Fool if you think it's over

Among this year's best April Fools' Day pranks I've seen so far:

• Ed Sheeran to appear in Spare: The Musical, based upon Prince Harry's book (and with Rupert Grint as understudy)!
• Top-crimped pasties and putting the cream on a scone before the jam are to be made illegal in Cornwall.
• 20mph speed limits are to be introduced on parts of the M4 motorway by the Welsh Government.
• Barrs announced that their popular orange pop (Scotland's "national drink") Irn-Bru was teaming up with Malibu coconut rum to make "Mali-BRU".

Then there's Ant & Dec's elaborate article claiming they are going to be in the next James Bond movie:

[click to embiggen]

But nothing quite beats the "classics":

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

1957: In solemn tones, respected journalist and broadcaster Richard Dimbleby announced on Panorama that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

San Serriffe

1977: The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic said to consist of several semi-colon-shaped islands located in the Indian Ocean. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The phones rang all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Only a few noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that gripped the British tabloids in subsequent decades.

Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity

1976: Astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, the BBC began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.

There'll be more to come, no doubt...