RSS Feed

Posts Tagged ‘aprilfools’

  1. Flying penguins

    April 1, 2008 by dafyd

    When the BBC decides to do an April Fools joke, they don’t take any shortcuts. This new trail for the iPlayer, for example: Terry Jones discovers flying penguins in Antarctica.

    Beautifully shot, seamless CGI, tongue firmly in cheek. A true successor to the legendary spaghetti trees. I love the confused toucan.

    Even better, I think someone at the Telegraph may have had a sense of humour bypass and is reporting the penguins as actual news… EDIT: nope, it seems to be a joke shared by the Beeb, the Telegraph and (bizarrely) the Mirror, who went a bit far with the joke (the last paragraph spoils it somewhat, I think).

    (If you’re outside the UK, you won’t be able to see the iPlayer video linked above – try this mirror at YouTube or this one, also at YouTube).

    BBC flying penguins

    Category 1 | Tags: ,, | Comments Off

  2. April Fools

    April 1, 2006 by dafyd

    Ah, that time of the year again.

    A few of my favourites:

    1. New BMWs will be fitted with ZIP – Zoom Impression Pixels – to give the impression of speed to avoid proposed penalties for slow driving
    2. ThinkGeek presents Wireless Extension Cords – beam mains power wherever you want it; the USB Desktop Tanning Center – “if we can’t get you to interact with sunlight, we would do the next best thing and bring the sun to you”; the iZilla Digital Media Monster – “like having an entire home entertainment system in a handy 30 pound white briefcase”
    3. Google launches Google Romance: “we’ll send you both on a Contextual DateTM, which we’ll pay for while delivering to you relevant ads that we and our advertising partners think will help produce the dating results you’re looking for”. Google Earth added some visitors to Area 51…
    4. Possibly uniquely, a spoof spoof was created for Google by the Google Blogoscoped blog, which reported on the planned launch of Google Rooms
    5. The Today Programme reported that “the 5 minute medley of tunes at 5.30am every morning [the UK theme] is to be rearranged with music reflecting Britain’s place in Europe”. You can listen again to the full Euro Theme, featuring the Ode to Joy and, bizarrely, the theme to Van der Valk (what else for Belgium?!)

    Check out the ridiculously comprehensive list of pranks on Wikipedia…

    Category 1 | Tags: | 1 Comment