April Fools' Pranks: Past & Present

0:00April Fools' day pranks go back to the 1500s in France when folks switch from the old Julian calendar to the Gregorian one, starting the New Year on January 1st instead of April 1st. Holdouts got mocked as April Fools and sent on wild goose chases for stuff like pigeon milk or elbow grease. Fast forward and media jumped in with the BBC's 1957 spaghetti harvest hoax on panorama, claiming Swiss farmers picked pasta off. These believed to be the first TV prank of its kind. Australian broadcasts got in on the fun too. The ABCs this day to night ran a 1970 bit on the dialo fish gadget to help bad anglers then fake the Sydney Opera House sinking right after its 1973 opening. In 1975, they announced metric time with 100 seconds per minute, 100 minutes per hour, and 20 hour days even, getting the deputy premiere on camera, backing it. Back then, reactions split the crowd. Some laughed, others got mad or confused, but reveals came quick with no real harm.

1:03Audiences trusted big broadcasts, tuning in by the millions without much suspicion. These days, digital shifts make pranks riskier. Social media clips spread fast amid fake news and deep fakes eroding trust. Last year, a British presenters fake pregnancy post upset folks struggling with fertility and a Queensland politicians annexation joke drew. Backlash over higher rates and lost control. In this post-truth era, we're all savvy to scams, inequality and bad actors, so what used to charm now often wounds, media's wise to tread light or skip the fool's game altogether. That's the story for today. Adelaide News Today, Driven by AI.