![]() ![]() The day is devoted to pranks and practical jokes, encouraging everyone from your younger siblings to the national media to try to pull a fast one. ![]() Highlights include redirecting every video on the homepage of YouTube to a performance of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” in 2008, and the ability to capture Pokémon in Google Maps in 2014 – a concept which led to the birth of Pokémon Go.Love it or hate it, April Fools’ Day rolls around each year to the fanfare of pranksters everywhere. Google is well known for engaging in April Fools’ Day pranks, and has done one every year since 2000 – with the exception of 20, when it cancelled its joke due to the Covid pandemic, instead urging employees to contribute to relief efforts. More recently, Taco Bell has managed to convince people that it purchased the Liberty Bell, and in 2016 Pornhub changed its name to Cornhub, and displayed suggestive videos featuring corn. The show’s executive producer, Homer Cilley, was fired by the station for “his failure to exercise good news judgment”. The prank resulted in widespread panic, with some Milton residents fleeing their homes. In 1980 Boston television station WNAC-TV aired a fake news bulletin at the end of the six o’clock news, which reported that Great Blue Hill in Milton, Massachusetts was erupting. Many people contacted the BBC to say it had worked, despite it being a hoax. The BBC had further success in 1965, when it pretended to trial “Smell-O-Vision”, telling viewers it was pumping smells into their living rooms via their TVs. It showed footage of a Swiss family “harvesting spaghetti from a spaghetti tree”, convincing thousands of Brits that this is where spaghetti really came from. One of the most famous April Fools’ Day jokes of all time was broadcast on the BBC current affairs show Panorama in 1957. April Fools’ is a long standing tradition in many countries (Photo: Getty Images/Corbis Historical) What are the best April Fools’ jokes in history? However, the Dutch theory does not give a clear suggestion as to how the April Fools’ Day tradition grew from that story. It’s a pun, with “bril” in Dutch meaning glasses, so Alva losing both “Brielle” and “bril” has a double meaning. Translated, this means: “On the first of April, Alva lost his glasses.” Others claim that April Fools’ Day comes from the Netherlands, where the origin of the day is often attributed to the Dutch victory at Brielle in 1572.ĭuring that battle, the Spanish Duke Álvarez de Toledo was defeated, giving rise to the Dutch phrase: “Op 1 april verloor Alva zijn bril”. Opinion | Groan at bad puns and dad jokes? You might just secretly love them 21 February, 2023 55 best (or worst) Christmas cracker jokes guaranteed to make you laugh or groan 23 December, 2022 57 of the best Halloween jokes and spookiest one-liners 26 October, 2022 The Dutch invented it It is still a common trick in France, and elsewhere in Europe, to attach a paper fish to somebody’s back on April Fool’s Day, and also to give chocolate fish as gifts. The origins of this are attributed to an old theory that it is easier to catch fish in streams and rivers in early April. In 1508, French poet Eloy d’Amerval referenced a “poisson d’avril”, which literally translates as “April fish”, and the tradition is still known by that name in France and other parts of Europe. It is believed that those who celebrated on 1 January, which did not become the commonly-accepted New Year’s Day until the mid-16th century, would mock those who celebrated in the spring with jokes and pranks on 1 April. ![]() Newspapers around the world like to get in on the act on April Fools’ Day (Photo: Getty Images) France invented itĪnother theory suggests that April Fools’ Day originated because in the Middle Ages, New Year’s Day was celebrated on 25 March in most European towns – particularly in France – with a holiday that ended on 1 April. This might not seem like a significant date, but it was actually the anniversary of the 1381 engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, which occurred a decade before Chaucer’s book was published. Modern scholars believe there is a copying error in replica manuscripts, and that Chaucer actually wrote “Syn March was gon thritty dayes and two”, or 32 days after March was over, which would be 2 May. ![]()
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