Best April Fools pranks of all time

My evil brother, Matthew, pointed me to an article about the greatest April Fool’s jokes of all time. Funny stuff. From the article:

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.

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.

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.

I’ve blogged about this once before, but I used to tell people that I had a second sister named Leanne, that we kept locked up in the attic because she was mentally disturbed, violent and thus dangerous. I managed to con two people into actually believing this. I well remember the following conversation:

“I have another sister called Leanne. We keep her in the attic because she’s mentally ill. We can’t let her out or she’ll injure somebody”

“Oh, that is so sad.”

“Yes. Yes it is.” (trying hard not to laugh)

On another occasion, at the family dinner table, I pronounced “42% of statistics are made up”.

“Really? That’s a pretty high figure” my mum replied. “42% of statistics are made up! How interesting.”

Reckon you can top that? What’s the silliest thing you’ve ever managed to con someone into believing?