Fleetstreet: The tradition of April 2nd is...

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that the newspapers own up to some of the fake stories they put in the previous days edition...

The Daily Mail does this. They make up some spurious rubbish about black bags being banned as unpoliticallysensetive, all the disgTunbridgeColonels huff about it, then a small aprilsfool piece that no-one notices in the next day, but the seed has been planted!

What say ye? (or post your favourite AprilFoolsday Newspaper stories...)

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

George W Bush is a real person

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

We apologise for every story regarding asylum seekers for the last 100 years being racist shite.

― Pau1 Dacr3 (daveb), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

one of the questions on university cabbage last night was "which newpaper printed the headline "hurrah for the blackshirts" in 1934?"

(the mail, i was not overly surpried to find out)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Do they even bother anymore?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 10:48 (twenty-two years ago)

The best newspaper April Fool's story I've read was an article in the Grimsby Evening Telegraph explaining that, due to subsidence, Grimsby Dock Tower was going to have to be dismantled and moved to Hull. A couple of days later they devoted several pages to indignant letters of complaint from people who hadn't realised it was a joke.

(NB: this may only be amusing if you are from Grimsby.)

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 10:53 (twenty-two years ago)

A couple of years my Dad sent a memo round at work telling everyone a Feng Shui expert was coming in on April 1 to assess each office and move the furniture around. The number of people who fell for it was incredible. He also got a couple of complaints about the inappropriateness of April Fools jokes in the office.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

for complicated reasons, in our house we used to read day old versions of the London Times. So when I read on April 2nd about how Belgium was splitting into two countries I took this entirely at face value, and was surprised that this wasn't the top story.

Once Tomorrow's World fell on 1st April, and they ran a load of outlandish stories (none of which I can remember). At the end of the show they said "And if you're wondering which story is the April Fools joke - none of them are".

the best ever was when the first episode of a new TV series "The Fact Of The Matter" went out on 1st April, reporting on Hitler's secret visit to Britain in the 1930s, when he stayed as a guest of Unity Mitford. It started off very seriously, but I became a bit suspicious when they revealed that Hitler became so annoyed by television that he burned down the Crystal Palace thinking it was Alexandra Palace.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 11:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm sure there was a tomorrows world april fool where they showed a small black box with no obvious moving parts that could store almost 100 songs on it...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 11:42 (twenty-two years ago)

.. and then they spread Jam on it, and it played "Autobahn"...

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

no no no, not that one, it was just like ye olde sony memory stick type thing...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 12:06 (twenty-two years ago)

SO, what's these years, and how close to the way the particular paper views the world outside, or would like to?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 1 April 2004 06:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Unbe-fuckin-leviable.

A mate has sent a spoof story to Melanie Phillips, who forwarded it to the newsdesk.

-----Original Message-----
From: anon@anon.com
Sent: 01 April 2004 00:20
To: m.phillips@dailymail.co.uk
Subject: Bulgarian Immigrant

Dear Melanie,

I have just read your excellent article about the dangers that the government's shambles of an immigration policy could bring to this country.

Here in Camden we have a large community of Bulgarians. A few weeks ago I was introduced to an amazing character called Ivan Balhakov. He managed to get a visa to enter this country by claiming that he was going to work for our overstretched National Health Service as a surgeon. He is in fact completely blind!

You won't be surprised to know that far from helping our public services he is of course claiming disability benefits, and he spends much of his days begging outside Camden Town tube station. But he also has a lucrative sideline importing water snakes from Bulgaria to sell to aquariums throughout London and the South-East.

It's about time these sort of scams were brought to an end, so the likes of Mr. Balhakov can be returned to where they came from!

Keep up the good work,

Tim.

From: "Melanie Phillips"
Date: 2004/04/01 Thu AM 08:31:49 GMT
To: anon@anon.com
CC:
Subject: RE: Bulgarian Immigrant

Thanks very much for this. I shall pass your message on to my newsdesk, in case they are interested to follow this up.

Best wishes

Melanie

From: dan.newling@dailymail.co.uk
Date: 2004/04/01 Thu AM 09:32:33 GMT
To: anon@anon.com
Subject: blind Bulgarian surgeon

Dear Mr Anon,

I have been passed a copy of an email you sent to Melanie Phillips. Thank you very much for getting in contact.

We are very interested in talking to Mr Balhakov about his visa and his blindness.

I would be very grateful if you could get in touch as soon as possible in order to help find this guy.

My mobile number is ***** *** ***.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely

Dan Newling
reporter

― someone else altogether, Thursday, 1 April 2004 11:10 (twenty-two years ago)

There's at least one paper with something like this on their front page... (back in a bit)

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 1 April 2004 11:14 (twenty-two years ago)

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 1 April 2004 11:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I bet Ivan Balhakov was the dude who sold my flatmate the "dope" in Camden that was in fact a piece of wood!!!!!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 1 April 2004 11:23 (twenty-two years ago)

That Daily Mail sting has brought joy to my heart.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 1 April 2004 12:54 (twenty-two years ago)

As does the fact that you've just posted an (apparently) real Daily Mail hack's mobile number on a public Internet message board!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 1 April 2004 12:55 (twenty-two years ago)

heh I am laffing like a drane!!!!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 1 April 2004 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

ILX in not being completly responsible SHOCKAH!

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 1 April 2004 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Melanie Phillips? What a horror. Post her address if you like.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 1 April 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

[someone else], that's beautiful.

Does anyone remember the Guardian pullout section from maybe 10 years ago which had features like 'Fergie moves to two-up, two-down in Wigan' and 'Camille Paglia to adopt boy, Adam'?

I always wanted to ring up the features desk at ES magazine on April 1 and pitch an article about how difficult it is to find good help these days.

― suzy (suzy), Thursday, 1 April 2004 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

The Guardian had a spoof travel piece in its saturday mag last week, all about a fictional (Balkan?) country called, er, Monrovia I think. Was pretty funny.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 1 April 2004 13:58 (twenty-two years ago)

The capital of Liberia?

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw that, along with that thing about the Emotional IQ Test - which I assume was a spoof?!!?!??!?!?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

A few years ago a friend of ours did stand outside her house to see if she could see the hole in the ozone layer, which was supposed to be hovering above Dublin that day.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyway, the goodol' mail has a 'photo' of the Queen, with Corgi's, going into Ladbrokes. Righto.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:16 (twenty-two years ago)

This morning one of the tutors got here to find police tape all across his office door. Assuming it was an April Fool, he took it down and went about his business, only to discover that there HAD actually been a break-in. Eek. (Nothing was taken apart from some nappies (yes), so maybe it WAS a sort of April Fool, albeit a crap, drastic one.)

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I think with that Tomorrow's World one with the outlandish stories, the gag was that they told people to touch pictures on their screen to vote for the one they thought was the April Fool.

― ferg (Ferg), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Spagetti growing on tress was a famous Panorama one. Them were't days...

― Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

You know, i looked at that BMW ad one in the Independent and just thought 'I know that's an April Fool but hey it's a really good idea!'

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

The Guardian once did a big fake piece on the Latin American country named San Serif. I don't know how many were fooled.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 1 April 2004 22:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Any others, admitted to this morning?

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 2 April 2004 08:40 (twenty-two years ago)