媒體愚人節“十大經典惡作劇” Ten of the best April Fool's Day hoaxes: US museum

From television revealing that spaghetti grows on trees to advertisements for the left-handed burger, the tradition of April Fool's Day stories in the media has a weird and wonderful history.

Here are several of the top ten April Fool's Day pranks ever pulled off, as judged by the US website of Museum of Hoaxes for their notoriety, absurdity, and number of people duped.

Swiss spaghetti harvest tops the hoax list. In 1957, a BBC television show announced that thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home.

Instant color TV sets in Sweden comes as the third. Sweden in 1962 had only one television channel, which broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert appeared on the news to announce that thanks to a newly developed technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to receive color pictures by pulling a nylon stocking over the screen.

US ex-president Nixon's comeback is placed at sixth. In 1992, US National Public Radio announced that Richard Nixon was running for president again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." They even had clips of Nixon announcing his candidacy. Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing their outrage. Nixon's voice actually turned out to be that of impersonator Rich Little.

In 1998, a newsletter titled New Mexicans for Science and Reason carried an article that the state of Alabama had voted to change the value of pi from 3.14159 to the "Biblical value" of 3.0.

Burger King, an American fast-food chain, published a full-page advertisement in USA Today in 1998 announcing the introduction of the "Left-Handed Whopper," specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new burger included the same ingredients as the original, but the condiments were rotated 180 degrees. The chain said it received thousands of requests for the new burger, as well as orders for the original "right-handed" version.

Discover Magazine announced in 1995 that a highly respected biologist, Aprile Pazzo (Italian for April Fool), had discovered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. The creatures were described as having bony plates on their heads that became burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speed.

Noted British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on the radio in 1976 that at 9:47 am, a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event, in which Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, would cause a gravitational alignment that would reduce the Earth's gravity. Moore told listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment of the planetary alignment, they would experience a floating sensation. Hundreds of people called in to report feeling the sensation.

從種植意大利麪的電視新聞到左撇子漢堡的廣告，媒體在愚人節制造的各種稀奇古怪的惡作劇也有一段“光輝”歷史了。

日前，美國“惡作劇博物館”網站根據惡作劇的知名度、荒誕性及被愚弄的人數，評選出了媒體所製造的愚人節“十大經典惡作劇”。其中的幾個如下：

第一大惡作劇是1957年愚人節的瑞士意大利麪大豐收。當天，英國廣播公司在一個新聞節目中報道，由於受暖冬影響，再加上危害意大利麪“種植”的象鼻蟲已被徹底消滅，瑞士的農民們獲得意大利麪大豐收，電視臺還特別配上了瑞士農民從樹上摘下一縷縷意大利麪的鏡頭。節目播出後，很多人打電話去電臺詢問如何在家種植意大利麪。

第三大惡作劇是1962年的瑞典“瞬變彩色電視機"。當時，瑞典只有一個電視頻道，而且是黑白的。愚人節那天，電視臺技術人員在新聞中宣佈，由於最新技術的開發成功，觀衆們只需將一隻尼龍長統襪撐開蓋在電視屏幕上，就能使黑白畫面立刻變成彩色。

美國前總統尼克森的復出被評爲第六大經典假新聞。1992年，美國國家公共廣播電臺宣佈，理查德·尼克森將再度競選總統。他的最新競選口號是，”我沒做錯什麼，我不會重蹈覆轍。“新聞中還配有尼克松宣佈競選的錄音剪輯。這一消息發佈之後，聽衆們紛紛打電話去電臺表示憤怒。實際上，尼克森的聲音是由一位名叫裏奇·利特爾的演員模仿的。

1998年愚人節，新墨西哥人科學與推理組織的通訊上刊登的一篇文章中稱，美國阿拉巴馬州已投票決定，將圓周率值3.14159改爲"聖經值"3.0。

1998年愚人節當天，美國漢堡王快餐連鎖店在《今日美國》上發佈了一則長達一頁的廣告，介紹一款專爲美國3200萬個“左撇子”設計的“左撇子漢堡”。該廣告中稱，新漢堡的配料和普通漢堡沒什麼區別，但其中所夾的調味品都被旋轉了180度放置。連鎖店稱，廣告登出後，他們接到數千份訂單，還收到了很多老式（"右撇子"）漢堡的訂單。

1995年愚人節，《發現》雜誌公佈，一位德高望重的、名叫Aprile Pazzo（意大利語：愚人節）的生物學家在南極洲發現了一種名叫熱裸體鑽冰蟲的新物種。據介紹，這種生物頭部的骨頭能變得滾燙，所以可以高速的鑽冰。

1976年愚人節，英國著名天文學家帕特里克·摩爾通過電臺宣佈，當天早上9時47分會出現一個百年一遇的天文現象，冥王星將從木星後面經過，由此而形成的引力組合將使地球的引力減弱。摩爾告訴聽衆，如果他們在經過的那一時刻跳起來，會有一種飄浮感。當時，數百人打電話去電臺，稱他們確實感到了那種“飄浮感”。