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In honor of the ultimate April Fools joke I'm planning for my mom-in-law..

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wyldwolf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-05 08:19 PM
Original message
In honor of the ultimate April Fools joke I'm planning for my mom-in-law..
... (we're going to tell her we're either going to name our baby Elvis or Lisa Marie...)

I give you...

Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time!

For example...

#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in, and many called up wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." Check out the actual broadcast archived on the BBC's website (You need the RealVideo player installed to see it, and it usually loads very slowly).

#4: The Taco Liberty Bell
In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought the Liberty Bell from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called up the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell is housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed that it was all a practical joke a few hours later. The best line inspired by the affair came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale, and he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold, though to a different corporation, and would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

#6: Nixon for President
In 1992 National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech. Listeners responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding the show with calls expressing shock and outrage. Only during the second half of the show did the host John Hockenberry reveal that the announcement was a practical joke. Nixon's voice was impersonated by comedian Rich Little.

#7: Alabama Changes the Value of Pi
The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the 'Biblical value' of 3.0. Before long the article had made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly made its way around the world, forwarded by people in their email. It only became apparent how far the article had spread when the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The original article, which was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, was written by a physicist named Mark Boslough.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/
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CaliforniaPeggy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-05 08:26 PM
Response to Original message
1. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!
These are wonderful stories! I've heard some of them before, but not all...And I LOVE the idea you have for your mother-in-law! Hope she can take it! Do let us know, won't you?

:hi:

:thumbsup:
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pres2032 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-30-05 08:36 PM
Response to Original message
2. surprised they don't have the one my local paper did
they reported that the USS Liberty was leaving Philly was going to move up the Delaware River. Thousands of people turned out to watch the ship pass by only to be of course disapointed.
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