Stretching Sarko, flying penguins and other April Fools

april comments fools

The trouble with April Fools’ Day is that you start doubting the authenticity of every story you read - that turtle puffing on a cigarette, for instance, Nick Clegg sleeping with 30 women, Danny Cohen deciding to bring back Lily Allen and Friends…
These stories fall into the strange but true category. The real April Fools usually come with a clue attached - take the Guardian today, which carries the previously unknown byline, Avril de Poisson. Avril reveals that Carla Bruni is being recruited by Gordon Brown as a style adviser to the Britain. There’s a lovely giveaway quote at the end from a French diplomat: “It has been crazy here, with all the international media inquiries about Carla. We have been working absolutely round the clock, from 9am to 3pm, just to keep up.”
The French first couple also inspired the Sun’s spoof, which tells how Nicolas Sarkozy is to undergo stretching treatment to add five inches to his height. The technique involved is said to have been developed by Israeli academic Professor Ura Schmuck, while the paper also quotes French spokesman Luc Bigger, who said Sarkozy would have the treatment at the Poisson d’Avril centre in Geneva. Hard not to spot that one!
However, a story in the Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph gave me pause for thought, mainly because to be an April Fool it would have to have been the result of an unusual three-way collaboration between two rival papers and the BBC.
Both papers tell of a new BBC1 nature documentary, Miracles of Evolution, which shows amazing footage of penguins flying and even heading off to the Amazon rainforest. Both papers’ websites carry a 90-second BBC trailer featuring Monty Python’s Terry Jones, apparently on location in the Antarctic. The clip ends with a shot of penguins in the jungle, greeted by a beatific-looking toucan.

blogs.guardian.co.uk


Tags: , ,

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

14 Responses to “Stretching Sarko, flying penguins and other April Fools”

  1. Zavier says on April 1st, 2008 at 6:32 pm :

    Arg, I had that zelda tingle I’ve had every time a new zelda game was announced :)

  2. Tanisha says on April 1st, 2008 at 7:22 pm :

    Er… yes! have an upmod..

  3. Annmarie says on April 1st, 2008 at 8:13 pm :

    I hate to do this to you, butwhoosh!

  4. Marissa says on April 1st, 2008 at 9:03 pm :

    lol. you got downmodded for running into a den of nerds and insulting their bread and butter. It is funny, though, and ultra-nerdy, the zelda tingle……which I got too…

  5. Bennett says on April 1st, 2008 at 9:54 pm :

    Useful Links:FULL CAST AND CREDITS: http://www.rainfallfilms.com/projects/zelda/Sam Balcomb’s Website (Director, DP, FX, Editor ) : http://www.earthfirewindwater.com/sambalcomb/L2 Digital (Company responsible for the final FX) : http://www.l2digital.com/Yes folks, it is just a teaser trailer… there is no movie

  6. Liana says on April 1st, 2008 at 10:45 pm :

    this trailer makes me sad! why would they tease me like this?

  7. Ronny says on April 1st, 2008 at 11:35 pm :

    It was awesome. It may be a joke now, but this could actually lead to a feature film if the trailer is popular enough.

  8. Demelza says on April 2nd, 2008 at 12:26 am :

    thanks for putting “april fool’s” in the title, they’d have gotten me if you didn’t

  9. Sinjin says on April 2nd, 2008 at 1:16 am :

    Atmospheric! Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker are maybe the most wonderful games I’ve played. Sad that Zelda, although loved by many, isn’t popular-cultural enough.

  10. Darin says on April 2nd, 2008 at 2:07 am :

    You mean you can tell by some of the pixels, and from having seen some fakes before.

  11. Sherilyn says on April 2nd, 2008 at 2:57 am :

    It’s faster to run backwards.

  12. Lennox says on April 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 am :

    I hope the hand takes him to the beginning of the temple. Over and over and over again.

  13. Monty says on April 2nd, 2008 at 4:39 am :

    I really enjoyed how Link never spoke in the trailer. :)