The morning of the April 1st saw many people being duped by April Fool’s pranks in the newspapers and on the television and radio. For a pretty comprehensive round-up of the mainstream media’s jokes, read journalism.co.uk‘s article April Fools’ Day: Headline hoaxes from the morning’s news.
When I saw more and more outrageous stories being told in the local and national news, I wondered aloud on Twitter how many independent hyperlocal websites had done the same thing and got quite a few replies. So here’s a list of UK hyperlocal hoaxes – please comment if I’ve missed any out!
Alderley Edge: Ancient gold bars found at construction site – who needs the Staffordshire Hoard when a chest containing over 100 ancient gold bars is discovered during excavation at a local construction site?
Connect Cannock: ‘Beast’ of Cannock Chase Finally Caught – ‘The ongoing saga of the seemingly mythological ‘beast of Cannock Chase‘ was brought to an abrupt halt…when a local resident managed to trap the infamous creature.’ Scary stuff.
Brighton Lite: Boris Johnson goes green as he brings bouncy space hoppers for hire to Brighton and Hove – Brighton’s answer to Boris’ Bikes have a bit more bounce to them.
MyTunstall: Stoke on Trent City Council to trial triple yellow lines in key areas of the Tunstall Ward – an interesting answer to local parking problems and a great use of photoshop.
Hedon Blog: Green Airport destined for Hedon as airships return to the skies – but how long will it be before RyanAir start giving Hedon GreenAir’s luxury airships some stiff competition?
All of the posts were great, tongue-in-cheek takes on big local stories and the talk about local team loved the light relief from busily preparing for the following day’s #TAL11 unconference (collective memory post on that coming soon).
I can’t wait to see what hyperlocal hoaxes will be published next April 1st – maybe you already have an idea brewing?
More links from the comments:
About My Area Abthorpe: Genetically Engineered Lambs In Abthorpe – farming fluorescent orange and yellow sheep.
Nottingham City Council LOLS: The End of The Road – Under pressure from the Benefits Agency to take steps to improve his employability, the author applies and is accepted as an Auxiliary Community Protection Officer, a role which is sadly incompatible with writing this satirical local blog.
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I’ve done one the last couple of years, it’s all been about me tho
http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2011/04/end-of-road.html
A contributor sent this in to me.
http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/Northamptonshire/Towcester/NN12/Villages/Abthorpe/192045-Genetically-Engineered-Lambs-In-Abthorpe
Our Alderley Gold prank, as well as a great deal of fun, proved to be one of best bits of marketing we have done this year. The story was the talk of the village and resulted in one of the busiest days this year on the site both in terms of traffic and comments. Will certainly be doing something again next year.
@Andy – that’s brilliant and definitely not all about you, great take on the very topical subject of recent changes to benefits!
@James – thank you for the scary fluorescent sheep, into the post they go!
@Martin – Very interesting that it bought you so much traffic. Did anyone actually buy it?!
Can’t get enough of April Fool’s Day? Then check out this bloopers I saw on the GreenopolisTV channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee8LgCtq0Os.
We’ve done April Fools for the last two years on Fetch Didsbury. Both with brilliant artist’s impressions:
For 2010 we did ‘McDonalds Coming To Didsbury’ – http://fetch.it/d/1702
For 2011 we did ‘Didsbury Twinned With Didsbury’ – http://fetch.it/d/4419
Both went down really well, and we already have 2012 planned.
Harry
Brilliant Harry – will you resurrect the unfortunately named councillor McNugget for 2012?
Nicky
You never can tell, although he may have had a heart attack by then.
Harry