April 1 marks the day when pranksters come out of the woodwork for an annual joke fest. Young and old join in the fun, coming up with pranks to fool or embarrass their friends, family, and colleagues. Some Aprils Fools’ jokes have become a bit stale; others miss the mark. Some have even been known to land the pranksters in hot water.

However, even prominent and media organizations enjoy a good April Fools’ joke. Wealthy businessmen have also partaken in a little hilarity and reaped the publicity that followed. Probably because of the high standing of the pranksters, many people fell for their jokes. Some of them were so silly, though, that it is hard to understand how anyone believed them.

10 Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

Does spaghetti really grow on trees? A BBC “documentary” in 1957 actually managed to fool some viewers into believing it actually did in an April Fools’ Day spoof. The respected UK broadcaster aired footage of a Swiss family harvesting their “spaghetti crop” from trees during a segment in a popular documentary series. The video showed the women carefully plucking strands of spaghetti from the “spaghetti trees” and then carefully laying them in the sun to dry. From here, they would be carefully packaged and sent out to supermarkets around the world.

The commentator then went on to explain the years of research and cultivation which had gone into ensuring that each strand of spaghetti grew to exactly the same length. Frost was apparently a major threat to European spaghetti farmers, as it could “impair” the spaghetti’s flavor.

The current affairs segment received mixed reactions. More serious viewers were annoyed at an obvious prank airing on a respected show. Others, however, were taken in by the joke, wanting to know where they could purchase their own spaghetti plant.^[1]

9 The Aliens Have Landed

Virgin Group boss Richard Branson initially fooled even the police, who were called to investigate his 1989 April Fools’ prank.

The billionaire prankster collaborated with a hot-air balloon manufacturer to construct a balloon resembling a UFO. Early-morning London highway traffic stopped to witness the “UFO” flying overhead with lights flashing every ten seconds. Emergency services, the army, and national media were alerted to an impending alien invasion.

Landing in a Surrey field, the occupants alighted wearing elaborate space costumes. This reportedly frightened a policeman into a hasty retreat before he realized that he (and many others) had been the unwitting victims of an elaborate April Fools’ Day prank.^[2]

8 Floating An Iceberg From Antarctica

An Australian entrepreneur staged an elaborate April Fools’ prank in 1978 which initially sent the local media into a frenzy. Early-morning commuters were astounded to see a massive iceberg floating across Sydney Harbor. Crowds gathered to watch the spectacle, both on and off the water, while radio listeners tuned in to hear the drama unfold.

Young electronics entrepreneur Dick Smith had been briefing media in the lead-up to his stunt, ostensibly a scheme to aid drought-stricken farmers by floating an iceberg from Antarctica. Using fire-retardant foam and shaving cream sprayed over a white sheet, Smith floated the drought-saving “iceberg” through Sydney Harbor to much fanfare on April Fools’ Day.

The hoax was revealed when rain “melted” the iceberg.^[3]

7 A Colorful TV Hoax

Color television was a long way off for Swedes in 1962. In fact, at the time, Sweden had only one black-and-white television station. However, on April Fools’ Day, a “technician” from the local TV station had viewers rushing for the lingerie drawer in a bid to watch their favorite programs in living color.

The broadcaster showed how simply placing a pair of ladies’ stockings over the TV screen would unlock the technology to magically turn the black-and-white TV sets into color. Once the pantyhose were in place, you needed only to move your head from side to side to make the color appear.

His use of elaborate technical jargon obviously fooled many, who were reportedly taken in by the simple yet funny April Fools’ hoax. It would be eight years before Sweden could actually enjoy real color TV technology.^[4]

6 San Seriffe Islands

We are always on the lookout for new vacation destinations. So in 1977, when the UK’s Guardian newspaper ran a story on the islands of San Seriffe, their phones rang hot with readers wanting to know more about this exotic travel destination.

A seven-page supplement detailed the islands in the Indian Ocean. Maps showed the two islands of “Upper Caisse” and “Lower Caisse.” The article described the capital city “Bodoni,” home of the leader “General Pica.” Of course, anyone with any printing knowledge should have smelled a rat, as every single name in the elaborate hoax was a printing term. The islands were also shaped like a semicolon.^[5]

5 ‘Nessie’ Found Dead

In 1972, newspapers around the world reported that the dead body of the Loch Ness Monster had been found. A team of scientists from a Yorkshire zoo had been on a research expedition when they came across the tragic find. However, it turned out to be an elaborate prank pulled by one of their colleagues, which gained a lot more attention than he had initially planned.

A large bull elephant seal had died at the zoo some weeks earlier. The zookeeper had seen the opportunity for a prank, shaving the seal’s whiskers and padding its mouth to make it look more “Nessie-like.”

