April Fool's day provides pranksters everywhere with the dopportunity to unleash their best material. And let's face it, everyone enjoys a good, well-executed April Fool's gag. Unfortunately, not everyone saw the funny side of these. Here are nine April Fool's pranks that backfired.
1. The Great Blue Hill Eruption (1980)
As an April Fool’s Joke, a Massachusetts TV station (WNAC- TV) used editing tricks to make it seem like a local hill had begun to erupt like a volcano. Unfortunately, the images must have been too convincing because before viewers could get to the section of the report that admitted it was a prank, panic had spead through the nearby town of Milton. The station issued an apology and the executive producer of the news program was fired.

2. The Athens Pollution Alert (1982)
In 1982, the National Radio Network - Greece’s state-controlled radio broadcaster –issued a warning that pollution in Athens has become so bad that the city should be evacuated, even asking that drivers abandon their cars in the street. Unfortunately, pollution was such a bad problem even then that many people took it seriously. The station’s director resigned, the hoax’s originator was fired, and one man sued the broadcaster for the equivalent of £500,000 due to the stress it caused him.

3.Military Unintelligence (1986)
Military intelligence is occasionally described as an oxymoron, and in this case that’s maybe justified. When Israel Radio reported that a Shi’ite leader had been seriously wounded after an assassination attempt, tensions instantly flared – except he hadn’t been. The report was false, dreamed up by an army intelligence officer and broadcast on the army’s own network, which was picked up by Israel Radio. When the truth came out, the defence minister at the time (Yitzhak Rabin) said that the officer responsible would be court- martialled.

4. The Taco Liberty Bell (1996)
On April 1st 1996, fast-food chain Taco Bell took out a full page advert in seven national newspapers announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell – an iconic symbol of American independence – and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. Thousands of people rang Taco Bell’s headquarters to complain, though PainePR, the company behind the stunt, considered it a success and claim it was responsible for a $1 million sales bump at Taco Bell across the first two days of April.

5. The Death Of The Mayor (1998)
Popular Boston DJ’s Opie and Anthony are known for their comedy, but not everyone’s laughing all the time: in 1998 the pair were suspended without pay for falsely reporting – as an April Fool’s joke, of course – that the mayor of Boston had died in a car crash. City Hall was unable to reach the mayor (he was actually on a plane at the time) so many people began to believe it was true – including members of his own family who had heard the report on the radio.

6. Playboy's Wife-Beating Instructions (2000)
Playboy probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind when you think of magazines with feminist credentials, but Playboy Romania’s April Fool’s “joke” in 2000 was well beyond the normal amount of misogyny associated with the brand. They published an article titled “How to beat your wife without leaving a trace”, written as if from the perspective of a police officer. It led to women marching through Central Bucharest in protestation and the chairman of Playboy Enterprises later issued an apology and reprimanded the magazine’s editor.

7. The "Toy Yoda" Car (2001)
When 26-year-old Jodee Berry sold the most beer in a month at Hooters in Panama City, Florida, she thought she’d won a new Toyota – but when the day came for her to receive her prize, she was led blindfolded to the car park of the restaurant to be presented with a Star Wars doll – a “Toy Yoda”. Her employers described it as an April Fool’s joke, but Berry quit in protest and sued, receiving a substantial sum the following year.

8. Stress in the Workplace (2004)
When Glenn Howlett’s colleages at London City Hall in Ontario interrupted his holiday with a fake letter explaining that a major report he’d been working on was due early, he took it very seriously. After cutting short his trip and rushing back home to complete the report, he suffered heart palpitations due to the stress and collapsed. During this time, he reflected on the situation and retired early – though did sue his employer for damages. As a result, the city councillors introduced a by-law prohibiting politicians and civil servants from making jokes in the workplace.
9. A Dihydrogen Monoxide Scare (2013)
Floridian radio hosts Val St. John and Scott Fish were both suspended after warning listeners that deadly “dihydrogen monoxide” was coming out of their taps. While keener listeners may have recognised the chemical name for ordinary water, many didn’t. Utility companies were bombarded with calls and the duo were temporarily removed from air and faced potential felony charges.

Source: http://mentalfloss.com/uk/humour/40863/9-april-fools-pranks-that-backfired?uk

Why is my school stunt not there?



On April 1st 2007, some unscrupulous elements raised alarm in the midnight that the hostel was on fire.


Chai

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