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.
Comments