The animal was then frozen and smuggled up to Loch Ness, to be thrown into the loch for his colleagues to find. The prank gained more attention than the joker intended when police chased down the English team’s truck so that they could retrieve Nessie’s body.^[6]

4 Left-Handed Whopper

There are many items which left-handers struggle to use on a daily basis—scissors, can openers, and fountain pens, to name a few. But hamburgers? A well-known US fast food chain managed to dupe many burger-lovers in 1998 with their new “Left-Handed Whopper,” which would be much easier for left-handed patrons to eat.

Burger King placed a full-page newspaper add, showing how while the main ingredients of their popular burger remained the same, the condiments were placed on the other side of the burger to make it easier to eat left-handed. The joke seems so silly that it’s surprising how many patrons actually went into the restaurants asking for the new left-handed burger.^[7]

3 Flying Penguins

In 2008, the BBC once again pranked their viewers with video footage showing a new evolution of penguins. Supposedly filmed on King George’s Island, the Adelie penguins were shown flying.

Presenters explained that the bitterly cold Antarctic conditions had caused the penguins to evolve. Rather than hibernating, they were now able to fly north to more tropical climates to enjoy winter in the sun.

A video clip of the “flying penguins” fooled many Internet viewers, who failed to discern the special effects used in the video. The British tabloid press seized upon the flying penguin story before the April Fools’ prank was revealed.^[8]

2 Smellovision

Another great April Fools’ joke which drew on the public’s general lack of understanding of television technology is “Smellovision.”

In 1965, the BBC interviewed a university professor who had reportedly made a breakthrough in TV technology which would provide viewers with a more interactive experience: By simply placing coffee beans and onions in his machine, the chemical reaction with the electronics would enable viewers to smell the aromas on their televisions at home.

This prank was incredibly far-fetched. Nevertheless, many viewers called the station to report that they had successfully smelled the scents on their TV sets.

1 Bringing Back The Woolly Mammoth

Readers of the MIT Technology Review in 1984 were sucked in by reports that scientists had brought a prehistoric animal back from extinction.

In “Retrobreeding the Woolly Mammoth,” the publication outlined Soviet scientists working with frozen mammoth DNA and elephant cells. The experiment was able to yield live mammoths, which gestated in elephant surrogate mothers.^[10]

Several news organizations failed to identify the joke, going into great detail on the research facilities, future research plans, and the history of the prehistoric creatures.

A mammoth fact-checking error.

Lesley Connor is a retired Australian newspaper editor who now provides travel articles for online publications and her own blog.

Human history is filled with dark, depressing stretches of misery and suffering. It should be treated with reverence and awe. Yet, most of it is hilarious.

Plenty of historical and cultural milestones only began when one joke spun out of control. The lives of millions of people were shaped just because one person wanted to try his hand at comedy. That might be the funniest joke of it all.

10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Was Meant To Be A One-Off Parody

In the early 1980s, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were bored. They had met a year earlier in hopes of becoming comic book cartoonists. Nothing was coming to them. While Laird was watching television, Eastman absentmindedly doodled. He drew a humorous sketch of a turtle with nunchucks and a mask. The image was so ridiculous that he showed it to Laird.

Laird thought it was so hilarious that he tried his hand at drawing one himself. The duo kept one-upping each other until they had four distinct vigilante turtles. Upon finishing the first sketches, Laird said, “This is the dumbest thing ever.” That might have been true, but Eastman and Laird wanted to turn the nonsensical idea of sword-wielding reptiles into a real thing.

The first issue of a Ninja Turtles comic book needed a plot as absurd as its characters. They settled on a parody of other popular comics in the early 1980s. It was the laziest parody they could think of.

Each of the titular adjectives of the newly dubbed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coincided with a favorite trait from one of other popular superheroes. The “teenage” described Jack Kirby’s canon. The “mutant” was a nod to the X-Men franchise.

“Ninja” was borrowed from Frank Miller’s samurai series Ronin. But this was not the only Frank Miller property from which Eastman and Laird borrowed. Daredevil gained his powers in the same toxic spill that created the Turtles. As the Daredevil main nemesis was “The Hand,” it only made sense that the Turtles fight the Foot clan.

Eastman invested $1,000 of his uncle’s money into self-publishing this bit. They turned a simple night of goofing around into a 42-page comic. From there, the TMNT franchise of TV series, video games, movies, and toys was born.^[1]

9 The Duck That Laid The Golden Egg

In 1983, George Lucas was coming off the heels of one of the most impressive streaks in movie history. He had just made American Graffiti, the Star Wars franchise, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. It looked like he could do no wrong.

But anybody who has been alive for the past three decades knows how much wrong he can do. Given carte blanche to create his vision, Lucas wanted to make a live-action version of one of his favorite comic book characters. For the first time in his career, Lucas stumbled. And what a stumble it was. The resulting movie, Howard the Duck, is now considered one of the worst comedies of all time.

