April Fools' Day quiz: how easily fooled are you?

The BBC’s famous spaghetti April fool. Photograph: BBC News

There are only two types of people in the world. Those who enjoy media organisations and brands pulling April fool stunts. And joyless monsters. Assuming you are not one of the latter, while you are waiting to see what this year’s selection of hoaxes has to offer, why not take our quiz of famous and “funny” April fool pranks from throughout the years.

The Guardian’s April fool quiz

1. 

   In 1957 the BBC famously broadcast an April fool item about harvesting spaghetti from trees in Switzerland. Which broadcaster gave the item added gravitas with their voiceover?

   1. David Dimbleby

   2. Richard Dimbleby

   3. Valerie Singleton

   4. David Attenborough

2. 

   In 1977 the Guardian produced a travel supplement for a fictional set of islands, and we've pretty much shoehorned it into all our April fool coverage ever since, just like this. What was its name?

   1. San Serriffe

   2. Garamondo

   3. Syldavia

   4. Gill Sands

3. 

   Morphy Richards has announced it is launching this toaster today. What is it specifically for?

   1. Fish fingers and custard

   2. Pop tarts

   3. Hot cross buns

   4. Potato waffles

4. 

   Which famous figure once announced that at 9.47am on 1 April, the planetary conjunction between Pluto and Jupiter would mean gravity on Earth would be slightly weaker, and if you jumped in the air you would briefly float, without needing balloons?

   1. Patrick Moore

   2. Brian Cox

   3. Richard Dawkins

   4. Stephen Hawking

5. An early 1998 example of a viral internet April fool prank had people believing the state of Alabama had passed a law changing a fundamental constant of the universe. But what was it?

   1. It wanted to outlaw "disrespectful" birdsong during Sunday church services.

   2. It wanted to redefine the value of π to 3 in accordance with the bible

   3. It wanted to limit the speed of sound

   4. It wanted to enshrine in law that everybody was related to Adam and Eve

6. 

   Yeo Valley Organic has claimed today it has shaved 'Moo-R' codes into its cows. What do you get if you scan them?

   1. Nothing. Don't be silly, they aren't proper QR codes, and nobody uses QR codes anyway

   2. Tracking to tell you which products contain organic milk from this cow

   3. An AR version of the cow can appear in your house

   4. The cow's social media profile

7. In 2004 Google advertised jobs in its new Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering research facility. Where was it to be based?

   1. On the moon

   2. In an underwater sea base

   3. In hot air balloons

   4. Antarctica

8. As a joke, National Public Radio announced who was going to be unexpectedly running for US president in 1992?

   1. Donald Trump

   2. Gerald Ford

   3. Jimmy Carter

   4. Richard Nixon

9. 

   Volkswagen endeared itself to news editors around the world this week by saying it was changing its name, then saying when questioned that it wasn't an April fool, and then revealing after everybody had reported the story, it was in fact an April fool. Hilarious. What was the new name?

   1. Sparkswagen

   2. Volksparken

   3. Voltswagen

   4. Muskmobile

10. In 2019, the language-learning app Duolingo claimed to have added what to its service from 1 April?

    1. Lessons in the language of Klingon from Star Trek

    2. An Uber-style taxi service where the driver would give you a language lesson during your trip

    3. A course teaching you emojis

    4. Its green owl logo would come round in person and bully you into doing your lessons

11. In 1989, for April Fool's Day, a UFO-shaped hot air balloon flew over London, raising eyebrows that the planet was about to be invaded. Who was the pilot?

    1. Richard Branson

    2. Robert Maxwell

    3. Gary Numan

    4. Uri Geller

12. 

    In 1972 researchers claimed to have found the body of the Loch Ness monster. What, in fact, was it?

    1. A dead bull elephant seal

    2. A prop left over from filming the Doctor Who Terror of the Zygons serial, which was set around Loch Ness

    3. The results of a local school craft project

    4. A giant eel

13. 

