The Philippine Online Chronicles

2007: In late March 2007, images of an 8-inch mummified creature resembling a fairy were posted on the website of the Lebanon Circle Magik Co. Accompanying text explained how the creature had been found by a man walking his dog along an old Roman road in rural Derbyshire. Word of this discovery soon spread around the Internet. Bloggers excitedly speculated about whether the find was evidence of the actual existence of fairies.

2007: RealClimate.org posted about the work of Dr. Ewe Noh-Watt of the New Zealand Institute of Veterinary Climatology, who had discovered that global warming was caused not by a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but rather by the decline of New Zealand's sheep population. The reasoning was that sheep are white, and therefore large numbers of sheep increase the planet's albedo (the amount of sunlight reflected back into space). As the sheep population declined, the ground was absorbing more solar radiation, thus warming the planet: "It can be seen that the recent warming can be explained entirely by the decline in the New Zealand sheep population, without any need to bring in any mysterious so-called 'radiative forcing' from carbon dioxide, which doesn't affect the sunlight (hardly) anyway — unlike Sheep Albedo."

Noh-Watt also warned of a potentially destabilizing feedback mechanism: "As climate gets warmer, there is less demand for wool sweaters and wooly underwear. Hence the sheep population tends to drop, leading to even more warming. In an extreme form, this can lead to a 'runaway sheep-albedo feedback,' which is believed to have led to the present torrid climate of Venus."

2008: The BBC announced that camera crews filming near the Antarctic for its natural history series Miracles of Evolution had captured footage of Adélie penguins taking to the air. It even offered a video clip of these flying penguins, which became one of the most viewed videos on the Internet. Presenter Terry Jones explained that, instead of huddling together to endure the Antarctic winter, these penguins took to the air and flew thousands of miles to the rainforests of South America where they "spend the winter basking in the tropical sun."

Those are but few of the incredible stories that came out of the Internet through the years, which astounded and piqued the interest of people from all over the world. Unfortunately, as incredible those stories are, they all have one thing in common: they are hoaxes, harmless pranks cleverly planned and written by people to fool the gullible, not so much as to cause mischief, but as a way to celebrate an ancient tradition which was probably thought of by some medieval prankster as a relief from boredom.

And what better time to start fooling people than on the first day of the fourth month of the year?

Okay I’m just kidding about the medieval prankster, but much has been written about April Fool hoaxes and pranks over the century, and yet to this day, its origins remain unknown and as mysterious as the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and the whereabouts of the body of Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Several theories as to who, when, and where it all started, have been suggested and none have been conclusive so far, but one thing is certain, some of its adherents are a veritable who’s who in the literary world: from Geoffrey Chaucer to William Shakespeare, and, if I recall, Mark Twain even dabbled in some practical joke or two (literary of course) in his time.

These days, even big businesses are getting into the act --- probably just to prove that guys in drab grey business suits do have a sense of humor.

Kodak, just last year, came up with an ad of their latest product: the Eye Camera. A futuristic camera that you can wear like optical glasses that has all the options (zoom, image stabilizers, and others) of a modern digicam, but with one difference: this one has digital X-ray vision.

Also last year, German carmaker BMW thought it would be a nice gesture to show its Teutonic humor by announcing the latest feature for its cars: the Magnetic Tow Technology.

"The unique system, developed in conjunction with NASA, works via a discreet unit located in the front valance that projects an enhanced magnetic beam 20 meters in front of the BMW. Once a suitable target car is located and the BMW is magnetically locked on behind it, the driver is then able to take his foot off the accelerator, turn off the engine and let the car in front do all the work. The towing car will not notice any change in maneuverability."

Those two were hoaxes, of course, but with technology advancing at lightning speed it wouldn’t take much convincing to fool even the most tech-savvy of victims.

But perhaps the most infamous prank by a business entity in recent times was the announcement of the Taco Bell Corporation of its acquisition of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, which sent not a few citizens of the City of Brotherly Love into fits of anger.

Nerves calmed down a few hours later when the American food giant announced that its attempt to relieve some of the country’s national debt (by buying the Liberty Bell) was all a hoax.

Angry citizens notwithstanding, the stunt generated a huge amount of publicity for the multi-national taco vendor, as well as prove yet again that even in these supposed "enlightened" times, suckers are still born every minute.

While the custom of pulling pranks on your fellowman on the first of April had been practiced for centuries in the West, the concept is fairly new in these islands, and most likely brought by the Americans in the early part of the last century.

There is no historical record of the custom becoming part of our culture like Christianity and Fiesta --- even after languishing for 400 years under Spanish rule.

It is assumed, though, that as part of greater Europe, the custom was practiced as well in King Phillip’s domain, and this kind of shows us that the conquistadors neither had the sense of humor, nor the patience to teach us natives the, err… finer points of Western traditions.

A big "thank you," therefore, goes to the Yankee invaders, and later on, to those intrepid pioneers, the Thomasites, for introducing the concept --- along with Halloween, Hollywood, hamburgers and spaghetti --- to the Filipinos who readily and gladly took to them like a duck to water.

Curiously, while our palates and artistic preferences were changed overnight, April Fools Day is slow to assimilate into our culture. Not that Pinoys of that era had lost the gift of humor, but it’s probably because Filipinos, by nature, are a fun-loving people who, even before the arrival of Uncle Sam, were already adept in playing pranks on their fellow natives.

I mean, how can you top that practical joke pulled off by Emilio Aguinaldo on Andres Bonifacio, when he usurped the founder of the Katipunan as the leader of the revolutionary government?

Besides, why do it on that one day of the year when you can do it 365 days?

We have yet to see or experience the level in sophistication of hoaxes like those mentioned earlier in this article, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know fun when it stares us in the face.

Pranks and jokes have been played on April 1, not on a national level ( I would love to see the Philippine Daily Inquirer come out with one), but on a more personal one.

Unfortunately, while prank calls and fake news (fake death notices and bogus marriage announcements) are harmless and funny, sometimes morbid in nature, some of the jokes aren’t, and are more in the category of "pulling a fast one" rather than "pulling wool over someone’s eyes."

The most common April Fool’s joke in these islands tend to involve money, with the unsuspecting target of the joke forking out cash to help out a friend in need, only to realize later on that he/she had been duped and may never see the money ever again.

It’s a joke that has been going on for decades with countless people being "victimized" and yet it is a lesson never learned. So on this day (that is, in case you’ve been reading this) you’d be well advised to be on your guard and not get suckered, even by your best friend.

I doubt if anyone will dare do that this year, though, since April Fool’s Day lands right smack on one of the holiest days of the year, Maundy Thursday.

Happy April Fool’s Day!

Photo:  'April Fools Day Jester King' from toonpool.com