April Fools' Day: Difference between revisions

* [[The BBC]]'s ''[[Panorama]]'' made [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm a show about "spaghetti trees,"] leading to many viewers asking how they could grow their own.▼

* The BBC also produced a feature showing a recently discovered breed of penguins which flew to the jungle in the summer.▼

* A Discovery Channel program played perfectly straight, that proved that yes, in fact The Earth Really Is Flat.▼

* ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'' made a few April Fools' Day episodes in which there would be various oddities occurring in the otherwise typical episodes (snow falling on set, mispronunciation of names, the ultrasound baby in the Mohawk Productions [[Vanity Plate]] meowing instead of giggling, etc...), [[Non Sequitur Scene|which are never brought up again]]. ABC made these into contests as to who could spot them all. Keep in mind that the major plot points of those episodes have been brought up again, such as Mr. Wick's [[Groin Attack]], so those at least are canon; when rerun, each error is pointed out ''[[Pop Up Video]]''-style.▼

* [[GSN]] (Game Show Network) did a major host switch on April 1, 2003 among its original programming. Marc Summers hosted ''[[Cram]]'', Todd Newton hosted ''[[Russian Roulette (TV series)|Russian Roulette]]'', Graham Elwood hosted ''[[Whammy (TV series)|Whammy: The All-New Press Your Luck]]'', Mark L. Walberg hosted ''[[Friend or Foe (TV series)|Friend or Foe]]'' and Lisa Kennedy Montgomery hosted ''[[Win Tuition]]''. The five hosts came together for a charity episode of ''[[Lingo]]'', which also had Todd Newton announcing (and Mark and Marc curb-stomping Graham and Kennedy 500-0).▼

* Speaking of game shows, ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' and ''[[Jeopardy!]]'' both partake in this:▼

** 1997: ''Jeopardy!'' host Alex Trebek and ''Wheel'' host Pat Sajak traded places. Pat and co-host Vanna White also played ''Wheel'' that day, with Pat's wife, Lesly, at the puzzle board. The flip-flop was [[Lampshaded]] heavily on both shows: ''Jeopardy!'' had ''Wheel''-themed categories in the first round (such as "Buy a Vowel" and "Before & After," which later became a recurring category on ''Jeopardy!'' itself), and "fool"-themed categories in the second, and a Final ''Jeopardy!'' category of "Trinidadian Amateur Ichthyologists." ''Wheel'' had several gag puzzles, including TRADING PLACES as the [[Bonus Round]] answer.▼

** 2008: Alex wore a fake mustache (he had shaved off his trademark mustache by this point), and Pat tricked Vanna into believing he was bald by wearing a real wig over a bald wig.▼

** 2010: ''Wheel'' made 10 things wrong with the show. They invited viewers to print out a worksheet from their website, and write down what they thought were the correct answers. Some were obvious (i.e. the Bankrupt wedges having "Bankrut", the Polish translation of that word), some weren't (Pat wearing a stud earring in the second round), and an eleventh wasn't even pointed out (rodeo footage in the opening montage of Hawaiian activities corresponding to the rest of the week's Hawaii theme). ''Jeopardy!'' spliced in different hosts for Alex Trebek on the same day. Alex still read the clues, but Pat Sajak walked out at the top of the show, Neil Patrick Harris was spliced in during the first round, Jeff Probst (who once hosted ''Rock & Roll Jeopardy!'' before his ''[[Survivor]]'' fame) during the second round, and a clip from ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'s'' ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketches featuring Will Ferrell parodying Alex Trebek. There was also an "April Fool!" category concerning joke articles published during the month of April (such as the ''Veterinary Record'''s "Brunus edwardii" article).▼

** 2011: Every puzzle on ''Wheel'' (except the [[Bonus Round]]) had the word "fool" in it. Amazingly, the contestants never caught on; you'd think by the third round, they would've been calling L and F, then buying an O.▼

* ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' has a long history of making gag prize Showcases with obviously silly prizes (e.g. egg beaters and paper plates, "six new cars" that turn out to be Matchbox cars, or even an acute case of athlete's foot as a prize). On another episode, the door that host Bob Barker normally walked through revealed a sign that said "April Fools!" before Bob walked onstage through the audience.▼

** Drew Carey, after taking over as host on ''Price'', has made several April Fool's gags on each April 1 episode. Except for 2011, he brought in Kathy Kinney, who reprised her role of Mimi Bobeck from ''The Drew Carey Show''. He also does several funny gags throughout — things like playing the ''[[Match Game]]'' music during the credits, having everyone wear nametags that say "Pat", having random sound effects play during the Showcase Showdown instead of the normal ones, etc.▼

** For 2011, the gag was that the 10,000th...''some''thing was going to happen today, so it was an important episode. Too bad so many things went wrong, from pieces of the set falling apart or malfunctioning, to announcer George Gray getting hit by a tennis ball launcher. And the 10,000th ''thing'' [[The Un-Reveal|didn't even happen]].▼

* Cranked [[Up to Eleven]] as a prank on Tom Bergeron for the ''[[Hollywood Squares]]'' episode taped to air on April Fool's Day 2003. At one point the male and female contestants were engaged in a heated argument, after which the male contestant made the female contestant break down in tears. Bergeron, who had a deer-in-the-headlights look (but, according to his book, wasn't going to stop no matter what), comforted the "poor woman" as he sent the show to commercial (of course, unbeknownst to him, the camera was still running). At the end of the episode, giggling executive producer Henry Winkler (who was also filling in as announcer at the time) said over the intercom, "Hey Tom...April Fool's." Apparently, Bergeron hadn't realized the airdate of the show...until then.▼

=== Magazines ===▼