April Fools’ Day is celebrated each year on April 1st in many countries around the world. As the name of the day implies this is a day for fooling people with practical jokes, pranks, and generally being silly. If you think this day is just for children to play jokes on their friend, parents, and teachers, you are mistaken. Adults get into this holiday just as much as children do, and sometimes even more. Where as children might play a little trick on their parents or tell a story that is made up and try and get someone to believe it, adults sometimes do this on a much larger scale. The media in the English speaking world is well known for playing practice jokes on their consumers on April Fools’ Day by creating fake news stories that they present as real. Before I tell you about some of the most ridiculous April Fools’ news articles I have heard of, let me share with you some words that you can use to describe this type of made up story. Instead of just calling them lies or made-up, an unbelievable story can be called:

a whopper
a tall tale
a yarn

Now, here are some real whoppers that have been told in the news on April Fools’ Day in the past. Be careful of what you read in the news today, because the media might just be giving you a tall tale like one of these.

On April 1st in 1949 a New Zealand radio DJ, announced that a mile-wide wasp swarm was headed towards the large city of Auckland. He told people to take a steps to protect themselves and their homes but putting honey traps outside the doors of their houses and wearing their socks over their pants when outside so the wasps wouldn’t fly up their pant legs. Many people followed his advice until he let on it was a prank.

On 1 April, 1957 a British Broadcasting Cooperation news show reported that Swiss farmers were enjoying an extra large crop of spaghetti that year because people were able to eliminate a nasty spaghetti eating bug that usually ate the crop. They even showed fake news footage of people pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees!

On 1 April 1992, a National Public Radio show in the United States reported that impeached former president Richard Nixon had decided to run for President again. His new campaign slogan was said to be, “I didn’t do anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.” A comedian impersonating the former president even gave a fake speech. Listeners who heard the story were so upset that the news show had to let people know it was joke within half an hour.

On April 1st 2008 the British Broadcasting Cooperation announced that camera crews filming Antarctica discovered a colony of penguins that could fly. The news presenter explained that instead of huddling together to stay warm in the winter these newly discover penguins fly to the rainforests of South America to say warm. There was even a special effects video created to go along with this story. You can see this video below to see just how real these April Fools’ stories can be.

Who knows what the media might think up this year. If I were you I would be skeptical of any stories that sound like a yarn today.