The Jovian-Plutonian effect

Renowned astronomer and beloved presenter of The Sky at Night, Patrick Moore, had the credibility and stern air of authority which allowed him to pull off a prank that was out of this world. In 1976, Moore told radio listeners that, due to a rare planetary alignment of Pluto and Jupiter, the Earth would experience a shift in its gravitational forces that morning, allowing them to float into the air. At precisely 9:47am, Moore instructed the listeners to ‘Jump now!’. Within minutes, calls were coming in reporting that they had felt the impact of the Jovian-Plutonian effect. One caller claimed that she and her eleven friends had ‘orbited gently around the room’. Another complained that he had risen so high that he hit his head on the ceiling and demanded compensation.

Edison’s miraculous machine

In the year following his invention of the phonograph in 1877, the New York Graphic jumped on the opportunity to trick their readers into thinking Thomas Edison had created a new machine capable of turning dirt into meat and water into wine. ‘Edison invents a machine that will feed the human race!’ ran the sensational headline. It was, of course, a total fabrication. The writer even admitted this at the end of the article, concluding that he woke up and it was all a dream. This didn’t stop several American newspapers from reprinting the story believing it to be true. In their next edition, the Graphic condemned the ‘hasty reading’ by their gullible audience under the tongue-in-cheek caption: ‘They Bite’.

The volcanic eruption that wasn’t

One of the most audacious pranks of all time was the fake eruption of the Mount Edgecumbe volcano in Alaska. It was carried out not by a media outlet, but by a local logger named Oliver ‘Porky’ Bickar and was a hoax years in the making. Bickar diligently collected 70 tyres which he stashed away in an airplane hangar, waiting for an April Fool’s Day with clear enough skies and the right weather conditions to pull off his plan. That day came in 1974 when Bickar used a chartered helicopter to deposit the tyres into the volcano’s crater. He then doused them with fuel and set them alight, causing a satisfyingly thick and ominous plume of smoke to billow up.

Local townsfolk rushed into the streets, fearful that the long-dormant volcano was going to blow. While the police and fire service were in on the joke, Bickar had forgotten to inform the Coast Guard. They flew over to inspect the situation, but instead of seeing molten lava, they saw the old tires ablaze, surrounded by giant spray-painted letters reading ‘APRIL FOOL’.