Image: é Elena Ignatyeva/Demotix/Corbis
About This Quiz
If you think you know everything there is to know about pranks and hoaxes, the joke just may be on you. Take this quiz to learn why the merrymaking day came to be, how it's celebrated in different places and some of the best pranks of all time.
What is one theory for the origin of April Fools' Day?
There was a superstition about babies born on April 1, being a little dim.
A change to the calendar caused confusion in France.
King George III was born April 1, and people thought he was stupid.
The calendar confusion came from ...
April was added to the year in the 1500s, and not everyone knew.
French people celebrated the new year based on the Julian, not Gregorian, calendar.
No one knew how to read a calendar.
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Some argue that the calendar interpretation isn't true. Why?
because legal recognition of the Julian new year was during Easter, not April 1
because the French traditionally celebrated the new year on Jan. 1
both
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Huh? Why a fish, exactly?
because fish are stupid like fools
because fish smell ... like fools?
No one really knows for sure.
OK, but what's a theory about where the fish came from?
the tradition of representing Christianity with a fish symbol
the symbol for the Pisces astrological sign, which falls around April 1
both
What's a funny joke the French play on people on April 1?
They throw a fish at you.
They put sugar instead of salt on your fish.
They pin a paper fish to your clothes.
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A professor at Boston University pranked the Associated Press by telling it that April Fools' Day started how?
His dad started April Fools' Day to sell more joke water-squirting lapel "flowers."
A newspaper sold an inaccurate story as a "joke" to the public to save face.
A Roman emperor made his jester king for the day and declared April 1, a day of silliness from there on out.
Ancient Romans celebrated the holiday of Hilaria in late March. What was one of the fun things they did?
stole fish from mongers
grafittied the Colosseum
wore costumes
What did the Scottish traditionally call April Fools' Day?
Haggis and Bagpipe Day
Full Day
Huntigowk Day
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The Belfast Zoo is flooded with calls on April 1, asking for whom?
Prince Albert In A Can
Mr. Albert Ross
I.P. Freely
What prank really made Irish people worry in 1965?
The Irish Times claimed the government was going to have a prohibition on alcohol.
Guinness claimed there was a stout shortage, and it would be making root beer instead.
The queen said Ireland was coming back to the British fold.
What classic April 1, prank from the BBC had Brits hoping for an unusual harvest?
a claim that chocolate worms would populate the soil around a planted Cadbury Creme Egg
a claim that money could grow on trees if you planted some coins with enough manure
a claim that the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland was underway
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Saddam Hussein's son Uday printed what April Fools' joke in a newspaper he owned?
that he wasn't really Saddam Hussein's son
that his father loved Christmas films
that the United States had lifted sanctions against Iraq
Where is the first concrete reference to an April Fools' joke being played?
France
the Netherlands
England
Indian culture celebrates Holi near April, as well. It's a day of general merriment and fun similar to April Fools' Day, but what also distinguishes it?
People throw colored powder on each other.
People throw fish at each other.
People throw fish at French people.
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What magazine had a famous April Fools' hoax cover story in 1985?
The New Yorker
Time
Sports Illustrated
Who pretended to buy the Liberty Bell as an April Fools' joke?
Bell Biv Devoe
Liberty Mutual
Taco Bell
What amazing hoax did one Alaska man pull off on April 1, 1974?
He fought a bear and won.
He made the local dormant volcano appear to erupt.
He made Sitka, Alaska, a balmy 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius) for the day.
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What invention did Burger King claim on April 1, 1998?
the left-handed Whopper
the fatless fries
the milkless shake
What prank did Google pull in 2007?
It pretended it lost all its users' passwords.
It claimed users could get all their Gmail emails printed out on paper and mailed to them.
It said that Gmail was collecting detailed info for a dating database.
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A 1698 London newsletter first recorded people falling for what April Fools' joke?
telling people that they could just walk into the royal court that day
telling people to go to the Tower of London to watch the washing of the lions
telling people their fly was down and bopping them on the nose
A 1998 satire piece by a physicist convinced some people that ...
Gravity isn't real.
Alabama was changing the value of pi to a nice, round 3.
Dogs can talk.
Every year someone writes a detailed press release for a (nonexistent) April Fools' Day Parade in what city?
Chicago
New York
London
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National Public Radio published an April 1, piece online titled "Why Doesn't America Read Anymore?" What made it a joke?
The link directed readers to watch the comments to see if people responded only to the headline.
It was in Farsi.
It was a blank screen.
What event was no joke on April 1, 2012?
Mount Eyjafjallajokull erupted in Iceland.
A whoopee cushion factory caught fire and burned to the ground.
An asteroid nearly hit Earth.
Who made April Fools' Day a national holiday in America?
President Barack Obama
President Franklin Roosevelt
President Theodore Roosevelt
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