actually plausible.