Am I the only person who doesn’t like April Fools Day?
Every year our local newspapers, TV and radio stations all love to put out stories to try and suck people in on April Fools Day…some are sort of believable…
And some most definitely not….like the article in the Geelong Advertiser this morning about how SIMONDS Stadium’s light towers will be swivelled around to light up South Geelong in a bid to increase security in South Geelong.
Imagine the power bill for that…..
Image Source – Geelong Advertiser
I don’t know why I don’t like April Fools Day but I am not a fan of practical jokes at the best of times…I hate people unknowingly being taken for a ride….even if the end result is funny.
But too often, its not…and things can go rather wrong…therefore no, I am definitely not a fan.
So how did 1st April end up being a day where people play practical jokes and hoaxes on each other?
A quick search on the internet revealed that the origins are a little uncertain…some say its the change of a new season…ie Spring fever…which of course doesn’t apply to us here Down Under!
Whatever the origins, April Fools Day is now “celebrated” throughout the western world…
One of the best media hoaxes was when the BBC in 1947, reported farmers in Switzerland were experiencing a bumper crop from their spaghetti trees..the footage was enough to persuade hundreds of people to ring the BBC asking where they could get one of these trees!
I love the BBC’s apparent reply of “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
Image Source
But nowadays, there are so many hoaxes floating round the internet, that it feels like its April Fools Day every day…the world wide web is full of them…
What a shame that “Internet Cleaning Day” or “Internet Spring Cleaning” that seems to have appeared regularly at this time of year since the 1990s is a hoax …
The message was that every computer in the world must be turned off for a 24-hour period during which useless “flotsam and jetsam” are flushed from the system…plus eliminating any dead emails and inactive websites..allowing for a better working, faster internet!
Actually sounds like a good idea to me!
Do you like April Fools Day? Have you got a favourite hoax or prank?
Michelle Davis
Hadn’t realised it was April 1st until I turned on breakfast tv this morning and they were reporting on some chickens that had started laying square eggs ahem! Tragic! I love a good laugh but no, I’m not a big fan of practical jokes either.