My favorite hoax was:

[apl]

the War of the Worlds radio broadcast

 76/25%

Sawing Off of Manhattan Island

 4/1%

Society for Indecency to Naked Animals

 7/2%

Uri Geller

 14/5%

Dihydrogen Monoxide

 87/28%

Crop circles

 23/8%

Yellowcake forgery

 6/2%

Piltdown Man

 13/4%

Parrot prank

 23/8%

the Great Spaghetti harvest

 35/11%

other (but you have to post a note specifying your favorite)

 18/6%

306 total votes

[eyepopslikeamosquito]

My two favourite Perl April Fools (taken from The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part VI): April Fools) are:

Black Perl (Larry Wall, 1990)

It has come to my attention that there is a crying need for a place for people to express both their emotional and technical natures simultaneously. Several people have sent me some items which don't fit into any newsgroup. Perhaps it's because I recently posted to both comp.lang.perl and to rec.arts.poems, but people seem to be writing poems in Perl, and they're asking me where they should post them.

-- Larry Wall requests the formation of a new comp.lang.perl.poems newsgroup

Parrot (Simon Cozens, 2001)

Today brought the official announcement that many of us in the Perl and Python communities had been awaiting and expecting for some time now: the culmination of the year-long collaboration between Larry Wall and Guido van Rossum, and the establishment of a period of joint development between the developers of Perl and Python.

-- Simon Cozens announces Parrot, April 1, 2001

I was especially tickled by this Parrot code sample:

    # copy stdin to stdout, except for lines starting with #
    while left_angle_right_angle:
        if dollar_underscore[0] =eq= "#":
            continue_next;
        }
        print dollar_underscore;
    }

Perl April Fools Timeline

• 1990: Black Perl (Larry Wall).
• 1993: Haskerl (Will Partain).
• 1995: Pre cursor to merlyn's sh2perl (Michael Roby).
• 1997: Perl 6 released (John Macdonald).
• 1998: sh2perl (merlyn).
• 1999: sh2perl Y2K update (merlyn).
• 1999: Semi::Semicolons (schwern, ziggy, the lovely David Adler esq.).
• 1999: Java Mongers (brian_d_foy).
• 2001: use.perl.org Parrot April Fools 2001 (Simon Cozens). The Story behind the Parrot prank. Parrot on slashdot.
• 2001: Acme::Bleach (TheDamian), Acme::Buffy (Leon "acme" Brocard).
• 2001: clpm: where can I get a free perl interpreter? (Michael Farragher).
• 2002: CJAN (HFB).
• 2003: Matt Wright buys out CPAN (Jasvir Nagra).
• 2006: "Larry" replaces $ with euro for Perl 6 (spoofed to appear to be from Larry Wall).

[Illuminatus]

I really liked www.linkedin.com's semi-subtle approach. I didn't even notice at first, except that I got one of their legitimate emails saying an old colleague wanted to connect. Among the 'people you may know', I got:
• Werner Heisenberg - physicist. this *may* have been his profile
• Ernest Hemingway - Author
• Sherlock Holmes - Detective
You get a different list every time. This was the first year I noticed.

fnord

[jgamble]

I voted for a hoax on the list, but I do have to mention the 1988 NPR All Things Considered story reporting on Canada's purchase of Arizona. The benefits included balancing the U.S. budget, and of course Canada's acquisition of a warm water port.

They had interviews with then-Governor Babbitt and the Canadian ambassador (sorry, don't recall his name) both of whom delivered a straightforward analysis of the consequences of this historic moment. It was wonderful.

Sadly, I can't seem to locate an audio file.

[innerweb]

I loved the way the dangerous water *hoax* proved the point of the lack of very basic scientific understanding, due diligence in lawmaking circles and the appalling lack of intellectual curiosity on the part of the average American.

This hoax is common in product labeling as chemicals/ingredients are given different, often misleading names to help fool consumers into buying products other than what they are really looking for - legally.

[pdcawley]

The fair country of San Seriffe from various Guardian April Fools' day hoaxes over the years.

[davies]

This is the best I've seen of today's batch. Don't go there if you're at work or find sexual humour offensive. I laughed until I ... well, let's not go there, either.

Regards,

John Davies

[jedikaiti]

I always liked the one from around 1995 about Microsoft buying the Vatican.

Also, some years ago the Motley Fool had a rather entertaining one about a company called e-Meringue and taking it public, and the stock going through the roof only to crash and be de-listed as the SEC investigated the CEO and he ran and tried to hijack a cruise ship with meringues or some such. It was utterly ridiculous, and the Fool site was posting press releases and stock quotes through the day, with the ticker HAFD (Happy April Fool's Day).

[hermida]

I picked other, cold fusion was my favorite all time hoax.

[Illuminatus]

What the heck are you talking about??? cold fusion and Brown's Gas power my house, my cars, my lawnmower, and of course, all my computers. For $199.99, I'll sell you my plans and do-it-yourself kit for 'getting off the grid'.

fnord

[Xilman]

My favourite is Alternative 3. I actually fell for that one for a few hours but my excuse is that I was young an naive at the time.

Paul

[Tux]

Not my fav, but here today we got this. I think I like its simplicity :)

[blue_cowdawg]

Unquestionably my favorite was Dihydrogen MonOxide...

The favorite prank that I pulled though was when I worked for Bell Laboratories. I sent a memo around that stated:

"On 4/1/92 we will be clearing out all of the unused bits that are laying about in the Datakit®, RS-232, and LAN cabling throughout the facility. This will entail the injection of 150PSI compressed air into all these lines. As a result some of the bits and loose dust will be forced out of the lines and may be emitted with some great force from your workstations and terminals. If you want to prevent this please stop by the SAG office and pick up plastic bags which we will be issuing for this event. "

Mind you, with all the very intelligent people working there I figured that everyone would see through the gag and just laugh it off as the attempt at humor that it was. However, on April 1 when the air compressors were to allegedly do their thing there was a line going for quite a way up the hallway of people looking for their SAG issued plastic bags. Fortunately I had the foresight to bring a box of landscaper sized plastic bags with me to work that day. I ended up going to pick up more at the hardware store at lunch time. The topper for the day was the woman who had left work already who came running back in her workout clothes in a panic wanting to know if was too late to pick up her bag.

[chexmix]

The Shaver Hoax.

I guess the pedant in me is surprised that War of the Worlds is listed as a "hoax." IIRC, it was certainly not intended as one.

[apl]

This definition would certainly apply, as intention is not required.

[Anonymous Monk]

None, i find hoaxes insulting and pointless waste of time, like crying wolf

[apl]

This is a great response. In the future, I hope you'll look at poll ideas quest 2011 on a regular basis; if you had made this comment there, I'd have included it as an option!

[cdarke]

Hoaxes are only insulting if a) you are taken in by them and b) if you are vain enough to think they are explicitly aimed at injuring you personally.

They help us to question what we are told, not to take things at face value. If you still think that is a waste of time, well, life's a waste of time.