Additional
April Fool's Day Content
April Fool's Day Content
Site Map
April Fool Categories
April Fool: Recurring Pranks
April Fool: Regions
April Fool: Perpetrators
April Fool: Serial Corporate Pranksters
April Fool: Settings
April Fool's Day Archive, Contents:
| Before 1900: | Origin of April Fool's Day | 1700-1799 | 1800-1899 |
| Early 1900s: | 1900 | 1901 | 1915 | 1919 | 1920 | 1923 | 1925 |
| 1930s & 40s: | 1933 | 1934 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1940 | 1949 |
| 1950s & 60s: | 1950 | 1957 | 1959 | 1960 | 1962 | 1965 | 1969 |
| 1970s: | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
| 1980s: | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
| 1990s: | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| 2000s: | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| 2010s: | 2010 | 2011 |
category
British April Fool's Day Hoaxes
British April Fool's Day Hoaxes
Buckingham Palace For Rent (2009)
Holidaylettings.co.uk posted the following listing for Buckingham Palace on its site:This stunning accommodation offers deluxe living in the heart of England's capital city. A gated property with secure parking and armed guards, this is the perfect property to relax in complete luxury. Exquisitely furnished with many priceless antiques, royal collections and rare artefacts. 400 people work at the Palace to cater to your every need, including domestic servants, chefs, footmen, cleaners, plumbers, gardeners, chauffeurs, electricians, and two people who look after the 300 clocks.
The palace consists of 19 state rooms, 600 bedrooms and 78 bathrooms. There is an adequate sized banquet hall to entertain your guests in the evening and a throne room which is an unusual but popular additional feature.
The owners do reside in the property but are discreet and are available should you require any assistance. They also own other properties throughout the United Kingdom. Please contact them for further details.
The palace consists of 19 state rooms, 600 bedrooms and 78 bathrooms. There is an adequate sized banquet hall to entertain your guests in the evening and a throne room which is an unusual but popular additional feature.
The owners do reside in the property but are discreet and are available should you require any assistance. They also own other properties throughout the United Kingdom. Please contact them for further details.
| Categories: National Landmarks, Businesses, United Kingdom, 2009. |
Helium-Filled Chocolate Bars (2009)
Candy shop A Quarter Of announced it would soon be selling the Chokle, a chocolate bar filled with helium gas. it's a chocolate bar that tastes great, makes you squeak and makes everyone else laugh... pure genius! Take a small bite and your voice goes up a little, eat a whole bar in a single mouthful and you approach your maximum Mickey Mouse squeakiness!
| Categories: Food and Drink, Businesses, United Kingdom, 2009, Fictitious Products. |
Silent Crisps (2009)
The Daily Mail revealed that Walkers Crisps had designed noise-free crisps, to be marketed as "Ready Silent Cri-sshhp." They would allow people to "eat loud snacks in the cinema without disturbing the person next to you." The crisp was said to have "the same flavour and crunchiness, except it comes already crushed." The snack food firm has been working with acoustics experts at the London Institute of Sound Performance (LISP) to produce the 'silent' crisp. LISP says that research showed 90pc of the loud crunching noise associated with a packet of crisps comes from the first bite. If successful they will be rolled out in the UK, Europe and in the Middle East through Walker's partner Deloof Neeb Evuoy.
| Categories: Food and Drink, Newspapers, United Kingdom, 2009, Fictitious Products, Daily Mail. |
Pinanas (2009)
British supermarket chain Waitrose placed ads in newspapers announcing the availability of a new fruit, the pinana (a combination of pineapple and banana). The text of the ad read:Pinanas. Fresh in today and exclusive to Waitrose. If you find that all Waitrose pinanas have sold out, don't worry, there's 50% off our essential Waitrose strawberries."
| Categories: Botany, Food and Drink, Businesses, United Kingdom, 2009. |
Tartan Sheep (2009)
The London Times ran a photo of "tartan sheep" said to have been bred by Grant Bell of West Barns, East Lothian. However, the Times warned, "Before you complain of being fleeced, check out the baa-code for today's date."
| Categories: Animals, Newspapers, United Kingdom, 2009, Photo Hoaxes, London Times. |
Flying Penguins (2008)
The BBC announced that camera crews filming near the Antarctic for its natural history series Miracles of Evolution had captured footage of Adélie penguins taking to the air. It even offered a video clip of these flying penguins, which became one of the most viewed videos on the internet. Presenter Terry Jones explained that, instead of huddling together to endure the Antarctic winter, these penguins took to the air and flew thousands of miles to the rainforests of South America where they "spend the winter basking in the tropical sun." A follow-up video explained how the BBC created the special effects of the flying penguins.
