From the archive: Guardian April fools - in pictures

1977 The General and the island: The Guardian has a long tradition of April Fools gags, the most famous of which is its coverage of San Serriffe in 1977. The paper published a seven page supplement on the imaginary island, taking in thousands of readers. Photograph: Guardian

1977 Guinness loses its head: Even the advertisers were in on the joke, with Guinness advertising the ‘upside down’ San Serriffe version of the stout - due to the islanders planting the barley upside down, the body came out white, while the head came out black. Photograph: Guardian

1978 The San Serriffe Guardian: The success of the 1977 joke led to the newspaper revisiting the island in 1978, with special editions of the island’s own newspapers following the August deposing of General Pica. Photograph: Guardian

1978 - Sexy secrets of San Serriffe: Although the San Serriffe Guardian reported that eleven San Serriffe newspapers had been merged into one by the Freedom of Information act, the individual newspapers still retained their distinct styles. Photograph: Guardian

1999 San Serriffe revisited: The Guardian returned to the island for a third time in 1999, following the San Serriffean football team’s 1-0 victory over England at Wembley. The original typography gag threaded throughout all San Serriffe stories was continued with the Berlin Sans byline on the article. Photograph: Guardian

1981 Scientists control the weather: However, Guardian gags are not just restricted to imaginary islands. In 1981, we reported on the development of a machine to control the weather - just in time for the royal wedding of Charles and Diana later that year. Photograph: Guardian

1981 Vladivar vodka takes readers for a ride: Once again, the advertisers got in on the act - Guinness advertised for a Toucan Park Headkeeper, while Vladivar vodka offered readers a chance to be ‘taken for a ride’ on an airship - provided they filled out an entry form declaring themselves an April fool. Photograph: Guardian

1990 Guardian on Sunday: In 1990, April Fool’s fell on a Sunday, and the Guardian went for the long con in tricking its readers, launching The Guardian for Sunday, on Saturday, “the most radical innovation in British journalism for a decade”, on March 31st. Photograph: Guardian

1992 Men’s Page: A lot of the Guardian’s April fool gags are light-hearted jabs at the reputation of the newspaper, aimed at amusing regular readers, as demonstrated by 1992’s effort, the launch of the Guardian’s Men’s Page, dedicated to the ‘post-Greer man.’ Photograph: Guardian

1993 Ciao!: In 1993, the Guardian launched Ciao!, a lifestyle supplement that put the ‘in’ into intellectual, with Harriet Harman as the cover star and features such as ‘At home with Derrida.’ Photograph: Guardian

2010 Step outside, posh boy: With the instant fact-checking available on the internet, April’s Fools are far more quickly revealed nowadays. However, it was thanks to the internet that the Guardian’s 2010 joke - revealing the new poster campaign of the Labour party focussing on Gordon Brown’s ‘alpha male’ personality - went viral, fooling thousands more than just the newspaper’s regular readership. Photograph: Guardian

1984 Pirate porn on British TV: Although April Fools doesn’t fall on a Sunday that often, when it does - like this year - the Observer also tries to fool its readers. The above front page from 1 April 1984 has an April Fool that most readers in 1984 found perfectly plausible - the launching of Channel Sex on British TV. Photograph: Guardian

2007 Tony Blair takes to the stage: The Observer also played on plausibility with their 2007 gag - reporting that Tony Blair would be taking to the stage after leaving No 10, with a role in a new production of the Crucible directed by Kevin Spacey. Photograph: Guardian