The perils and pitfalls which lurk in the quest for the perfect April Fool’s story
Maybe it was because it was Bank Holiday Monday. Or maybe it’s because readers are just too cynical these days.
But April Fool’s Day jokes appeared to be thin on the ground, certainly from local newsrooms around the UK this year.
Risking falling foul of platforms suspecting ‘fake news’ and reader apathy are among reasons some newsrooms are avoiding pushing new April Fools jokes — although delving into the archives and showing the work of others suggested many newsrooms still sense an appetite for a laugh.
Newsrooms which did get stuck in, however, showed blending creativity with current affairs can raise a smile.
In London, MyLondon claimed every Underground line was to be renamed by Transport for London ‘to better reflect them in the modern day.’
According to MyLondon, Director of Tube Tinkering, Olive Innadark, told MyLondon: “We just feel it’s time for change. If you look at the Circle Line on the Tube map it looks more like a milk bottle with a tail than an actual circle, and Bakerloo just sounds like someone having a doughnut on the toilet. So we’re looking at some new names that better reflect them in the modern day, or that simply make more sense.”
Also in London, what’s on website Secret London claimed ‘taproom tycoons Wetherspoons’ wanted to turn an abandoned North London tube station into its latest pub. In Manchester, Secret Manchester went with a double whammy — claiming Liam Gallagher is set to open an Oasis-themed pub in Manchester (more Definitely Not than Definitely Maybe) and that the Trafford Centre shopping centre was closing down and being replaced by apartments.
Some of the best April Fools jokes make use of things which are really happening to help hook readers in. Of course, a bit of Photoshop helps too.
Manchester website The Manc claimed that a summertime waterpark was being built on Picadilly Gardens — an open space in the city centre which gets written about a lot by other media in the city due its many problems.
The fact one of Europe’s biggest waterparks — Therme — is due to open in Greater Manchester added weight to the story, with writer Daisy Jackson leaving it until the end to say: “And if you’ve made it this far, please check the date. Teehee.”
The state of Scotland’s ferried have rarely been off the front pages north of the border in recent months.
So perhaps it’s no surprise they figured in an April Fool. The Scotsman reported that ministers had drawn up plans to use sea trials of a long-delayed new ferry to transport the Scotland football team from the Euros in Germany later this year.
“It is thought the trip could be built into sea trials of the ill-fated vessel currently taking place, and provide a desperately needed piece of positive PR for Humza Yousaf’s government ahead of the General Election,” the paper said.
It then added: “However, the audacious plan is reliant on Steve Clarke’s men navigating their way out of the group stages of the tournament to ensure the pride of Ferguson Marine will actually arrive in time to take them home.”
KentOnline decided to have some fun with readers off the back of a real news story from last week about the ongoing traffic gridlock plaguing roads in and around Sittingbourne.
The website suggested plans had been drawn up to trial a nationwide first — a flying taxi.
Journalists told readers the groundbreaking technology using “FOOLS software” and “battery-powered aviation” hoped to allow motorists to bypass the lengthy queues and endless roadworks by flying across the sky.
In Wearside, the Sunderland Echo teamed up with a well-known barber to make an unusual claim about an old Marks & Spencer building.
They claimed Scolli’s would move from its small premises to the old department store — and wasn’t worried about filling the space because they had plans to bring in a larger coffee table to display a wider range of magazines for waiting customers.
The Peterborough Telegraph told readers that an historic disagreement between Peterborough and Northampton on how to pronounce the River Nene had been settled — with a compromise to call it the “NayNay” instead.
Confessing to the joke at lunchtime on Monday, The Telegraph told readers: “We don’t think many people were fooled by our efforts this year — but we hope it made a few people smile on Easter Monday.”
In Cornwall, the Falmouth Packet joined in with a gag plotted by the St Austell brewery to launch beer lollies — the only way the company claimed it could expand as its bottling plant was at full capacity. Maybe the name, the hopsicle, was a clue for readers.
Other newsrooms reported on April Fools being carried out in their area. The Lancashire Evening Post told how Greene King pubs in their area had claimed to be launching a new range of food where meals were literally on fire when presented to diners — and came complete with fire marshals and special gloves. The chain of pubs are called Flaming Grills — hence the prank.
ChronicleLive in Newcastle told how ITV had pranked viewers by claiming a spin-off of My Mum, Your Dad (a dating show for older couples) was on the way called “My Nan, Your Grandad”, while a BBC hoax on a new character for Eastenders apparently even fooled some of the cast of the show.
For some brands, April Fools is a pitfall they unintentionally get sucked into. Take Heinz for example, which has launched smoky bacon ketchup — a move which some readers, according to TeessideLive, thought was an April Fool hoax.
Burger King’s ‘Burger King x Doritos’ mash up also turned out to be real, according to The Manc.
April Fool gags aren’t without risks, as Irish fast food store Supermac’s learnt to its cost this year. It claimed it would be sponsoring the Croke Park stadium — a reference to a naming of another GAA venue to become SuperValu Páirc which went down badly with fans. The GAA failed to see the funny side, and reported Supermac’s social media accounts to Meta, which then suspended them.
While the GAA’s response resulted in Supermac’s getting more publicity than it could have dreamed of, it did expose one of the modern-day perils of April Fool gags which has led to many newsrooms giving the first-of-the-month japes a wide berth.
It can take months to correct instant decisions taken by platforms like Meta and Google to punish websites for stories considered to be inaccurate.
It’s perhaps for that reason that many titles chose instead to report on the pranks of years gone by. The Manchester Evening News rounded up previous hoaxes, including water giant United Utilities claiming there was a ‘man made sewer monster’ lurking in the pipes — and reminded readersof the time it claimed an inflatable slide was being placed on the side of the National Football Museum.
Then, of course, come the risks of newsrooms being fooled themselves.
So spare a thought for the team at BBC Oxford, which reported hat archivists had discovered evidence of a precursor that took place in the Oxfordshire town of Woodstock in 1769, 200 years before the US event.
It reported that 200 people attended the party, which included “a singer by the name of Vincent Furnier”. Music fans might know that rock star Alice Cooper, who was not born until 1948, has the real name of Vincent Furnier.
The Times reports that the story was tweeted out to more than 55 million people via the BBC’s Twitter/X accounts before the error was noticed by bosses, who deleted the post and replaced it with a link to an updated story. Although you could argue they buried the lede with their new headline…
But perhaps the loudest warning bell for newsrooms seeking to get in on April Fool’s is if they get it very, very wrong.
Last year, the BBC reported that local news website The Lincolnite, had apologised for a ‘crass’ April Fools joke about plans to house asylum seekers at RAF Scampton — a controversial topic in the area.
The Lincolnite published a story which claimed the city’s axed Christmas market would be revived as a “cross-cultural event” at the former airfield. It led to claims that the joke was ‘overtly racist.’
The Lincolnite wrote that asylum seekers housed at the facility “will be offering car wash services in exchange for charity donations”.
It said “many have fled awful conditions” in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria “meaning they will be prepared for an overcrowded and overpriced event”.
The story quoted a supposed local resident as saying: “We’ve already got 2,000 migrants coming, what’s another 320,000?”
The article was illustrated with an edited photo of a group of Asian children against a backdrop of a Christmas tree and a military camp.
After a backlash from readers and civic leaders, the website pledged to be “more mindful of our communications and strive to engage our community in a manner that is both respectful and in tune with your expectations”.
