Skip to main content

We’ve learned to be on the lookout for April Fools' hoaxes, but that hasn’t stopped many of us from getting, well, fooled. Every year offers a new crop of stories to test your gullibility. From the over-the-top to the subtle, the best ones in recent years have made suckers of us.

Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore? 2014

NPR News shared a link on its Facebook page with that headline. Comments came flooding in. But if anyone had bothered reading the article, they would have seen a paragraph that said, “We sometimes get the sense that people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven’t actually read. If you are reading this, please like this post and do not comment on it. Then let’s see what people have to say about this ‘story.’”

Plausibility Whereas many hoaxes suffer from overreach, this one was so subtle and sly it fooled thousands of people.

Laughometer 9 out of 10. Getting people, many of them angry or condescending, to comment about why people don’t read any more when they themselves didn’t read the article was nothing short of brilliant.

Giveaway The “article” that was linked to told readers it was all an April Fools' day prank.

YouTube Is Ready to Pick a Winner - 2013

Hours before April 1, YouTube announced its sole purpose was to find the best video in the world and at midnight it would stop accepting uploads and pick a winner.

Plausibility Given the sheer outrageousness of the premise, plus YouTube’s history of April Fools' hoaxes (anyone remember upside down YouTube from 2009), no one was buying this one.

Laughometer 5 out of 10. Cameos by Antoine Dodson, who raved about “stories of how to Photoshop,” and other Internet celebrities hilariously poked fun at the site.

Giveaway The self-mocking tone of YouTube celebs in the video make it clear this is a joke.

Google Announces Gmail Motion - 2011

A video from the company explained that “Using your computer’s camera and a spatial tracking algorithm, Gmail Motion interprets physical movement and turns them in to actionable commands.”

Plausibility The production detail of this prank, including a link to the product’s beta version, almost made it believable.

Laughometer 7 out of 10. The video plays it straight, but watching an actor mime various commands – pointing backward with his thumb to reply to messages, licking a stamp to send a message – is a wonderful piece of absurdity.

Giveaway The more you watch the man miming gestures, the more you know this can’t be real.

Don Cherry To Represent Canada at the Royal Wedding - 2011

Mark Blinch/Reuters

News aggregation website National Newswatch announced that Don Cherry would represent Canada at the royal wedding in England. “Yesterday, PM Harper sent his regrets to Prince William and Kate Middleton, saying that he will be unable to attend their wedding, due to election timing.”

Plausibility Zero. There’s no way the gruff hockey commentator would get that gig.

Laughometer 3 out of 10. Even if it was never believable, the idea of barking Don Cherry and his horrible suits representing Canada at the royal wedding was an amusing premise.

Giveaway How could a little known site such as National Newswatch have this scoop and no one else?

The Left-Handed Whopper - 1998

Burger King Corporation

Burger King announced its newest sandwich in a full page ad in USA Today. Specially designed for left-handed Americans, the burger’s toppings were all rotated 180 degrees – the “ultimate ‘HAVE IT YOUR WAY’ for our left-handed customers,” according to the ad.

Plausibility Any rational person could figure out it’s just a regular Whopper, but that didn’t stop thousands of southpaws from lining up to get a taste of it.

Laughometer 8 out of 10. Still one of the funniest April Fools' hoaxes because it exposed just how gullible people can be.

Giveaway How could rotating the condiments make any difference?