April Fools' Day quiz: history's best hoaxes and pranks

April Fools' Day has inspired some of the most creative hoaxes in media history. Respected newspapers, national broadcasters, and billion-dollar companies have all joined in, and millions of people have fallen for it. These ten questions cover the best pranks, the strangest traditions, and a few facts about 1st April that might catch your quiz teams off guard.

The questions

1In 1957, the BBC's Panorama programme aired a famous hoax showing a Swiss family harvesting what food from trees?

Answer:Spaghetti(click to reveal)

Around eight million viewers watched the segment, narrated by respected journalist Richard Dimbleby. Hundreds of people phoned the BBC afterwards asking how to grow their own. At the time, pasta was still considered exotic in Britain, which made the whole thing far more believable. CNN later called it "the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled."

2In France, April Fools' Day is known as "Poisson d'Avril." What does that translate to in English?

Answer:April Fish(click to reveal)

The classic French tradition involves children sneaking paper fish onto people's backs. Whoever ends up wearing one becomes the "April Fish." The exact origin of the fishy connection is debated, but one theory links it to the start of fishing season, when fish are plentiful and easy to catch.

3In 1996, Taco Bell took out full-page newspaper ads claiming it had purchased which famous American landmark "to reduce the country's debt"?

Answer:The Liberty Bell(click to reveal)

The ads ran in six major US newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Thousands of outraged citizens called Taco Bell's headquarters and the National Park Service before the joke was revealed at noon. White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry got in on it too, announcing that the Lincoln Memorial had been sold to Ford.

4In 1998, Burger King ran a full-page ad in USA Today announcing a new version of the Whopper designed specifically for left-handed people. What was it called?

Answer:The Left-Handed Whopper(click to reveal)

The ad claimed all the condiments had been rotated 180 degrees to suit left-handed customers. Thousands of people went to restaurants the next day trying to order one, while right-handed customers reportedly asked staff to make sure they got the regular version. Nobody seemed to notice that a circular burger doesn't really have a handedness.

5On 1st April 1977, The Guardian published a seven-page supplement about a fictional island nation. What was the made-up country called?

Answer:San Serriffe(click to reveal)

The name is a pun on "sans-serif," the font style, and almost everything in the supplement was a typography joke. The two main islands were called Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse (as in upper and lower case), and they were shaped like a semicolon. The Guardian's phones rang all day with readers asking about holidays there.

6Google launched a real product on 1st April 2004 that many people assumed was an April Fools' joke because the offering seemed too good to be true. What was it?

Answer:Gmail(click to reveal)

It offered 1 GB of free storage at a time when competitors like Hotmail gave you just 2 MB. That's 500 times more, and people simply didn't believe it. News outlets warned readers they might be getting duped, and the Associated Press received calls from people saying they'd fallen for a hoax. It was, of course, completely real.

7In the UK, there's a traditional rule about when April Fools' pranks must stop. What time is the cutoff?

Answer:Midday (12 noon)(click to reveal)

Anyone who plays a prank after noon is considered the fool themselves. The tradition dates back at least to the mid-1800s, and schoolchildren used to enforce it ruthlessly. Get caught pranking in the afternoon and you'd hear: "April Fool's gone and past, you're the biggest fool at last!"

8One popular theory links the origins of April Fools' Day to a calendar change in 1582. When France adopted the Gregorian calendar, what did it move from late March/April to 1st January?

Answer:New Year's Day(click to reveal)

Under the old Julian calendar, the new year was celebrated around the spring equinox. People who didn't get the memo (or simply refused to change) kept celebrating in late March and early April, and were mocked as fools. It's a neat theory, though historians aren't entirely sure it's the full story behind the tradition.

9In 2013, Google announced "Google Nose Beta," which claimed users could do what through their computer screen?

Answer:Smell things (accept "search by smell" or similar)(click to reveal)

The fake product promised access to Google's "Aromabase," a collection of 15 million digital scents. It was one of dozens of April Fools' gags Google ran between 2000 and 2019. The company paused its annual pranks in 2020 due to the pandemic and hasn't brought them back since.

10April Fools' Day is celebrated in many countries, but which ancient Roman festival, held at the end of March, is sometimes cited as an early precursor? Participants wore disguises and mocked fellow citizens.

Answer:Hilaria(click to reveal)

The festival honoured the goddess Cybele and celebrated the resurrection of the god Attis. It was a day of joy and disguises, with Romans dressing up and imitating people of all social classes. Whether there's a direct connection to modern April Fools' Day is still debated by historians, but it's a satisfying origin story either way.

---

There you go: ten questions that cover almost a century of pranks, from black-and-white TV hoaxes to fake internet smells. They work well as a standalone round for a 1st April quiz, or you can scatter them through a general knowledge night for a bit of seasonal flavour.