Best April Fools Jokes And Hoaxes

I f you can't make it to the famed Museum of Hoaxes in San Diego, curator Alex Boese has compiled the top 100 April Fools' Day pranks of all time (check out museumof hoaxes.com). We know you want in on the top ruses, so, without further ado, here are a few:

THE SWISS SPAGHETTI HARVEST In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were going great guns with their spaghetti crop, thanks to a warm winter and the eradication of the spaghetti weevil. Damn spaghetti weevils.

SIDD FINCH Sports Illustrated ran an April 1985 story about baseball rookie Sidd Finch, who could throw a 168 mph pitch, studied in a Tibetan monastery and was going to play for the Mets. Alas, it was all made up by George Plimpton. Those poor Mets fans.

INSTANT COLOR TV A technician for Sweden's lone TV station, which broadcast in black and white at the time, appeared on the news in 1962 and reported that slipping a nylon stocking over the screen would convert the set to color. According to Boese, who wrote last year's "Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and Other B.S." (Harvest Books), color television transmission began in Sweden on ... April 1, 1970. For reals!

THE TACO LIBERTY BELL In 1996, Taco Bell took out full-page newspaper ads saying the company, in an effort to help reduce the national debt, bought the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. And, proving White House press secretaries once had a sense of humor, Mike McCurry told reporters: "Ford Motor Company is joining today in an effort to refurbish the Lincoln Memorial... . It will be the Lincoln Mercury Memorial."

SAN SERRIFFE England's Guardian newspaper ran a supplement in 1977 about a republic of "semicolon-shaped" islands in the Indian Ocean. The larger isle was named Upper Caise, the smaller, Lower Caise. San Serriffe was ruled by General Pica and its capital was Bodoni. That's enough to put us in a coma, er, comma.

NIXON FOR PRESIDENT On NPR's "Talk of the Nation" show in 1992, Richard Nixon declared: "Having marched up this hard road and won back your confidence, I ask you once again to make me your president!" It was really another Richard -- Rich Little doing his best Tricky Dick impersonation.

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