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Think you'd never fall for an April Fools' prank? Think again! Join us as we count down the most jaw-dropping April Fools' Day hoaxes that genuinely fooled the public! From viral corporate stunts to bold broadcast bluffs, these pranks were so convincing that even the sharpest minds were left scratching their heads in total disbelief.
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00:00There's nothing like real homegrown spaghetti.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 April Fool's pranks that the public
00:09completely fell for.
00:11You know, whenever you see a volcano on fire, that makes you a little bit edgy.
00:16Number 10. IKEA teases couples counseling.
00:19In 2017, IKEA pulled off one of its boldest April Fool's Day pranks with the launch of Big Land, an
00:26adult-only free play zone.
00:28No kids allowed.
00:30It teased a skull bar, massage center, and even a meditation area where couples could settle furniture disputes.
00:36Wait, you said we needed rugs, right?
00:38Uh, yeah.
00:39We needed one for my office?
00:40Yeah.
00:41Okay, I found it.
00:42Um.
00:43Because it's a rug, but it's also for playing car pranks with your friends.
00:47Sounds relaxing, right?
00:48That's probably what other customers thought, too.
00:50The prank even extended beyond social media to landing pages and emails, making it feel surprisingly real.
00:57It quickly blew up online, and reportedly drove actual in-store sales.
01:01Maybe some people missed the punchline, or maybe adults just desperately wanted a cool-off zone.
01:07Either way, the furniture giant shouldn't toy with our emotions like that.
01:11IKEA sucks.
01:13Number nine, instant color TV hack.
01:16This one's painfully hilarious.
01:18On April 1st, 1962, Sweden's only television channel aired a segment featuring a supposed technical expert.
01:25He calmly explained that viewers could convert their black and white televisions into color by stretching a nylon stocking over
01:33the screen.
01:40No way.
01:41As absurd as it sounds, thousands reportedly gave it a try, only to find the same monochrome image staring back
01:48at them.
01:48Can you blame them?
01:49It was delivered with complete technical seriousness by the country's only channel.
02:01Plus, back then, anything on TV was almost always seen as the gospel truth.
02:06That's exactly why it went down as one of the most successful, gut-busting broadcast pranks in history.
02:16Number eight, YouTube shuts down.
02:18The thought of YouTube deleting everything and shutting down sounds terrifying.
02:22We are so close to the end.
02:25Tonight at midnight, YouTube.com will no longer be accepting entries.
02:29That fear felt real on April Fool's Day in 2013, when the video-sharing platform announced it would be going
02:36offline.
02:36According to the video, YouTube had secretly been one enormous competition for the best video ever uploaded.
02:43We started YouTube in 2005 as a contest with a simple goal to find the best video in the world.
02:48They claimed the site would go offline while the panel reviewed the contest, before relaunching in 2023.
02:54The announcement even featured popular YouTube personalities like Antoine Dodson and Tim Linston, which made it feel disturbingly official.
03:02Thank goodness it was a prank, or else you might not be watching this video.
03:06Number seven, Lego launches brick-finding feature.
03:09Anyone who has spent time sorting through a messy toy pile knows how helpful a feature for finding lost pieces
03:15would be.
03:15So you're almost done with that humongous Lego set that you bought.
03:18Everything's coming together until, wait, one of the pieces is missing.
03:22In 2019, Lego decided to tease that very dream.
03:25Like Apple's Find My iPhone, this fake feature was meant to help users find their lost bricks.
03:31The idea was simple.
03:32Scan the floor, and the app would help highlight the missing bricks.
03:35When Lego posted it, with the tagline,
03:38The long search is finally over, users were genuinely excited.
03:42It's over.
03:43It's finally over.
03:46Many fans even begged the toy giant to make it real.
03:49After all, which Lego fan wouldn't want building to be a little easier?
03:53Sadly, Lego crushed that dream with their April Fool's joke.
03:57Absolutely unforgivable.
03:59Sorry!
04:00Number six, Big Ben Goes Digital.
04:02In 1980, the BBC pulled off one of its boldest April Fool's pranks,
04:07and plenty of people fell for it.
04:14Big Ben would be converted to a digital display, and renamed Digital Dave.
04:20Its iconic bongs would be replaced by electronic beeps,
04:23and the tower would even broadcast a five-minute nightly bulletin.
04:32Not everyone found it funny.
04:34Listeners flooded the station with angry calls.
04:37But the prank had one final twist.
04:39It claimed that the clock hands would be given to the first four listeners who called in.
04:43One man actually phoned, hoping to be among the lucky winners.
04:47Because if you're gonna dream big, why not aim for a piece of a national landmark?
04:54Number five, The Great Spaghetti Harvest.
04:57How do you trick hundreds of people into believing the impossible?
05:00In 1957, British current affairs program Panorama aired a segment about Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees.
05:09The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer.
05:13The segment was delivered with complete seriousness by broadcaster Richard Dimbleby.
