AMMAN, Jordan -- A Jordanian newspaper's April Fool's Day report chronicling a late-night visit by 10-foot-tall aliens in flying saucers sparked public panic and almost led to the town's emergency evacuation, officials said Monday.
"Students didn't go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town's 13,000 residents," Mleihan told The Associated Press. "People were scared that aliens would attack them."I deem any prank that keeps children home from school as successful. Double bonus points for pulling off the cliche alien invasion hoax.
The story goes on to detail how this fake article "one-upped" last year's gag:
"The Al Ghad newspaper is still being condemned by some Jordanians for the prank it pulled off on April 1st of last year. The 2009 front page article reported that King Abdullah II, in an effort to spur more tourism from western countries, convinced parliament to go along with his plans to turn the Dead Sea into the world's largest Margarita. The tag line of the ad campaign was 'One of the world's saltiest bodies of water is now the tastiest!' The article continued to report the details of a major contract deal with Sammy Hagar, proprietor of Cabo Wabo brand tequila. Coupling the majority Muslim populations' religious prohibition of alcohol and their equal disdain for anything related to Van Halen, riots grew quickly out of control in the streets of Amman leading numerous officials to proclaim 'No Mas Tequila.'"The above was made up of course, but now that we know Jordan is 70 years behind us in gullability (1938 War of the Worlds), I don't think this is that far-fetched for what we can pull on them next year.
Who knows? Maybe we can convince them that the Petra is being converted into new ultra-modern Jewish settlements.
What awesome prank do you want to see attempted next year?
Dude, my birthday is april 1st, I'm a seasoned, salty veteran of pranks.
ReplyDeleteAll ninja and stuff.
Lola,
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by! I have to remember not to prank you next year.