This April Fools trivia quiz has 210 free questions with answers and covers the day's murky origins (Chaucer, the calendar change, a 1561 Flemish poem, the 1698 'washing of the lions'), how it is celebrated around the world (poisson d'avril in France, Hunt the Gowk in Scotland, Sizdah Be-dar in Iran, Humorina in Odesa, and the December prank day in Spain and Latin America), and the hoaxes that fooled millions: the BBC's spaghetti harvest, Sidd Finch, the Taco Liberty Bell, San Serriffe, Patrick Moore's floating listeners and two decades of Google jokes. About a third of the questions are easy enough for a classroom or office quiz on 1 April, a third are medium, and the rest will catch out people who think they know all the famous pranks. Nothing here is mean-spirited. Every answer has been checked against a primary or encyclopaedic source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 210 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which English poet's 1392 tale of the cock Chauntecleer is a disputed early reference to April Fools' Day?
Geoffrey Chaucer
Modern scholars think a copying error is to blame and that Chaucer meant 2 May.
Q 02The earliest clear reference to April Fools' Day is a 1561 poem by Eduard de Dene, writing in which language?
Flemish
It describes a nobleman sending his servant on foolish errands on 1 April.
Q 03What does 'poisson d'avril', first mentioned by a French poet in 1508, literally mean?
April's fish
In France, Italy and Belgium the classic prank is still to stick a paper fish on someone's back.
Q 04In France, Italy and Belgium, what do pranksters try to attach to a victim's back on 1 April?
A paper fish
Chocolate fish fill the shop windows in France in the days beforehand.
Q 05One April Fools' theory cites France's move of New Year's Day to 1 January, made official in which year?
1564
The story goes that people who kept celebrating the new year around 1 April were mocked as fools, though historians doubt it.
Q 06On 1 April 1698, several Londoners were tricked into going to the Tower of London to see what?
The lions being washed
The 'washing of the lions' hoax was repeated for well over a century, complete with printed tickets.
Q 07In the United Kingdom, tradition holds that April Fools' pranks must stop at what time of day?
Noon
Anyone playing a joke after that is said to become the fool themselves.
Q 08What is Scotland's April Fools' prank of sending someone off with a sealed 'Dinna laugh, dinna smile...' note called?
Hunt the Gowk
A gowk is a cuckoo, and the message tells each recipient to send the victim on another mile.
Q 09In Scotland the day after April Fools' was traditionally 'Tailie Day'. What was pinned to people's backs?
Paper tails
Scotland effectively had a two-day festival of pranks.
Q 10Iran's 'Lie of the Thirteenth' prank day, Sizdah Be-dar, falls in which Iranian month?
Farvardin
Families spend the day picnicking outdoors and throw their Nowruz sprouted greens into running water.
Q 11In Spain, Hispanic America and the Philippines, the day for pranks ('inocentadas') falls on which date?
28 December
It commemorates the Massacre of the Innocents ordered by King Herod.
Q 12Humorina, an annual humour festival with a 1 April parade, is held in which Ukrainian city?
Odesa
It began as a protest by the local KVN comedy team after the Soviet Union cancelled the KVN TV competition.
Q 13Poland's April 1 prank belief is so strong that a 1683 alliance signed that day was officially dated to when?
31 March
Nobody wanted a treaty with Leopold I to be mistaken for a prima aprilis joke.
Q 21In 1962, Swedish television told viewers they could get colour TV by stretching what over the screen?
A nylon stocking
Sweden did not actually get colour broadcasts until 1970.
Q 22The Guardian's 1977 April Fools' island San Serriffe had place names that were all puns on what?
Typography
Readers wrote in with holiday memories, and airlines fielded complaints about the non-existent destination.
Q 23The map of The Guardian's fictional San Serriffe was drawn in the shape of which punctuation mark?
A semicolon
Geoffrey Taylor based it on a miniature New Zealand.
Q 14In Danish, Swedish and Icelandic, April Fools' Day goes by what name?
Aprilsnar
Nordic newspapers traditionally slip exactly one fake story into the 1 April edition.
Q 15On 1 April 1957, the BBC's Panorama showed Swiss farmers harvesting what from trees?
Spaghetti
Callers asking how to grow their own were told to 'place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best'.
Q 16Which respected broadcaster's voice-over made the BBC's 1957 pasta-harvest hoax so believable?
Richard Dimbleby
Millions watched, and hundreds phoned in the next day.
Q 17The BBC's 1957 pasta harvest was supposedly taking place in which Swiss canton?
Ticino
Cameraman Charles de Jaeger got the idea from schoolteachers who teased Austrian pupils that spaghetti grew on trees.
Q 18Roughly how many people watched the BBC's Panorama pasta-harvest report on 1 April 1957?
Eight million
Panorama was one of Britain's most trusted programmes, which is why the joke landed so well.
Q 19In 1980 the BBC announced that which London landmark's clock face was going digital?
Big Ben
Listeners were even offered the old clock hands as prizes.
Q 20Which astronomer told BBC Radio 2 listeners in 1976 that a planetary alignment would let them float if they jumped?
Patrick Moore
Callers duly rang in to report a strange floating sensation.
Q 24Sports Illustrated's 1985 hoax pitcher Sidd Finch played for which team and threw how fast?
Mets, 168 mph
He had supposedly learned it from a lama in Tibet; the first letters of the sub-headline spelled 'Happy April Fools' Day'.
Q 25Which author, known for participatory journalism, wrote the Sidd Finch hoax for Sports Illustrated?
George Plimpton
Plimpton later expanded the joke into a novel.
Q 26In 1996 which fast-food chain ran ads claiming to have bought a Philadelphia landmark to help reduce the national debt?
Taco Bell
White House press secretary Mike McCurry played along, saying the Lincoln Memorial was being sold to Ford as the Lincoln-Mercury Memorial.
Q 27The $300,000 'Taco Liberty Bell' prank of 1996 is estimated to have generated roughly how much free publicity?
$25 million
Sales also rose by more than $1 million over the first two days of April.
Q 28In 1992, National Public Radio reported that which former president would run for the White House again?
Richard Nixon
Outraged listeners flooded the switchboard before the joke was revealed.
Q 29What was Google's first April Fools' hoax in 2000, asking users to project a mental image of their search?
MentalPlex
Google Gulp (2005) later promised to tune your neurotransmitters, and Google Nose (2013) let you search by smell.
Q 30Which real Google product, announced on 1 April 2004 with a one-gigabyte inbox, was dismissed as an April Fools' joke?
Gmail
It was a double fake: the jokey announcement was serious.