As it was the first feature film adaption of a Marvel story, Lucas was assured that the movie was going to be a huge success. To fulfill his dream, he hired Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, the screenwriting team with whom he had worked on his big break, American Graffiti.

With the talent and intellectual property, everything looked like it was going to be great. It was not. Infamous scenes of interspecific love, endless duck puns, and rampant sexism led to a commercial and critical flop. In the US, Howard the Duck only earned back $16 million of its $37 million budget.

George Lucas had bet that the box office would fish him out of debt. With lackluster sales, he had to start selling his assets. One of those sales included the computer animation division of his production company.

His friend Steve Jobs bought the project. Jobs turned that investment into Pixar Studios. With movies as diverse as Toy Story, Up, and Finding Nemo, Pixar has produced movies that turned out far better than Howard the Duck.^[2]

8 ‘The Ostrich’ Stuck Its Head In The Underground

Lou Reed was the personification of leather-clad coolness. For a generation, he represented the epitome of New York swagger. Reed made his name on freaked-out records about taboos like heroin abuse, sadomasochism, and transsexualism. His best-selling song may have invited listeners to take a “walk on the wild side,” but his origins could not have tamer. One of rock’s great rebels started off as a pure corporate shill.

In the mid ‘60s, Reed was the in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records label. Pickwick was as minor as a record label could be. Without much success on their own, they had to try to fool people into buying their records.

Reed’s job was to write cheap knockoff singles that rode the popularity of fads of the time. When songs about hot rods were big, he invested a lot of mental power on a record called “Hot Rod Song.” “Johnny Can’t Surf No More” was a similarly obvious way to cash in on the surfing crazy.

Reed’s talent for mimicry eventually gave way to gimmicky absurdism. “I’ve Got a Tiger in My Tank” parodied car songs by adding giant cat roars on top. His attempt at a dance craze was the equally ridiculous “The Ostrich.”

This may not be Lou Reed’s best song, but it was certainly one of his most important. To record it, Pickwick hired a young Welsh musician named John Cale. Reed and Cale’s partnership began there. The duo blossomed three years later with The Velvet Underground, one of the most influential groups of all time.^[3]

7 The Novelty Record That Launched Gangsta Rap

In the 1980s, the California Raisin Advisory Board began airing a Claymation commercial for raisins. They could not have imagined how popular this was about to become. The basic plot of the commercial is that a man awakens to see a line of Claymation raisins dancing and singing to a parody of the Motown classic “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.”

The incredibly unfunny joke is that raisins come from grapes. Despite the simplicity of the punch line, the commercial became a cultural phenomenon. People could not get enough of the idea of dried fruit covering Marvin Gaye. The California Raisins released toys, a Saturday morning cartoon, a line of video games, and, of course, albums.

This inexplicable success was good news for Priority Records, a small independent LA label that hadn’t had a hit in years. All of a sudden, they were making millions off this silly fad.

Flush with this extra revenue, they could hire more interesting acts. The next artist signed by Priority was N.W.A., the opposite of the California Raisins in a lot of ways.

Weeks later, Priority became a rap powerhouse off the success of Straight Outta Compton. The album and Priority exploded gangsta rap into the public, changing music forever.^[4]

6 Susanna Salter Won An Election On A Prank

Decades before US women could vote nationally, Susanna Salter had already held public office. In 1887, the tiny Quaker town of Argonia, Kansas, elected the first woman mayor in US history. The election was a turning point in women’s suffrage.

Though she had a rather uneventful administration, Salter’s victory helped usher in a wave of other woman mayors in the West following the Civil War. However, Salter only got her position because a prank backfired.

She was a good choice for a mayoral candidate. Salter had political experience in her blood. Her father, Oliver Kinsey, had been Argonia’s first mayor. Her husband was city clerk.

With her own legal background, she prepared a local attorney for the bar. Salter wrote the ordinances of the town. She presided at the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) caucus. Under her leadership, the caucus selected men deemed worthy of office.

A group of 20 men did not like the idea that a woman had so much say in local politics. They devised a plan. They made a ticket with a set of candidates identical to the ones supported by the WCTU. The only difference is that they substituted Salter’s name in the mayor position. They assumed that no man would vote for a woman.^[5]

They also expected that Salter would be embarrassed and leave politics with presumably such few votes. When Salter voted that afternoon, she was shocked to find that she was listed as a candidate. She was even more amazed that she had received a two-thirds majority of the vote.

5 A Sexist Joke Discovered The Cosmos

Edward C. Pickering was going over the calculations from his researchers’ latest observations. When the researchers could not understand the calculations, he joked that they were so easy that his “Scotch maid could do better.”

