![]() ![]() This holds doubly true of pranks on April Fool’s Day – a day in which you’re literally supposed to pull pranks.īut beyond merely being unfunny or predictable, many other pranks are just plain weird totally lacking even an attempt at what we know to be humour. What’s worse is that it’s very hard to make pranks feel unexpected by this point, and there is rarely an element of surprise. The article was apparently believed by a great many Met fans at the time, who seem like they might have been a desperate bunch in the pre Bill Buckner days if they were really buying that one. Plimpton claimed this phenom could throw the ball 168 mph without warming up, and only wore one shoe while pitching. Perhaps the best example could be found in the April 1st, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated, when George Plimpton wrote a full-length article about how the New York Mets were going to sign a reclusive Tibetan-trained yoga master named Sidd Finch. ![]() Long-form journalism has also gotten in on the act. “It’s about time someone started catering to left-handed people with the worst taste in food,” thought someone at the time – presumably. In 1996, Taco Bell took out an ad claiming it had bought Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, and would be renaming it “The Taco Liberty Bell.” Meanwhile, Burger King announced on April 1st, 1998, that they would be selling a Whopper specially designed for left-handed people. Soulless, corporate fast food chains aren’t above getting in on the wackiness either. Even the stiff upper lips at the BBC have given the network’s viewers a right proper pranking here and there, famously running a story in 1957 that taught viewers how to grow a “spaghetti tree,” and claiming that Big Ben’s face would be replaced by a digital clock in 1980. Infamous April Fool’s pranks have come from all kinds of unlikely sources. It’s therefore safe to assume thousands of Swedish women returned home that day to see that their husbands had attempted this sad undertaking, before quietly uttering something like “Oh Arvid … we need to talk.” It’s said that thousands of Swedes were tricked into giving this a try. Perhaps the most successful one occurred in 1962, when a Swedish television program reported that pulling a stocking over your black and white television set would transform the image to colour. However it began, April Fool’s Day has certainly given us an awful lot of well-known pranks over the years. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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