Friday, April 1, 2011

Happy April Fool's day!

Imagine being told that spaghetti can now be grown on a tree, or that pulling a stocking over a black and white television would cause it to show colour images instead, or a burger especially designed for left-handed people. Yip! You’ve guessed it. Happy April Fool’s day!

April fool’s day has become quite the annual event. I have to admit that I found myself being very wary of any news that I heard today, whether it was via television, radio or e-mail. Nowadays the ideas are very original and sometimes there’s even preparation leading up to the day so that it wouldn’t seem an obvious prank. You can never be too cautious!

I remember a few years ago a local radio station with a large Afrikaans audience announced that they have changed their broadcasting policy so that they wouldn’t be supporting local Afrikaans artists anymore. They felt that English music was of a higher standard and that it has even been requested by some that they please remove Afrikaans music; that they were responding to the demand of their audience. They had a newspaper create headlines for it, and was joined in their efforts by one of South Africa’s leading Afrikaans artists. He pretended to protest very openly and even making threats, boycotting the radio station and barricading the entrance to their premises. They had listeners beyond hot under the collar and further stoked the fires with very aggressive callers and open conflict on air. They played their roles brilliantly!! I couldn’t make up my mind whether I believed them or whether it was just a prank.

The prank lasted for about a week and was concluded the next morning (2nd) with the revealing of the truth. It was so well done that you simply couldn’t discern, but afterward everyone gave a huge sigh of relief!

Today I heard news that the fees for ID and passport documents have, in some cases, increased with up to 700%. I have to be honest that I am still uncertain whether this is a prank or not. It most certainly sound like a joke to me. On the one hand I want to think it was just a joke, but then again how much of a sense of humor can a government department have? Sometimes it would seem that they are a joke most of the year. The 1st of April is not an exception.

I’m sure that tomorrow will be an interesting day full of stories of those who were tricked and I’m certain that the laughter will continue possibly for a few more days to come. Not a bad thing, if you ask me.

Check out the top 100 April Fool’s Day hoaxes of all time here. These were judged by creativity, notoriety and the number of people caught for a sucker. Have you ever been caught for an April fool? Drop me a line and tell me all about it.

Now seeing as it is April Fool’s day, I thought it appropriate to beat some sense (of humour) into this Friday. Have an awesome weekend everyone!

2 comments:

  1. I wonder if the petrol price hike was an AFD prank? I do hope so.

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  2. I can hardly believe the difference in the petrol price during my time away. I didn't realize how much it has increased... Someone seems to think that everyday is AFD. Only thing is no one is laughing :(

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