The Extratextuals

I’ve been enjoying looking at some of yesterday’s April Fools Day pranks. Some highlights, along with a few historical favorites at the end:
For the TV Studies geeks in the crowd, Mark Fowler’s “toaster with pictures” came to life with a new BBC iPlayer-enabled toaster (see above)

And for those worrying about the future of print journalism, confirmation that the end is near from the Guardian, who announced they’re going to work solely by Twitter from now on

Google offered an autopilot response tool:

Yahoo, meanwhile, countered with its new Ideological Search, allowing you to screen out everything from those you disagree with

For any guy who was a pre-teen with parents with a subscription to National Geographic comes the compilation they always wanted, a Best of the Breasts book

Lost fans may have worried that the grand conclusion is that everyone’s dead (except for Aaron, who can see them all), if they heard that M. Night Shyamalan had been booked to film the series conclusion

Those hoping for a great vacation could get to Mars for a steal, with Expedia offering packages for $99

And it seems as though scientists located the first cell that began the Big Bang

Now, for some historical favorites of mine (for a large list go to the Museum of Hoaxes):

In 1998, Alabama tried to legislate pi back down to its “Biblical value” of 3.0.

Elsewhere that year, the good folks at Burger King were thinking of the poor southpaws who just can’t eat a burger properly, and so they created the Left Handed Whopper

In 1992, NPR’s Talk of the Nation announced that Richard Nixon was set to run for office again. His priceless quote: “I didn’t do anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.”

And last, but not least, we take you to Switzerland in 1957, when the spaghetti weevil had been beat, leading to a bumper crop of spaghetti:

What were your favorites, this year or years past?

Uncategorized April Fools Day, pranks