Take a tour through the "April Fool Museum"

[SoCalDem]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/lifestyleaprilfoolmediaholidayoffbeat;_ylt=AqcyHgJVxQxtiMlDf2QANgLtiBIF

Ten of the best April Fool's Day hoaxes: US museum

Thu Mar 29, 8:45 AM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) - 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.
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Here are 10 of the top April Fool's Day pranks ever pulled off, as judged by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes for their notoriety, absurdity, and number of people duped.

-- 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.

-- In 1985, Sports Illustrated magazine published a story that a rookie baseball pitcher who could reportedly throw a ball at 270 kilometers per hour (168 miles per hour) was set to join the New York Mets. Finch was said to have mastered his skill -- pitching significantly faster than anyone else has ever managed -- in a Tibetan monastery. Mets fans' celebrations were short-lived.

-- 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. In fact, they had to wait until 1970.

snip

[nuxvomica]

1. They left out the Giant Flying Vampire Frogs of Valhalla, FL

Omni Magazine but I forget which year.

[zanne]

2. I've gotta hear this one.

Innocent Bystander: "What are the Giant Flying Vampire Frogs of Valhalla, FL"?

You:

[nuxvomica]

3. It was in Omni magazine some time during th 1980s

It was a story in the back of the magazine about attempts to develop a golf course near the town of Valahalla, FL, that were stymied by the Endangered Species Act because the area was the only known habitat of the rare Giant Flying Vampire Frog. These creatures were large and ugly and could fly. They would attack humans and drink their blood but their victims suffered only mild anemia as a result. The author offered a solution to the standoff between developers and environmental law: preserve the frog's habitat alongside the golf course, with the golfers occasionally supplying the endangered creatures with sustenance.
The magazine apparently got a huge response from readers who believed the story, including news organizations hoping to do followup stories.

edit: a little googling revealed they were toads not frogs and it was in the June, 1980, not April issue. :dunce:

[crispini]

4. I really liked the Taco Bell buys the Liberty Bell ad.

I have it around here somewhere.