April 1

The joke, of course, is that the politicians start campaigning. Philippine newspapers don’t follow the April Fool’s tradition, which is sad and typical of their editors. Just look at that Ducat hostage crisis. It's all a joke or even a political ploy. Hey! Chavit's rating has flattened out at the 24th spot. He knows his cinematic moves. Had it happened on April 1, the editors would have knew the joke coming. Amogn the April Fool's jokes, the funniest ones include the 1966 joke made by BBC when it came out with a documentary of Italian farmers harvesting spaghetti from “spaghetti plants.” They are also added the dreaded spaghetti weevil. Did they believe it? Hey, even Manilenos still believe that strawberries grow on trees! In 1976, BBC said that Pluto would passing close to Jupiter on April 1 and as a result, the Earth’s gravitational pull would decrease. To offset that, the people would have to jump into the air at precisely 9:47 am. Expectedly, listeners called if the experiment worked. Also at that same time, Radio Norwich of UK also told the story of “color radio” and that there would be disturbance in the tuning lights of radios in the country. Some called that there were indeed flashes of colors in their radio. In 1992, Discovery Channel ran a documentary entitled “Pet Hates” where a “animal expert” condemned the animals for being “sex-crazed, bug-awful, foul-breathed, all-fornicating, all-urinating, disease-ridden, half-wit, furry, four-legged perverts.” Also in 1992, National Public Radio said that Richard Nixon is going to run for president. Those that almost failed is the Paris radio prank when it said that from April 1 on, all Europe would start driving on the left side of the road. Some actually did though no one died. Also in 1989, a Seattle TV station said that the Space Needle fell and destroyed nearby buildings. 911 was jammed and the station had to apologize.

I first encountered this Normal Rockwell April 1 cover in an old Reader's Digest. Try to find the real one because there are 50 mistakes in there.