Top Hoaxes of All Time (?)

[Guest guest]

http://www.mercola.com/article/aprilfools/index.htm (?)

 

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. "

 

2. Sidd Finch

 

In its April 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated published a story about

a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was

Sidd Finch and he could reportedly throw a baseball with startling,

pinpoint accuracy at 168 mph (65 mph faster than anyone else has ever

been able to throw a ball). Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even

played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the " art of the

pitch " in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the " great

poet-saint Lama Milaraspa. " Mets fans everywhere celebrated at their

team's amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports

Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. But in

reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the

writer of the article, George Plimpton.

 

3. Instant Color TV

 

In 1962 there was only one TV channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in

black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson,

appeared on the news to announce that thanks to a newly developed

technology, all viewers could now quickly and easily convert their

existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull

a nylon stocking over their TV screen, and they would begin to see

their favorite shows in color. Stensson then proceeded to demonstrate

the process. Reportedly, hundreds of thousands of people, out of the

population of 7 million, were taken in. Actual color TV transmission

only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970.

 

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.

 

5. San Serriffe

 

In 1977 the British newspaper The Guardian published a special

seven-page supplement in honor of the tenth anniversary of San

Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of

several semi-colon-shaped islands. A series of articles affectionately

described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two

main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was

Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang

all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday

spot. Few noticed that everything about the island was named after

printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited

with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that then gripped the

British tabloids in the following decades.

 

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.

 

8. The Left-Handed Whopper

 

In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today

announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a

" Left-Handed Whopper " specially designed for the 32 million

left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper

included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce,

tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated

180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The

following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that

although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers

had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously,

according to the press release, " many others requested their own

'right handed' version. "