X-Nico

18 unusual facts about April Fools


1951 Scottish Grand Prix

The event was not to be repeated although the re-introduction of the Scottish Grand Prix was the subject of an April Fool.

Age of Booty

Designer Max Hoberman admitted that inspiration for the game, came from Bungie Studios's long-running April Fools' Day gag Pimps at Sea.

April Fools' Day

In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a poisson d’avril (April fool, literally "April fish"), a possible reference to the holiday.

Nevertheless, on the Spanish island of Minorca, "Dia d'enganyar" ("Fooling day") is celebrated on 1 April because Menorca was a British possession during part of the 18th century.

Many writers suggest that the restoration of 1 January by Pope Gregory XIII as New Year's Day of the Gregorian Calendar in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, sometimes questioned for earlier references.

Battle of Okinawa

The main landing was made by XXIV Corps and III Amphibious Corps on the Hagushi beaches on the western coast of Okinawa on L-Day, 1 April, which was both Easter Sunday and April Fools' Day in 1945.

Despoilers of the Golden Empire

Being published in March, the story was, in effect, an early April Fools' Day prank.

Electron User

Often the April-dated edition of the magazine included an April Fools' Day joke, generally consisting of a short machine code type-in listing which claimed to do something extremely useful and of wide interest but which in fact printed APRIL FOOL on the screen.

GameFront

This led some people to believe that the announcement had been a poorly executed April Fools' joke.

Gamestation

On April Fools' Day 2010, Gamestation temporarily added a clause to its online sales contract claiming that "By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul."

Mortal Kombat 4

In retrospective, GamesRadar criticized the endings for the Nintendo 64 version of the game using a compilation from them for an April Fool joke, labelling them as hilarious due to their poor quality.

Races and factions of Warcraft

The pandaren were originally introduced as an April Fools' joke by Blizzard's art director Samwise Didier as a playable race in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne; in the "bonus" campaign centered around the Horde, the pandaren brewmaster Chen Stormstout is a supporting character, marking the first appearance of the race in Warcraft.

Smoke detector

In Australia, for example, a public information campaign suggests that smoke alarm batteries should be replaced on April Fools' Day every year.

Timothy Brinton

The programme had been due to be broadcast on April Fools' Day, 1977, but industrial action meant that it was broadcast in June.

UberStudent

In a 2011 April Fools' Day satire, he announced an "UberStudent Dumbed Down Edition" featuring the GNOME 3 Shell.

Veterinary Record

The April 1972 issue of the Veterinary Record included a paper on the diseases of Brunus edwardii: a description of lost limbs and thinning hair suffered by an animal whose Latin name means "brown" and "Edward".

WCOA-FM

In 1993, WJLQ shifted to Urban Adult Contemporary as "Magic 100.7", which lasted only about a year before the station became "Arrow 100.7" with a classic rock format on April Fools' Day 1994, with the WWRO call letters being assigned on April 22, 1994.

WDZN

On the afternoon of April 2, it was announced that the smooth jazz format and the man named "Stu" were part of an April Fools' Day joke and that the station would in fact, be carrying a country music format.


Kazuo Uzuki

Kazuo Uzuki is the subject of a baseball card issued by Topps as an April Fools' Day hoax.

Yoshi Amao

On April 1, 2009, as an April Fools prank, Yoshi Amao surprised and charmed American audiences by standing in for regular host Jimmy Fallon on Late Night, which succeeded Conan O'Brien's hosting tenure.