#25: 15th Annual New York City April Fool’s Day Parade
2000: A news release sent to the media stated that the 15th annual New York City April Fool's Day Parade was scheduled to begin at noon on 59th Street and would proceed down to Fifth Avenue. According to the release, floats in the parade would include a "Beat 'em, Bust 'em, Book 'em" float created by the New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle police departments. This float would portray "themes of brutality, corruption and incompetence." A "Where's Mars?" float, reportedly built at a cost of $10 billion, would portray missed Mars missions. Finally, the "Atlanta Braves Baseball Tribute to Racism" float would feature John Rocker who would be "spewing racial epithets at the crowd." CNN and the Fox affiliate WNYW sent television news crews to cover the parade. They arrived at 59th Street at noon only to discover that there was no sign of a parade, at which point the reporters realized they had been hoaxed. The prank was the handiwork of
Joey Skaggs, an experienced hoaxer. Skaggs had been issuing press releases advertising the nonexistent parade every April Fool's Day since 1986.
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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Yeah right creator of this April Fool's Joke. See u later u funny dude. This one isn't a very good one. See u real soon by the hair of my chinny chin chin... April Fool's Day.... Have a nice day u silly dude.
Posted by Sara Hillert in Saginaw ISD Transitions Center on Thu Apr 01, 2004 at 06:37 AM
this one is pretty stupid... get something people wanna hear about
Posted by Heather in Lakeland on Thu Apr 01, 2004 at 07:53 AM
the one where the rodio said the old twenty dollar bill would no longer be honered by the banks the new ones had come out in march
Posted by joe in un known on Thu Apr 01, 2004 at 07:57 AM
LOL, this is great! Especially since he was able to get them after 15 years of doing the exact same thing!
Posted by Jennifer on Thu Apr 01, 2004 at 09:33 AM
Why did you miss the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals in the late '60s or early '70s, which made news all over the world and was taken seriously by huge numbers of people who liked the idea of putting drawers on dogs and bras on cows? (It'sself-destruct name was calculated to show the wary that it was a hoax, but I pesonally just thought anybody stupid enough to want to dress animals would probably be linguistically challenged)
Martin F
Posted by Martin Fido in Massachusetts USA on Thu Apr 01, 2004 at 12:47 PM
I'm sick of all you pessimistic people's comments. If you hated it so bad then get a life and quit posting messages about how bad it was. April Fool's Day is supposed to be a silly day for jokes, not a day to hear all your crap.
Posted by Stephanee Dollarhide in Denver, CO on Thu Apr 01, 2004 at 03:56 PM
dumb ass reporters
Posted by yo on Fri Apr 02, 2004 at 09:43 AM
"dumb a** reporters"
Isn't that redundant?
Posted by Dan on Fri Apr 02, 2004 at 10:32 AM
This must be copied from WEBN in cincinnati. During the 80's when i was in college in cincy, they always broadcast the Fool's Parade every april 1, and covered it in detail, describing all the floats etc. They also always came out with a ton of fake commercials on that day for products from "Brute Force Cybernetics".
Posted by rob brown on Sat Apr 03, 2004 at 04:08 PM
I think this is great. Any chance to make media sensationalism look stupid, in my opinion, should be taken to whatever hoaxy heights people would like. So nerts to all of you stuffy-headed snobs who are too good to laugh at a "serious" joke.
Posted by Rebecca in New Haven on Sun Apr 04, 2004 at 11:30 PM
Classic. reporters need to be shown that they dont know it all sometimes
Posted by Lauren Hillmen in Tuscon,AZ on Thu Apr 22, 2004 at 01:14 PM
Sara, please report for a tubal ligation ASAP. We cannot risk your genetic material being passed on.
Posted by Major Tom on Fri Apr 01, 2005 at 12:09 AM
WEBN in Cincinnati has broadcast the Fools Day parade for years. Always on March 32nd for those of you with a good calendar.
Posted by JB in Cincinnati on Tue Apr 05, 2005 at 05:23 AM
Almost a year later, it's probably pointless for even me to respond to someone esle's comment, but Tom, why would you put Sara down considering she probably won't get your message??
Posted by Jennifer M. in Houston, Texas on Wed Mar 22, 2006 at 01:02 PM
Jennifer M, the put down is necessary because Sara is a moron.
Posted by Alex on Mon Apr 03, 2006 at 01:59 AM
April 1 has passed. Get a life.
Posted by Johnny Boy in Minnesota on Mon Apr 03, 2006 at 10:52 AM
The one thing that makes this hoax hilarious is that it is a hoax about a hoax parade, giving the reporters a hoax about a parade of hoaxes.
Posted by Jacob Woelmer on Tue Apr 04, 2006 at 07:16 PM
In Miami, Florida a parade like the one advertised for this hoax is actually held in the streets of Coconut Grove at the end of December every year. It's called the King Mango Strut as a spoof of the old King Orange Jamboree Parade that used to be held in downtown Miami's Biscayne Boulevard on New Year's Eve. The King Mango Strut makes totally irreverent and politically-incorrect fun of events, news, and famous personalities of government, business and entertainment with themes very similar to the ones in the hoax New York parade.
Posted by Jose in Miami, Florida on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 07:48 AM
No way, Jose!
Sorry, I've just always wanted to say that, but I've never met anybody named Jose.
I don't know whether or not your story of the King Mango Strut is true, but it sounds like a good April Fool's joke!
Posted by Jesse in Toronto, Ontario on Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 11:02 AM
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