April Fool’s Day Stuff

Nixon for President…again? This is one of the all time great April Fool’s Day hoaxes according to the Museum of Hoaxes website. Considering this is an election year, it seemed appropriate to post.

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.” (How funny is that???)

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.

Please note that this is about as political as I want this blog to get.

There are some other great hoaxes, too, including one about Taco Bell purchasing the Liberty Bell from the U.S. government and deciding to change the name of all the Taco Bells to Taco Liberty Bell. Apparently, Taco Bell announced that they were making thisn purchase to “help ease the national debt”. Funny! It drew thousands of angry comments.

Then on April 1, 1957 the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) aired on television a report on the news show Panorama about the bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. Viewers watched Swiss farmers pull pasta off spaghetti trees as the show’s anchor Richard Dimbleby attributed the bountiful harvest to the mild winter and the disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.

I could go on and on but I’d better just refer you to some of the great websites that list this stuff. Such as:

The best website (I think) is http://www.aprilfoolzone.com/. There you’ll find some great classic pranks that are easy and fun.

You can read about the Nixon hoax, the spaghetti harvest and the Taco Bell purchase at The Museum of Hoaxes at //www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/

At http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/minisite/april-fools-pranks-main-ms/ there are lots of fun pranks that parents can pull on their kids PLUS pranks that kids can pull on their parents.