    In 1962 Swedish television announced that black-and-white TV could now be viewed in colour, if you looked at it through one simple household object. What was the object?

    1. A sieve

    2. Woollen socks

    3. Nylon stockings

    4. Cellophane clingfilm

14. In 2002 Tesco announced it had developed a genetically modified vegetable that would "whistle" when fully cooked. Which vegetable?

    1. Carrot

    2. Potato

    3. Broccoli

    4. Aubergine

15. In 2008 the BBC released footage of which flightless bird that had been captured on video demonstrating it could, in fact, fly?

    1. Ostrich

    2. Emu

    3. Penguin

    4. South Island takahē

Solutions

1:B - The item is thought to have been watched by about 8 million viewers, and afterwards the BBC offered advice on how to grow your own spaghetti by placing a sprig in a tin of tomato sauce. Simpler times., 2:A - It was called San Serriffe – after the sans-serif typeface – and everything was more or less an in-joke about newspaper production processes. Did you know that at one point when you registered for the Guardian website, you could pick San Serriffe as your home from the drop-down list of countries?, 3:D - If you didn't know you can grill potato waffles in an ordinary toaster, you're missing out. This joke has been done in conjunction with Birds Eye which is celebrating 40 years of the iconically shaped frozen potato product., 4:A - On BBC Radio 2 in 1976. People called in to testify they had felt the non-existent 'Jovian–Plutonian gravitational effect'. Pluto was later demoted from being a planet – coincidence?, 5:B - A parody of attempts to enshrine creationism in law written by Mark Boslough used real quotes from legislators but twisted it to look like they were trying to change the value of Pi. What was intended as a joke, however, became transformed into a serious news report as it travelled over chatrooms and messageboards across the net. Incidentally, the Indiana state legislature DID try to regulate Pi into a more easily manageable – if incorrect – number in 1897., 6:D - Yes. Yeo Valley has made a website with profiles for individual cows in its 400-strong herd which can be accessed by the Moo-R code., 7:A - Yes, it was set to be a lunar centre opening in 2007. The clue was in the acronym GCHEESE, what with the moon famously being made of cheese. Incidentally, when Google first launched its mapping service of the moon, if you zoomed in far enough you would discover the surface was made of cheese., 8:D - NPR's Talk of the Nation programme announced that the disgraced former president was running for office again, and even had an impersonator giving a campaign speech, including his new motto: "I never did anything wrong, and I won't do it again.", 9:C - It was part of a push for its electric cars in the US, which is guaranteed to get a really warm welcome from the same motoring news editors they just really annoyed., 10:D - Yes, the Duolingo Push service was said to be available in three flavours depending on how much you paid – encouraging owl, disappointed owl, and passive-aggressive owl. This year Duolingo says it is dispensing language lessons on loo rolls., 11:A - It was an early ballooning stunt by the Virgin boss. You can insert your own punchline about there being more chance of anything coming from Mars than there was of Virgin Trains being on time here …, 12:A - The corpse was an animal that had died at Dudley zoo and then been dumped in the world's most mysterious loch as a prank. It got out of hand once the police got involved., 13:C - Engineer Kjell Stensson informed the public the mesh in nylon stockings would bend light rays to provide colour images, prompting hilarious scenes up and down the land (probably). Pro-tip: It does not., 14:A - The humble carrot had apparently been modified with tapered airholes that caused it to emit a '97 decibel signal' when it was ready to be removed from the pan. That's the equivalent to the sound of a pneumatic drill, or two Iron Maiden LPs played simultaneously., 15:C - Special effects were used as the presenter Terry Jones explained the discovery of a small number of penguins who flew to South American rainforests to winter in warmer climes.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   Well done prankmeister – there's no prizes, but hopefully you were amused along the way

2. 15 and above.

   Well done prankmeister – there's no prizes, but hopefully you were amused along the way

• It’s just for fun, there are no prizes. You can email martin.belam@theguardian.com if you are really sure something is terribly wrong