05:18He talked about how a mild winter and the disappearance of the fictional spaghetti weevil had led to a massive
05:24harvest.
05:24Guess what? Viewers actually bought it.
05:27After picking, the spaghetti is laid out to dry in the warm alpine sun.
05:33Out of roughly eight million that tuned in, hundreds called asking how they could grow their own pasta trees.
05:39The BBC's response?
05:40Plant a sprig of spaghetti in tomato sauce and hope for the best.
05:44If gardening worked like that, backyards everywhere would be growing lasagna for breakfast.
05:49For those who love this dish, there's nothing like real homegrown spaghetti.
05:54Number four, Taco Liberty Bell Hoax.
05:57In 1996, Taco Bell placed full-page newspaper ads claiming it had purchased the Liberty Bell to help reduce the
06:04U.S. national debt.
06:06There's nothing ordinary about it, Taco Bell.
06:11Not only that, the historic landmark would be renamed Taco Liberty Bell and moved to its California headquarters.
06:17The ad sounded official enough that thousands of people contacted the National Park Service in outrage and confusion.
06:26Thanks for the Liberty Bell, guys. I'll bring it right back.
06:29Can you blame them?
06:30Not everyone wakes up on April 1st with their calendar circled in red and their skepticism fully loaded.
06:36Later that day, the truth came out.
06:38It was an April Fool's prank.
06:39Yet some remained upset.
06:41But the stunt worked perfectly.
06:43Taco Bell got free advertising and generated more sales.
06:46Talk about a genius marketing strategy.
06:49That is definitely something I would not fall for.
06:50No, I wouldn't have fallen for that one either.
06:52Number three, San Serif, The Guardian's fictional island.
06:56This is just too much.
06:58In 1977, British newspaper The Guardian single-handedly created a fictional island named San Serif.
07:05A seven-page feature described the island's politics, culture, and tourism opportunities as if it were completely real.
07:12It talks about the island itself.
07:15Of course, it has a map.
07:17I mean, it's an island, so they show photos of palm trees.
07:20They talk about their leaders, their military, all those sorts of things.
07:23Hidden in plain sight were subtle clues.
07:26Most of the island's names came from printing and typesetting terminologies.
07:30But desktop publishing and word processing software weren't ubiquitous at the time, so many readers didn't catch the clues.
07:37Instead, they were completely fooled.
07:40You may notice something interesting about this island.
07:43It is actually in the shape of a semicolon.
07:45The newspaper ended up receiving hundreds of letters from readers describing their stay at the island.
07:50Travel agents were even swamped with inquiries about this fictional destination.
07:54Of course, some people were in on the joke.
07:56There was a letter to the editor received from the San Serif Liberation Front,
08:00stating how furious they were about the pro-government slant of The Guardian piece.
08:04Not bad for a place that never actually existed.
08:08Number two.
08:08Planetary Alignment Prank
08:10When it comes to pulling the most audacious April Fool's Day pranks, the BBC leads the pack.
08:15Joke, sir? Guaranteed amusing.
08:17During an interview in 1976, respected astronomer Patrick Moore shared an astronomically absurd idea.
08:25He told listeners that a rare alignment between Pluto and Jupiter would reduce Earth's gravity.
08:30According to Moore, anyone who jumped at exactly 9.47 a.m. would experience a floating sensation.
08:37Why?
08:41Even though the idea contradicted basic physics, people jumped anyway.
08:45Within minutes, the BBC reportedly started receiving hundreds of calls that the experiment worked.
08:50One man even wanted compensation because he had hit his head while floating.
08:54He is, without a doubt, the hero of this entire story.
08:57I was floating, free.
09:06Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's Aria, Songs from Iran,
09:12reimagining Persian melodies as modern rock, metal, and pop songs.
09:16Check out the full track and album below.
09:33Number one, the fake volcanic eruption.
09:36Not many pranksters have gone to the extreme lengths Oliver Bickar did on April 1st, 1974.
09:41That morning, Alaskans awoke to see smoke rising from the crater of Mount Edgecumbe.
09:47Mount Edgecumbe had erupted in the past.
09:51It was 4,000 years ago.
09:53Naturally, many were alarmed and even called the U.S. Coast Guard.
09:56On closer inspection, the smoke turned out to be burning tires arranged to spell April Fool's Day.
10:02Behind the scenes, Bickar had secretly flown to the crater and set thousands of tires ablaze to create the effect.
10:09Although the local police and federal aviation knew about the plan, the Coast Guard was not informed.
10:14That omission made the prank so convincing.
10:17Once they realized the volcano was not actually erupting, everybody laughed.
10:21Pull off a volcano-sized joke like that, and you've basically earned legendary April Fool's status.
10:27Chris says her dad loved to be remembered on April Fool's Day, and she's thrilled that people still do.
10:34What's the best April Fool's prank you've ever come across?
10:37Let us know in the comments section.
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