Today is April Fools’ Day.
Though I have yet to be pranked today, I thought it may be fun to review some of the best April Fools’ pranks in history. Here’s a few from the past 100 years:
The Spaghetti Tree Hoax (1957) - VIEW HERE
The BBC aired a story about a family in Switzerland who supposedly harvested spaghetti from their spaghetti tree.
The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe (1974) - VIEW HERE
A prankster named Oliver "Porky" Bickar flew hundreds of tires into the dormant Alaskan volcano Mount Edgecumbe and set them on fire, creating the illusion of an eruption.
The Sidd Finch Hoax (1985) - VIEW HERE
Sports Illustrated published an article about a mysterious baseball player named Sidd Finch, who could reportedly throw a fastball at 168 miles per hour.
The Taco Liberty Bell (1996) - VIEW HERE
Taco Bell announced in a full-page ad in several major newspapers that they had purchased the Liberty Bell and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell."
The Left-Handed Whopper (1998) - VIEW HERE
Burger King published a full-page advertisement in USA Today announcing the "Left-Handed Whopper," designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans.
It’s easy to understand why people might have fallen for these hoaxes in the past. The world had fewer media sources, so when a reputable source like the BBC did a report on spaghetti trees, it was easy to believe that the story might be legitimate.
However, today we deal with a different crisis of validation. With the advancements of AI, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell what is real and what is fake. Just this past week, an image of the Pope in a white puffer jacket went viral because people believed it to be real. In reality, it was a fake, artificially generated image, which in turn caused Midjourney (a popular AI-powered image generator) to cut off free trials of their service.
The world is getting weird. Pretty soon, you will not be able to trust anything that you see on the internet (no photos, no videos, no audio). As if that weren’t already the case…
Stay vigilant today!
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Today is April Fools’ Day.
Though I have yet to be pranked today, I thought it may be fun to review some of the best April Fools’ pranks in history. Here’s a few from the past 100 years:
The Spaghetti Tree Hoax (1957) - VIEW HERE
The BBC aired a story about a family in Switzerland who supposedly harvested spaghetti from their spaghetti tree.
The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe (1974) - VIEW HERE
A prankster named Oliver "Porky" Bickar flew hundreds of tires into the dormant Alaskan volcano Mount Edgecumbe and set them on fire, creating the illusion of an eruption.
The Sidd Finch Hoax (1985) - VIEW HERE
Sports Illustrated published an article about a mysterious baseball player named Sidd Finch, who could reportedly throw a fastball at 168 miles per hour.
The Taco Liberty Bell (1996) - VIEW HERE
Taco Bell announced in a full-page ad in several major newspapers that they had purchased the Liberty Bell and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell."
The Left-Handed Whopper (1998) - VIEW HERE
Burger King published a full-page advertisement in USA Today announcing the "Left-Handed Whopper," designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans.
It’s easy to understand why people might have fallen for these hoaxes in the past. The world had fewer media sources, so when a reputable source like the BBC did a report on spaghetti trees, it was easy to believe that the story might be legitimate.
However, today we deal with a different crisis of validation. With the advancements of AI, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell what is real and what is fake. Just this past week, an image of the Pope in a white puffer jacket went viral because people believed it to be real. In reality, it was a fake, artificially generated image, which in turn caused Midjourney (a popular AI-powered image generator) to cut off free trials of their service.
The world is getting weird. Pretty soon, you will not be able to trust anything that you see on the internet (no photos, no videos, no audio). As if that weren’t already the case…
Stay vigilant today!