This line may not have been meant as a joke, but it was interpreted as one. Pickering had been aware that his maid, Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming, was a mathematical genius. None of the other male researchers believed that.

The researchers called Pickering’s bluff and brought Fleming in. Very quickly, the researchers became the butt of the joke. Fleming’s calculations were incredibly precise. Impressed by her skill, Pickering started hiring only female researchers. There was also the additional incentive to save money by providing cheaper wages.

No matter the motive, that decision actually changed the universe. These women, known dismissively as “Pickering’s Harem,” conducted groundbreaking research. Fleming finally broke out of Pickering’s shadow when she discovered the Horsehead Nebula.

Other notable members included Annie Jump Cannon, whose system for identifying stars is still applied today, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who supplied the data that Edwin Hubble used to measure galactic distances.^[6]

4 Wristwatches Started Out As A ‘Silly-Ass Fad’

Businessmen and rappers like to flaunt their latest Rolexes as the height of class. To anybody from the turn of the 20th century, they would look ridiculous. It would be like bragging about bejeweled fidget spinners. Instead of flashy displays of wealth, wristwatches were originally chintzy novelty tricks.

Before wristwatches, men generally kept their watches in their pockets. It was seen as effeminate to wear your watch on your wrist. When men in Europe picked up on it, The New York Times called it a “silly-ass fad” in 1916.

Wristwatches then became popular among vaudeville stars as “more or less of a joke” or a “funmaker.” As far as jokes go, watching a dial spin around a clock is fairly tame. Wristwatches really took off in the US because of something not funny at all—World War I.

It was the first war to feature sophisticated aerial attacks. Soldiers on the ground needed to move as a unit. Timing was essential. When dodging gunfire and bombs, the delay from retrieving one’s watch from a pocket was an actual matter of life and death. To shave off extra seconds, soldiers wrapped their pocket watches to leather straps on their wrists.^[7]

Following the war, the soldiers brought this practice home with them. Companies like Cartier began modeling their products from these military designs. No longer a joke, they became an iconic status symbol.

3 A Prank Might Have Killed Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh is as famous for his death as his life. His suicide perfectly fits the model of a rejected genius so shunned by the world that he would rather kill himself than go on.

Generations after his untimely death, van Gogh was recognized as a true genius, making his death all the more tragic. This narrative is poetic, but according to Pulitzer Prize–winning researchers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, it is dead wrong. They are convinced that van Gogh was accidentally shot to death in a joke gone wrong.

Van Gogh had as much success making friends as he did wearing earmuffs. He was often the target of a gang of teenagers who liked to get drunk and mess with him. Van Gogh took particular interest in Gaston Secretan, but it was Gaston’s brother who proved to be the most consequential for van Gogh.

Whereas Gaston was quiet, Rene Secretan was a young prankster. Rene pulled harmless practical jokes on van Gogh—like putting salt in his coffee or hiding a garden snake in his paint box.

Much to van Gogh’s chagrin, Rene also had a habit of waving around a malfunctioning pistol while dressed as the pioneer Buffalo Bill. Naifeh and Smith believe that Rene’s comedy became tragic one fateful night when the gun accidentally went off. The discharged bullet lodged in van Gogh’s abdomen. He died 29 hours later.

The theory has been met with serious backlash from other historians, but there is some evidence to support the claim. Despite his mental anguish, van Gogh did not leave behind a suicide note. In 1956, following the release of the highly acclaimed van Gogh biopic Lust for Life, Rene admitted to torturing the artist.

In 2014, doctors noted that van Gogh would have held the gun in an unnatural and awkward position to shoot the bullet from the angle suggested by the entry wound. This configuration would have caused black powder burns on his hands. At the time, no doctors noted any burns.

Dr. Vincent Di Maio, a leading handgun forensic expert, concluded in 2014: “It is my opinion that, in all medical probability, the wound incurred by van Gogh was not self-inflicted. In other words, he did not shoot himself.”^[8]

2 The Butt That Killed Thousands

Mooning is asinine, particularly the first syllable. For something so stupid, it sure is a simple joke. Everything one needs to make the joke is already attached to them. Throw in a fart for good measure, and one has reached the pinnacle of bathroom humor. Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus recorded how one fart was not silent, but it still was deadly.

AD 66 was not the best time to be devoutly Jewish. The Roman government ostracized the religion and caused deep divides. Tensions were at their highest around religious holidays. One unnamed soldier widened this rift when he exposed a crack of his own.

