Best April Fools pranks of 2010 - so far
April 1st 2010 02:54
You either love April 1 or you loathe it, there really is no middle ground. It's the one day of the year when people across the entire IQ spectrum - from children to newspaper editors (and not necessarily in that order) get cheap thrills from silly, immature jokes and pranks played upon society's most vulnerable.
I love it!
Due to its geographic location Australia was - and always will be, barring some monumental tectonic shift - the first country to enjoy April Fool's Day (New Zealand doesn't count because - well - because it doesn't count) and as usual the media led the charge.
It started with electronic news service AAP, which issued a story claiming English football great David Beckham was planning on joining the Australian team and leading them to glory at this year's World Cup. Except, no-one bothered to tell David.
In Melbourne the Herald Sun newspaper told readers of plans to install a new see-through drunk-tank in the CBD, to humiliate those arrested for over-indulging and to entertain the passing masses.
Online news blog The Punch claimed an exclusive with its cover story that revealed Australian anti-discrimination authorities were moving to ban April Fool's Day because it discriminates against the stupid.
In the bayside city of Geelong the local paper, the Geelong Advertiser, boasted that its photographers had captured the first clear photographic proof of a "big cat" - a panther living wild in the Australian bush - in the nearby Otway Ranges. Readers who visited the paper's website for a look at the creature were confronted with shots of the local football team's blue-suited Cat mascot frolicking among the trees.
Even advertisers got into the spirit, with Google announcing it would be quitting Australia for good.
BMW Australia ran an ad announcing its new underground GPS system, which could map and display the old roads which had been buried forever when new ones were constructed over the top of them.
Pen company Artline ran articles about its newest hi-tech product - a pen that remembers everything you've ever written. Posts to the site wondered if this was a good idea, given the security risks involved.
Other pranks from across the world are just starting to come in. One of the earliest - and the best - is a report in The Guardian claiming Britain's Labor government is trying to re-image Prime Minister Gordon Brown into a kind of Dirty Harry-style tough guy politician.
The paper printed a "photograph" of an election billboard featuring a head shot of Brown with the words, "Step Outside, Posh Boy!" and footed with the new party slogan: 'Vote Labor. Or else.'
I love it!
Due to its geographic location Australia was - and always will be, barring some monumental tectonic shift - the first country to enjoy April Fool's Day (New Zealand doesn't count because - well - because it doesn't count) and as usual the media led the charge.
It started with electronic news service AAP, which issued a story claiming English football great David Beckham was planning on joining the Australian team and leading them to glory at this year's World Cup. Except, no-one bothered to tell David.
In Melbourne the Herald Sun newspaper told readers of plans to install a new see-through drunk-tank in the CBD, to humiliate those arrested for over-indulging and to entertain the passing masses.
Online news blog The Punch claimed an exclusive with its cover story that revealed Australian anti-discrimination authorities were moving to ban April Fool's Day because it discriminates against the stupid.
In the bayside city of Geelong the local paper, the Geelong Advertiser, boasted that its photographers had captured the first clear photographic proof of a "big cat" - a panther living wild in the Australian bush - in the nearby Otway Ranges. Readers who visited the paper's website for a look at the creature were confronted with shots of the local football team's blue-suited Cat mascot frolicking among the trees.
Even advertisers got into the spirit, with Google announcing it would be quitting Australia for good.
BMW Australia ran an ad announcing its new underground GPS system, which could map and display the old roads which had been buried forever when new ones were constructed over the top of them.
Pen company Artline ran articles about its newest hi-tech product - a pen that remembers everything you've ever written. Posts to the site wondered if this was a good idea, given the security risks involved.
Other pranks from across the world are just starting to come in. One of the earliest - and the best - is a report in The Guardian claiming Britain's Labor government is trying to re-image Prime Minister Gordon Brown into a kind of Dirty Harry-style tough guy politician.
The paper printed a "photograph" of an election billboard featuring a head shot of Brown with the words, "Step Outside, Posh Boy!" and footed with the new party slogan: 'Vote Labor. Or else.'
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