Best ever April Fool's joke or even HG Wells ?

is_that_so

Best one I ever heard of was one done by BBC's Panorama in the 1950's where Richard Dimbleby went to Italy to see the harvest of the spaghetti trees

DonkeyStyle \o/

Probably Giblets one on this forum.

Shrimp

Haha.. thats a good one.. :P

The Bollox

I have to say this one, I'm not sure if it was an April fools joke or just a prank, but in the 60's (I think) a dude went on the radio and started narating an alien invasion, what a classic! it worked really well, everyone was ****ting themselves, he was going on about how they are destroying New York and London, what a legend!

DonkeyStyle \o/

Wasn't that war of the worlds or sommat?

Actually wasn't there people commiting suicide because of it aswell? or is that just an urban legend?

is_that_so

War of the Worlds -1938. It was Orson Welles -caused mayhem in New Jersey.

The Bollox

was it an April fools joke tho? or just a prank

DonkeyStyle \o/

I remember listening to war of the worlds on book-tape or whatever... t'was very convincing... I wonder was the version I heard the same one actually broadcast?

is_that_so

It was for real, just so well done people were convinced. No CNN in those days.

is_that_so

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

I remember listening to war of the worlds on book-tape or whatever... t'was very convincing... I wonder was the version I heard the same one actually broadcast?

Think you can get the broadcast alrite. I know there's a film version of what happened in 1938 - can't remember what it's called.

Sysiphus

It showed how gullible people were, every week Orsen Welles did a play, as part of "Mecury Theatre on the Air", that week they were doing there normal stichk then Orsen breaks in with "News Flash" and takes it from there. But peolpe never copped they listening to a play in a play, even though they listened every week to a play at that time!!!!

monkeyfudge

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

I remember listening to war of the worlds on book-tape or whatever... t'was very convincing... I wonder was the version I heard the same one actually broadcast?

There were ad breaks in the original broadcast. Which makes it even more silly that some people believed it.

There's a new War of the Worlds film coming out this year by Spielberg and Cruise. It's the most expensive film ever made apparently.

Another great hoax was Ghostwatch which the BBC showed on holloween night, I think it was around 1992. It was very well done, it was all these cameras set up in a supposedly haunted house and they had all this scary stuff happen. lots of people thought it was real. You can get it on DVD now.

Cathy

Wasn't it H.G. Wells?

monkeyfudge

Cathy wrote:

Wasn't it H.G. Wells?

HG Wells wrote the original story in the 1890's

Orson Welles did the radio play adaption and set it in the US in the 1930's

George Pal did the film version in the 1950's.

Jeff Wayne did the funky concept album in the 1970's

Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin pretty much wanked all over it in the 1990's with Independence Day.

And Speilberg is releasing a big big version this year... but without martians in it... hmmm...

The Jeff Wayne musical is actually the most accurate adapation that's been done.

monkeyfudge

monkeyfudge wrote:

HG Wells wrote the original story in the 1890's

Orson Welles did the radio play adaption and set it in the US in the 1930's

George Pal did the film version in the 1950's.

Jeff Wayne did the funky concept album in the 1970's

Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin pretty much wanked all over it in the 1990's with Independence Day.

And Speilberg is releasing a big big version this year... but without martians in it... hmmm...

The Jeff Wayne musical is actually the most accurate adapation that's been done.

Let's not forget that Arnold did it in Hey Arnold!

The Bollox

monkeyfudge wrote:

Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin pretty much wanked all over it in the 1990's with Independence Day.

LMAO! so true!