The mooned Jewish pilgrims did not like being the actual butt of the joke, especially during Passover. The insulted pilgrims threw rocks at the soldiers, who deployed reinforcements. The resulting stampede left more than 10,000 people dead. The riot marked one of the more seismic events in the lead-up to the First Jewish–Roman War.^[9]

1 The Party Was Lit At Le Bal Des Ardents

For some historical events, comedy is tragedy plus time. For others, comedy plus time is tragedy. Few events capture that better than Le Bal des Ardents (“The Ball of the Burning Men”).

In the 1300s, third weddings were light affairs where pranks were common. King Charles VI of France thought it would be funny to prank the wedding of his queen’s lady-in-waiting Catherine de Fastaverin. Instead of having a fun time, Charles VI committed the ultimate party faux pas when he ruined the dance floor.

His prank was less a witticism and more a display of stupidity. The joke amounted to having some attendees dress up as wild apes while howling and shouting obscenities. To look like beasts, their costumes were covered in hair consisting of hemp, linen, and tar.^[10]

For a short while, their antics were the life of the party. That quickly changed when Charles VI’s brother showed up late and drunk. He stumbled in with a torch in hand. The embers from the torch set the men on fire.

Four of them died as their costumes burned. The heat so scalded their genitals that their testicles fell to the ground. The king barely survived by jumping into his aunt’s skirt.

Charles VI was already mentally unstable, but this event pushed him over the edge. The tragedy also revealed how fragile he was. Concerns about the stability of the throne led to sectarian violence. Charles was now perceived as a failure. His Valois bloodline was seriously defamed, eventually leading to two decades of civil war over the throne.

If you enjoyed the article, you can write to the author at [email protected]. If you want to see what the author thinks is funny, you can follow him on Twitter @NateYungman. Hopefully, his jokes don’t cause any civil wars.

Some people will try to dismiss their poor behavior by insisting whatever they did was just a joke. True or not, the idea is that if something’s a joke you can’t take it seriously because who would ever take a joke seriously? That’s the whole point of a joke. As it happens, some jokes do get taken seriously and have some serious repercussions as well. 

10. A Stegosaurus’ Tail Spikes Were Named Thanks to a Far Side Joke

Dinosaurs have long fascinated people and movies like Jurassic Park made them all the more interesting to everyday people. There’s an entire NBA franchise named after a dinosaur arguably because Jurassic Park made raptors famous. And while interest was high, it didn’t mean everyone knew everything there was to know about dinosaurs. For instance, what do you call the end of a stegosaurus’s tail?

The distinctive spikes that we’re pretty sure served as a defensive weapon on the dino’s tail never actually had a name, scientifically speaking. But in 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published a Far Side comic in which a caveman is teaching a group of cavemen dinosaur anatomy and labels the tail a Thagomizer, in honor of the late Thag Simmons. The joke, of course, is that a caveman named Thag got a little too close to the tail and met his end.

Fast forward to 1993 and a paleontology conference in which a paleontologist is discussing a newly found fossil of the tail, and evidence that it was used as a weapon and then grew new bone later. The scientist in question, lacking a proper name but remembering the cartoon, called it a Thagomizer in front of his peers. 

The name spread from there and is now in published, scientific works as the generally accepted name of a stegosaurus tail.

9. The FBI Wasted Two Years Investigating a Joke

Part of the work done by the FBI includes investigating cults and hate groups. In 2005, they opened a file on a group called God Hates Goths that they’d discovered on the internet. Based on their research, God Hates Goths was a religious extremist group with ties to the hateful Westboro Baptist Church.

Writings found on the internet from the group called for violence against those who defied God, but especially people who were part of the goth subculture. As their investigation continued, the FBI came to believe the group may have committed several acts of arson as well as poisoning mentally handicapped children. But their investigation was hard to manage because finding witnesses was proving impossible. 

For two years the FBI kept hitting roadblocks in trying to find any concrete evidence of the crimes committed by the hate group. Then, two years after the investigation started, someone actually read the God Hates Goths website which included a disclaimer that the entire site was a joke. The FBI then shut down their investigation.

8. Babe Ruth’s Nickname Started as a Joke

Babe Ruth played baseball over 100 years ago and to this day remains one of the most famous players in the game. Born George Herman Ruth, his nickname didn’t come around until 1914 when he caught the attention of Jack Dunn, the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles team. 

Ruth was only 19 when Dunn wanted to sign him to the team, but that was still considered underage at the time, which meant he needed a legal guardian’s permission. In order to skirt the rules a little, Dunn actually became Ruth’s legal guardian and thus gave himself permission to sign the young man.

The arrangement was vaguely shady, but it also caused people to make the joke that Ruth was “Dunn’s babe.” The name stuck and spread and thus the legend of Babe Ruth was born. 

7. A Canadian Company Started Selling Canned Air as a Joke

Once upon a time people thought bottled water was a silly idea but now over 350 billion liters are sold every year. Some people still think it’s silly when tap water in most parts of the world is fine, but it’s unlikely bottled water is ever going away.