| Categories: Animals, Birds, Television, United Kingdom, 2008, BBC. |
YouTube UK and Australia "rickrolled" their visitors, rickrolling being a popular bait-and-switch-style prank in which people are baited into clicking on a link that sends them to a video of 1980s pop singer Rick Astley singing his hit Never Gonna Give You Up. All the "featured video" links on YouTube's front page sent people to a rickroll page set up by YouTube under the user name YTRickRollsYou. Over 7 million people were rickrolled by the site. (YouTube is owned by Google.)
| Categories: Music, Businesses, Websites, Australia, United Kingdom, 2008, Internet, Bait and Switch, Google. |
Dogs on Ice (2008)
The Daily Mirror reported that online bookmaker Blue Square, inspired by the popularity of ITV's Dancing On Ice and trying to boost the popularity of greyhound racing, had organized a "Dogs on Ice" event:There have been concerns that the new sport might be in some way cruel, although reports from trial runs, suggest that the dogs really love it. They have to wear special non-slip shoes, but there have still been occasions when one has slid into the crash barriers which ring the track. Organisers are talking to animal rights activists to get them on board before the big launch."
| Categories: Animals, Sports, Newspapers, United Kingdom, 2008. |
The Derbyshire Fairy (2007)
Images of an 8-inch mummified creature resembling a fairy were posted on the website of the Lebanon Circle Magik Co. Accompanying text explained how the creature had been found by a man walking his dog along an old roman road in rural Derbyshire. Word of this discovery soon spread around the internet. Bloggers excitedly speculated about whether the find was evidence of the actual existence of fairies. The Lebanon Circle website received tens of thousands of visitors and hundreds of emails. But at the end of the day, Dan Baines, the owner of the site, confessed that the fairy was a hoax. He had used his skills as a magician’s prop-maker to create the creature. Baines later reported that, despite his confession, he continued to receive numerous emails from people who refused to accept the fairy wasn’t real. He later sold the fairy to an American collector for £280.
| Categories: Fictitious Creatures, Websites, United Kingdom, 2007, Internet. |
iPop Bra (2006)
PopXpress, a UK chain of stores dedicated to iPod and MP3 accessories, unveiled the iPop Bra, a product designed to help people keep "abreast of music":The new bra incorporates a concealed pocket for your iPod or MP3 player and control buttons built into the fabric. Available in white or black and in cup sizes ranging from A to F, the ipopBra has been designed so you can keep the smallest of gadgets right next to your biggest assets.
| Categories: Fashion, Music, Technology, Businesses, United Kingdom, 2006, Fictitious Products, Internet. |
Chip and Sing Cards (2006)
The London Times reported that "Britain's banks are developing a system of credit card security that uses the voice's tonal range. Rather than needing to recall a PIN, you will need to remember a line of a song... Optical scans are too fallible, and standard voice recognition too easy to mimic electronically. But no two people sing the same way. Tills and cash dispensers are to have microphones."
| Categories: Music, Technology, Newspapers, United Kingdom, 2006, Banks, London Times. |
On a Tea Break (2006)
Holiday-makers flying back to Britain from Tenerife were told by their pilot that they could not land because an air traffic controller was on a tea break. The passengers initially thought his announcement was an April Fool's Day joke, but it wasn't. The plane had to circle for almost half an hour before the air traffic controller came back to work.
| Categories: Mistaken for April Fools, United Kingdom, 2006. |
Slow Camera Avoidance (2006)
BMW warned that "Slow Cameras" would soon be installed on British roads to photograph drivers who were driving below the minimum speed limit. To help drivers avoid detection, BMW engineers had devised a ZIP (Zoom Impression Pixels) coating that covered the exterior of the car:If you are travelling below the speed limit in range of a Slow Camera, sensors around the car detect the camera and the pixels immediately become blurred. This gives the impression of higher velocity and the Slow Camera is fooled into thinking the car is traveling at the correct speed.
BMW's Head of Mandate Avoidance, Hans Uphoo-Gotit, reassured consumers that ZIP technology would have no effect on normal speed cameras.
| Categories: Traffic and Transportation, Cars, Businesses, United Kingdom, 2006, BMW. |
Jackass Penguin (2006)
The Sun ran a photo of a penguin wandering along the banks of the Thames. "It is believed to be the first time a penguin has been spotted in the Thames — and comes weeks after tragic Wally the Whale got stranded... Experts said the penguin, normally seen at the South Pole, may have been released into UK waters by fishermen who accidentally snared him... Marine biologist Lil Faroop said: 'It looks like a Jackass. They feed on sprats and fly through the water at five miles (eight kilometres) per hour. They have a donkey-like bray.'"| Categories: Animals, Birds, Newspapers, United Kingdom, 2006. |
The Daily Mail reported that Tony Blair, in a "literally incredible break with decades of tradition," had decided to paint the door of 10 Downing Street red. "After 270 years, Blair paints No. 10 front door socialist red."
| Categories: Government, Politics, Newspapers, United Kingdom, 2006, Daily Mail. |