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April Fool’s Day is a day of hoaxes and jokes. In many
countries people, use this chance to play pranks on their
friends and family. The goal is to tell a lie that the person
you are fooling thinks is true and goes to check it out.
It is not enough just to tell a lie; you actually have to
make the person you are tricking do something or
go somewhere because they believe your story.
In some countries, the jokes only last until
noon but in other countries they last the
whole day. The media plays a big part on
this day and they try their best to fool their
readers and audience. People know this and
often try to find the hoax in the paper, but
many don’t remember and usually many
people get fooled.
One of the first April Fool’s pranks in the
Icelandic media happened in 1957. The news
reporter on the national radio station reported that a
ship was sailing on the river Ölfusá heading to Selfoss.
People went to check this out, but of course no ship was
sailing on the river.
1950
The Dutch television news told their viewers in
the 1950s that the Tower of Pisa had fallen over. Many
people were shocked and contacted the television station.
April Fool’s Day
Some good April Fool’s tricks from the media