Two Canadians took the idea of a product no one needs to have packaged one step further when they started selling Canadian fresh air as a joke. They ended up getting $122 US dollars for a bag of it on eBay and so they sold another and that’s when inspiration struck. 

The two began a business selling canned air to China. Places like Beijing are known for their terrible air quality and so, in 2015, the pair were selling hundreds of bottles of air on the Chinese market for between $10 and $20 a piece. Back then they had cleared a shipment of 500 bottles and were moving towards selling 700 more. Small potatoes, relatively speaking.

By 2019, the company was making over $300,000 per year. They were getting most of their sales online and in shops in South Korea. They source their air from different locations in Canada and each bottle has a mask included and enough air for 160 breaths.

6. Newman’s Own Salad Dressing Began As a Joke

One of the most recognizable salad dressing brands in any supermarket is Newman’s Own, named for Hollywood legend Paul Newman. By 2021 the company had made over $200 million selling salad dressing making it an unequivocal success. Remarkably, Newman was inspired to start the company based on a joke between himself and a friend.

According to writer A. E. Hotchner, who was Newman’s neighbor, he’d gone to visit his friend one evening in 1980 just before Christmas. He found Newman in the garage with all the ingredients to make a massive batch of salad dressing but no way to stir it. He ended up using a paddle for a canoe and the two of them filled a bunch of wine bottles with the homemade dressing that Newman planned to give away to friend’s as Christmas presents. 

Newman had never really intended to get into the business, it was just something for fun that one night. But the dressing must have been good, because within two years the men founded Newman’s Own.

5. Frosted Light Bulbs Were a Prank Assignment From GE Until Someone Made One

Sometimes when you start work at a new company, the established employees will haze you a little by giving you an awful job to do as a joke. Marvin Pipkin had to endure this when he started work at GE back in 1919. At the time it was an established joke that new employees were assigned the task of producing a frosted glass bulb. The joke was that the company had been trying for years to make a reliable frosted glass light bulb but had never created one that wouldn’t fall apart. They were so brittle they’d even break during installation.

When Pipkin came on board as an engineer, the older employees played their usual prank. Pipkin took it seriously and ended up solving the puzzle of frosting a bulb while allowing it to stay strong thanks to a phone call interrupting him and causing him to spill some acid out of the bulb. What had eluded engineers for years was solved by Pipkin in a few weeks.

4. Comedian Hamish Blake Won a Bodybuilding Competition Despite Not Being a Bodybuilder

Every so often someone decides to do something as a joke because they have no business doing it. Often this involves trying to perform a task they don’t have the skill to perform, just to see how it’ll play out. That’s how comedian Hamish Blake ended up in a New York State bodybuilding competition.

Blake was by no means a bodybuilder, and not even in good shape, really. But he entered the 2011 competition and, because of his size, he was actually the only competitor in the heavyweight weight class. And while that makes for a good joke it also put the competition judges in a bind. Blake was not competing against anyone which meant, by default, he was the best contender. So he ended up winning the competition.

3. Wristwatches Were Considered Silly When They First Appeared

Fashion fads come and go and some are much more regrettable than others. You rarely see Hammer pants or men in jumpsuits anymore. But there is one fad that caught on so well most people have no idea it was ever a fad at all – wristwatches.

Once upon a time your watch was on a chain and you kept it in your pocket. This changed during WWI when soldiers found that having a watch on their wrist was a lot easier to deal with. 

In 1916, the New York Times noted that “bracelets with clocks in them” were something of a joke and it was a curious European trend. The actual quote was “silly ass fad.”

Soldiers in the war needed ready access to the time for precision communication and movements and the only way they could manage this was with a wristwatch. Civilians were quick to appreciate the convenience of a wristwatch as well and the joke fad from Europe soon became the standard around the world. 

2. The Habeas Corpus Act Allegedly Passed Based on a Joke

Habeas Corpus protects against unlawful imprisonment. It’s one of the basic rights laid out in the Constitution. It’s part of the foundation of law in many nations, not just the US. But how the act came to be written has long been alleged to be partially based on a joke.

Now, keep in mind, there’s not a lot of evidence this is true, but it’s also one of those “this can’t be true, can it?” situations where there isn’t a lot of detail refuting it either. But it does make for a good and often repeated story.

According to legend, when the act was signed into English law in 1679, it barely passed the vote. In fact, so the story goes, because it was so close that the assembled lords joked that one of the votes in favor, which came from a man they considered quite fat, should be counted as 10, and so it was. This allowed the bill to pass by four or five votes. 

The story probably doesn’t hold up too well under scrutiny but has been accepted as fact in many circles.

