The Best April Fools' Jokes
The whole world celebrates the Fool's Day
Olga Radko, New Region, 01.04.09
Who among us is not waiting for April 1 to prank someone from friends or acquaintances. This is the most "friendly" day of the year for pranks and jokes.
Where exactly this holiday comes from – from France, England, Mexico or Sweden – is a mystery, which, unfortunately, is shrouded in darkness.
There is an opinion that initially April 1 was celebrated in many countries as the day of the spring solstice. The festivities on the occasion of the spring solstice were always accompanied by jokes, pranks and funny antics, reports calend.ru .
Another, more common version of the origin of the "Day of Laughter" is associated with the transition of the Victorian calendar to the Gregorian. The fact is that the New Year, before Charles the Ninth reformed the calendar in France in the 16th century, was celebrated not on January 1, but at the end of March. Therefore, the New Year's Week began on March 25 and ended on April 1.
In those distant times, it was also customary to have fun on New Year's holidays. But, despite the changes in the calendar, some conservative-minded (and perhaps just ignorant) people continued to celebrate New Year's Week in the old style. Others laughed and made fun of them, presented "stupid" gifts and called April fools (April's Fools). And so the so-called "Day of Laughter" arose.
The holiday became widespread in the 18th century. The English, Scots and French spread it in their American colonies. On the "Day of Laughter" it was customary to make fun of each other, as well as to give each other pointless assignments, for example, to find and bring sweet vinegar.
The Day of Laughter came to Russia during the reign of Peter the Great . Once the residents of St. Petersburg were woken up by a fire alarm – as it turned out, a joke. The story has been preserved that when, on the first day of April, a troupe of German actors, instead of presenting, put up a poster on the stage with the inscription "April Fools", Peter I, who came to the performance, was not offended and only said: "The freedom of comedians."
For a long time, newspapers and magazines of the world, serious and not so serious, have been delighting readers with practical jokes on the first of April. Let's remember the most talented!
– In the April 1995 issue of Discovery magazine, "respected biologist" Dr. April Pazzo spoke about a new species of living creatures discovered in Antarctica: hot-headed naked worm-borers, which can, thanks to the high temperature of their own heads, get into the ice and hunt. Having melted the ice under the penguin, the worms wait for him to fall into the pit, and then devour him. Dr. Pazzo came to the conclusion that the polar explorer Philip Poisson, who disappeared in 1837, fell victim to worms because he looked like a penguin in his clothes. There were more responses to the article than in the entire history of the magazine.
– In 1962, there was only one TV channel in Sweden, of course, in black and white broadcasting. In the news on April 1, it was reported that the new technology will make the image color, but for this you need to put a nylon stocking on the screen. Hundreds of thousands of Swedes have put on. But real color television came to the country on April 1, 1970.
– In 1994, Pepsi announced that teenagers who get a tattoo with the company's logo on their ears will receive a lifetime 10% discount on Pepsi-Cola. There was no end of teenagers…
– In 1993, one of the German radio stations announced that new rules were being introduced for residents of the city of Kolonia: runners in the park should reach a speed of no more than 6 miles per hour, so as not to interfere with squirrels in the midst of squirrel mating season.
– The Greek Ministry of Culture reported in 1995 that the grave of Socrates, a vessel with the remains of a hemlock and a piece of leather were found. The head then hurt the French "France-Press", which quickly published the fake news.
– In 1981, the Daily Mail delighted its readers with a story about the Japanese long-distance runner Kimo Nakashimi, a participant in the London Marathon. It was said that the organizer of the competition did not know Japanese well and, explaining the rules to Kimo, ordered him to run 26 miles instead of 26 days. And he ran... Calls began to pour in: people reported that they had seen a marathon runner on the roads, but could not stop him. Who they really saw is a mystery: Mr. Nakashimi did not exist in nature.
– In 1992, the London Times reported that Belgium would soon be dissolved: the north of the country would join the Netherlands, and the south would join France. The joke caused such a wave of indignation that the British Foreign Minister explained himself on TV.
