Don’t Be An April Fool!

Do you always fall for April Fools pranks? You really do have to have your wits about you on that day don’t you? Every newspaper, TV station and website likes to try and fool us on April 1^st. I always forget it actually is April 1^st and always fall for something when I’m checking my emails in the morning before I’m properly awake!

There have been some brilliant jokes for April Fools Day over the years. Are you old enough to remember the spaghetti tree? It’s perhaps the most famous April Fools Day joke ever. It was way back in 1957. Panorama did a feature on the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. Workers were seen picking the spaghetti hanging from the trees.  It seems a bit silly now, but the BBC received hundreds of calls from people wanting to know how to grow spaghetti in their own gardens!

Or how about the 1976 prank on Radio 2? Astronomer Patrick Moore explained that there was going to be a rare astronomical event. Due to Pluto passing behind Jupiter, the earth’s gravity was going to change for a moment. He told listeners to jump in the air at the exact moment and they would feel as if they were floating momentarily. Hundreds of people actually rang in to say it had worked!

On 1^st April 1998, Burger King put a full page advert in USA Today advertising their new left-handed whopper. Thousands of people went into the restaurants asking for one!

In 1980 the BBC reported that Big Ben was going to change to a digital clock. This caused an outrage and people were protesting!

Then there was the time when Speedy Reg announced that they were going to sell private registration plates for just £40. Oh hang on a second, that was actually no joke and plates really do start from £40!

So now we’ve reminded you of some classic April Fools jokes, hopefully it remind you not to fall for a prank. Take everything you see or read on April 1^st with a pinch of salt and double check everything before you pass it on or you’ll be the fool this April! Why not come up with your own prank and see if you can trick your friends and family? Let us know if you manage it!