1. Susanna Salter Was Nominated for Mayor as a Joke 

There’s a popular term on the internet that’s abbreviated “FAFO” with the latter two letters meaning “find out.” You can Google the first two if you’re unfamiliar. But the gist of this little acronym is that sometime, if you push too far, you’ll end up regretting it. That happened in 1887 in Kansas.

Women had just attained the right to vote that year and so, in the town of Argonia, a group of women came together as part of a temperance movement with the goal of prohibiting alcohol. Now that they had voting rights they felt they could make a difference. Among those women was Susanna Salter.

One evening the women were looking to choose a candidate who they could get behind but several men, who were anti-prohibition, attended the meeting. They mocked the women and then secretly held their own meeting later.

They made up ballots and put Salter’s name on them to run for mayor. The women had never considered fielding a female candidate; they were looking to support men who shared their values. But these men, looking to insult Salter and her group, added her name to ballots they printed as a joke with the expectation anyone seeing a woman running for mayor would think she was a complete fool. Back then you could print up ballots because elections were pretty disorganized and no one really cared.

The plan backfired horribly when the joke candidate ended up getting massive support from the community, winning the election with 60% of the vote. She became the first female mayor in America.

April Fool’s Day has been observed in one form or another for hundreds of years. Some of the tricks and jokes played on the day are simple and harmless, while others can be oddly elaborate and mean spirited. In modern times, you can count on newspapers, businesses and websites to run fake stories every April Fool’s Day, making everyone a little paranoid about what can and can’t be believed that day.

As it happens, every so often, one of those pranks or jokes really strikes a chord with people. Then the joke is less that it was played at all and more that people got really excited by the possibility of it being true, which has led to more than one joke finding its way into the real world.

This is an encore of one of our previous lists, as presented by our YouTube host Simon Whistler. Read the full list!

Everybody loves a good prank! Pranks are supposed to be a harmless way to play a joke on a friend or family member in an innocuous and good-natured way. However, small pranks sometimes start “prank wars,” causing the practical jokes to spiral out of control, becoming mean and dangerous.

While a good prank is a work of art, some jokesters just don’t know when to stop! Others simply should never have started pranking in the first place. Our list today includes 10 practical jokes that went too far. These “hilarious” pranksters touch on political corruption, lacing drugs into baked goods, fake national disasters, and pregnancy. What a gas!

As we go through this list of ill-advised pranks, remember this advice. When it comes to practical jokes, less is almost always more. Also, consider safety because none of the pranks below ended the way the jokesters thought they would. Let’s get into it!

10 Richard Nixon Running for President in 1992?

The first prankster on our list decided to take things way too far. As we all know, religion and politics are two things people do not take lightly. A fake presidential candidate? Sure, that could be funny. But, this practical joker took things to a whole new level by deciding to impersonate one of the most infamous presidents in United States history.

In 1992, this prankster claimed to be the notorious Richard Nixon. He conducted a radio interview with NPR, in which he said that he was running for president. In the interview, he doubled down on his famous “I am not a crook!” statement and said he “never did anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.”

While I can admit that is a funny thing to say (and made even funnier with a convincing Nixon impersonation), it was not funny when thousands of people thought that the disgraced Republican was actually re-seeking the presidency.

9 Pot-Laced Muffins

All sorts of “senior pranks” have backfired in high schools across the country, but this one takes the cake. Or at least the muffin.

Two Dallas area high school students decided to bake up some special treats for their high school faculty. These weren’t ordinary muffins; the students laced them with a secret ingredient: marijuana. Reportedly the two seniors put their special muffins into the teacher’s lounge. Obviously, the muffins looked tasty because many teachers ate them. However, the boys must have done something wrong because 19 staff members had to take trips to the emergency room in the aftermath. It is safe to say that this prank did not go how the students intended.

8 UFO Sighting in Jafr, Jordan?

With some of these pranks, it is really hard to figure out what the “jokesters” were thinking. The next prank falls squarely into that category.

Being the editor of a newspaper in a small city in Jordan is probably a challenging job. What are the best ways to draw people to your city and attract tourists? Here are three possibilities: writing about improved infrastructure, local festivals, and beautiful architecture. In 2010, the local newspaper of Jafr, Jordan, took a different approach—an otherworldly one.

In order to draw attention to their city, the newspaper ran an article indicating that a UFO had landed near their fair city. Instead of increasing interest, this article caused panic. The mayor of Jafr evacuated more than 10,000 people. While it is hard to figure out exactly what the newspaper was thinking, at least the article was printed on April Fools Day, so maybe that should have been a clue to the citizens of Jafr.

7 Exploding Chair Gag

A couple that pranks together also laughs and… sometimes cries together. The next prank on our list comes from a couple of professional prankers. Comedian Robin Armstrong and his girlfriend had a YouTube channel where they would share the various pranks that they played on one another. His girlfriend came up with a prank she thought their subscribers would love.