– In 1998, the Burger King fast food chain announced that it was selling sandwiches for lefties in which the filling would be turned 180 degrees. In the morning, demand exceeded supply, which, as it turned out, did not exist at all.
– In 1950, Danish television reported that the Leaning Tower of Pisa had finally fallen. Another time in Denmark, it was announced that the government has a new technology that allows you to detect unlicensed televisions. But if you wrap the TV with foil, it will not be "detected". In a few hours, all the foil was swept from the shelves of stores.
- 1990s, the Russian mafia is crowding the Italian mafia in the West. The whole world writes about the vagaries of Russian bandits. And when the Russian media reported on April 1 about grenades encrusted with diamonds, which will soon be sold to our gangsters to "kill beautifully", the American press rushed to denounce Russian lawlessness.
– In 1996, the Discovery magazine told about the accidental sensational discovery of a new elementary particle – the bigon. It exists for only millionths of a second, but when it materializes, it takes on the size of a bowling ball.
– In 1987, the Norwegian newspaper "Bergens Tidend" announced that 10 thousand liters of smuggled wine had been confiscated. Residents of Bergen were invited to the central store of the city so that everyone would receive their share of the seized goods. In the morning, sellers watched a crowd with bottles and cans at the door.
– An article was published in the scientific bulletin of the state of Alabama in 1998 that from now on in their advanced state the number of Pi would be equated to 3. There was no limit to the indignation of the whole world, as well as the number of Pi itself...
– In 1997, many received emails warning that the Internet was closed for general cleaning from March 31 to April 02. Five powerful Japanese robots will clean it. This joke is a version of an old prank about cleaning telephone lines: the owners of the phones were asked to attach garbage bags to the devices so that the dust would not scatter around the apartment.
– In 1994, the Russian media reported that the production of vodka in bars was beginning. With three flavors: lemon, coconut and pickle. There will also be another new product – soluble vodka in disposable bags.
– In 1984, a Florida newspaper told about a new pet - the Tasmanian walrus. A small creature that looks like a walrus, fluffy like a cat, and funny like a hamster, feeds on cockroaches and does not need washing, and therefore is ideal as a pet. It was also reported that the government is restraining the spread of walruses so that the cockroach control services will not be left without work.
– In 1995, the Irish Times newspaper wrote that the Walt Disney company was negotiating the purchase of the Moscow Mausoleum together with Lenin in order to install it in European Disneyland and equip it with color music inside, "reviving the pale face of the leader."
– In 2002, the Tesco chain of British supermarkets announced the appearance of a leaky whistling carrot on sale. Customers were promised that this genetically modified product would whistle through all its holes when cooked.
– On March 31, 1941, the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia) issued a press release that was broadcast on the radio: "The worst nightmares come true. Scientists predict that the end of the world will come tomorrow. The light will end at 3 p.m. This is not an April Fool's joke." The public reaction was immediate. Scientists claimed that they did not make any predictions. It turned out that the author of the prank was a press agent who was immediately fired from his job.
The British company "BBC" was particularly successful in the drawings. Her most famous (1957) TV report told how the Swiss harvest spaghetti from trees. It began like this: "Spring has come to Europe early today, so the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland will be removed earlier than usual..." About 200 spectators then asked questions about where to buy seedlings.
In 1973, the BBC warned about the spread of dangerous elm disease. The infection affects trees, but not only. Due to the similarity between the composition of the blood of red-haired people and the soils on which diseased trees grow, elm disease affects redheads: their hair turns yellow and leaves the head forever.
In 1976, British astronomer Patrick Moore, again on the BBC, told listeners that the unique opposition of the planets would ensure the absence of gravity on Earth at exactly 9.47 am. He invited everyone to jump up at exactly this time and experience "an extraordinary feeling of flight." Dozens of people called the radio to say: it worked!
In 1999, the BBC announced that the British anthem "God Save the Queen" was being changed to the European anthem, sung in German. Soon, Prince Charles's office called the radio and asked them to send a copy of the new anthem."
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru01.04.2009