Ten funny April Fools’ Day pranks

From a Vancouver underwater bike tunnel to a dog highchair, let's recap some of the top stunts from the past years

Last year we showed you some famous and memorable pranks that worked, including the flying penguins introduced on BBC and Australia's "metric time" announcement. But 2011 and 2012 have produced some other great pranks and we have many gems for you to see.

While leaders of the major political parties were canvassing the country during an election campaign, some reporters decided to have a little fun with the late Jack Layton and his trademark moustache. Reporters made their own moustaches and attached them to their upper lips with tape for an Apr. 1 press conference.

The Vancouver Courier reported last April the next phase of the city's bicycle infrastructure may include an underwater tunnel. The tunnel would connect the downtown peninsula to the rest of the city and save cyclists from riding over the bridges. Cyclists would be able to see undersea wildlife at one part of their trip through the tunnel and even fill up their tires with air at another station. The Courier reported the tunnel would cost between $340 million and $420 million. While the plan enraged some, it would be great for cyclists and keep them dry for part of their commute in the damp and rainy city, the fake report concluded.

Last year YouTube claimed to have started 100 years prior. It said the homepage looked as it did back in 1911 and featured vintage black-and-white videos from the time.

Also last year, furniture store IKEA in Australia proclaimed that each dog, as a part of the family, deserved the company's new Hundstol Dog Highchair designed to meet "pet furniture needs." The chair offered a hole in the back for the tail, a grip up front for paws and a water and food bowl in the chair so those bowls didn't have to be on the table. It retailed for $59, the ad said.

In Canada, it's hard not to mention CBC reporting in 2008 the CN Tower had a plan to reclaim its title as world's largest free-standing structure, a title it lost to a tower in Dubai. The said plans were supposedly underway to add an extension to the top.

In 1998, a story ran stating NASA engineers and mathematicians were stunned and outraged after the Alabama state legislature passed a law to round down the value of pi. The law would make the value exactly three and make life difficult for many engineers.

PC Computing magazine published a column in 1994 stating the U.S. Congress was considering a bill to make it illegal to surf the Internet while drunk. The hoax was convincing and generated many angry calls forcing Senator Ted Kennedy to issue a statement denying rumours of the bill.

Going back a little further in time, the Daily Mail ran a story in 1981 about a Japanese long-distance runner who, due to a translation error, thought he had to run for 26 days, not 26 miles, to complete the London Marathon. The paper reported runner Kimo Nakajimi was determined to finish the race and was somewhere on the streets of England.

There have even been some early pranks this year produced by student newspapers. The University of Alabama Crimson White is reporting the president's mansion will be converted to a sorority house to expand greek life and the University of Nebraska's Daily Nebraskan is reporting school officials are campaigning to include bedbugs in the enrollment total to help the school hit its goal of reaching 30,000 students. There is also a report of a genius bedbug helping improve the four-year graduation rate. If you don't like bedbugs, we're guessing Lincoln, Nebraska, isn't a good place to live.

Of course, it's hard to forget some of the best jokes of all time, including the left-handed Whopper, the Swiss spaghetti harvest and Taco Bell buying the Liberty Bell.

The origins of the day are a bit of a mystery, but in 1983, as a joke, the Associated Press reported this mystery has been solved. A professor discovered the celebration began during the Roman Empire when a court jester boasted to Emperor Constantine the fools and jesters could rule the empire better. The emperor set aside one day a year for them to prove this and the first jester appointed to rule decreed only the absurd be allowed. This joke was published in newspapers everywhere and corrections had to be printed a few weeks later.

The actual origins are believed to date back to the 16th century when New Year's Day was moved from March 25 to Jan. 1. New Year's used to be New Year's week ending April 1 and people may have been making fun of those who still celebrated on April 1.

(CP photo)