Armstrong’s girlfriend rigged a chair to explode, planning for it to launch Armstrong into a pool. While Armstrong did not see the prank coming, when the chair exploded, things went awry. He was shot more than 10 feet (3 meters) into the air and did not land in the pool. Instead, he landed on the ground and broke his back. The fortunate news for this prankster couple is that Armstrong did not suffer any permanent damage, although he had to spend several weeks at the hospital.

6 Covered Stop Sign

Maybe it is just me, but I have never seen much humor in messing with traffic signs that are designed to keep everyone safe. I guess I am not cut out to be a prankster!

Two teenage boys near Columbus, Ohio, thought traffic signs did not provide them with enough entertainment and decided to make some adjustments. They covered a stop sign (arguably the most important of all traffic signs) and made it so drivers could not see it. The teenage pranksters did this by wrapping the stop sign completely with plastic wrap and petroleum jelly. They were so proud of the work that they even talked about it on social media.

Fortunately, many drivers were familiar with the area and stopped, even without a visible sign. But, eventually, their luck ran out. Two elderly sisters were driving and did not see the stop sign (thanks to this prank). The vehicle was struck by oncoming traffic and killed the passenger immediately, while the driver eventually had to have her leg amputated above the knee.

Both pranksters were eventually held accountable for their actions, taking guilty pleas for reckless homicide.

5 Pregnancy Prank

The next prank on our list is a two-parter! It took place on the most famous of pranking holidays, April Fools Day, in 2013. Strap in because this one is extra ridiculous! These pranks relate to a young couple in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the time, Tori Wheeler, an 18-year-old, came up with a two-part practical joke to play on her boyfriend (at the time) Derek Bauer.

Wheeler’s premise was pretty straightforward. She told Bauer that she was pregnant. However, Wheeler was far from finished. Bauer did not respond to her practical joke in the way she liked, so Wheeler pulled out a knife. The police were called before anyone was hurt, but Wheeler claimed that she pulled the knife out as a prank, too!

All kidding aside, this prank clearly went too far, and we should all be thankful that no one was injured.

4 Twins Prank a Bank

Throughout this list, we have seen pranks on politics, road signs, knives, and pregnancies. What else is hilarious? That’s right, robbing a bank!

The twin pranksters Alex and Alan Stokes thought of this inarguably clever and funny idea. The twins at least had the wisdom not to go inside the bank to attempt their practical joke. They brought their own cash (in bags) and had masks covering their face outside the bank’s front entrance. Then, they called an Uber driver who was intended to be the prank victim. Like a reasonable citizen, the Uber driver refused to give a ride to two people who appeared to have robbed a bank.

Nearby observers must not have gotten the joke, as the police were called on the twins. The police were kind and let the boys go. However, they couldn’t let this funny joke die and tried it again the same day. This time, they were charged. For supposedly professional pranksters with a significant YouTube following, this practical joke was poorly thought out and went way too far.

3 Blue Hill Eruption?

Next on our list is a prank from a Boston television news segment. It took place on April Fools Day back in 1980. Producer Homer Cilley created an entire broadcast as a prank.

In the report, the news station alerted citizens about a hill in nearby Milton, Massachusetts. It indicates that (although it is just a hill and has never shown any seismic activity) the Great Blue Hill was beginning to erupt. The newscasters described the lava and danger in great detail. There were also warnings from the American president at the time, Jimmy Carter.

As the cherry on top, the producer also included real volcano footage to really sell his prank. Well, it worked! Citizens definitely thought there was a volcanic eruption and panicked, many taking out their ire on the TV station. Cilley was fired for the practical joke.

2 Students Try to Teach Their Teachers a Lesson

Three high school pranksters from Brooklyn had a similar prank to number nine above, but it was far more malicious. The students made some tasty cakes for their teachers. These were covered on top with what appeared to be red candy. The candy? It was actually a laxative!

As you might expect, none of the teachers found this prank amusing. Five reported significant health concerns. To be honest, I don’t know how these practical jokers ever expected this prank to go any differently. They are just fortunate that nobody got more seriously hurt.

1 Gas Prank (Not What You’re Thinking)

We have another butt-related prank as the final item on our list. This one involves a specific tool used in manufacturing, compressed air. Compressed air is used for a variety of things in manufacturing. It is not intended to be used for practical jokes.

The compressed air comes with enormous force, enough to push through the skin. In 2018, in Japan, one man thought it would be funny to use the air unconventionally. He directed the compressed air toward a colleague’s backside. The results, as you might expect, were horrific. The air shot through the victim’s clothes and into his body, all the way into his lungs. This led to his eventual death.

Remember, keeping pranks small and harmless is the way to keep them funny..