1. Imagine reading that your husband or brother who has been held in a prison for years is finally going to be released. You make the long journey to the prison and stand outside the prison gates, waiting desperately for the moment you'll be reunited with your loved one, only to hear... 'April Fools! No one's being released!' This experience happened to sixty people in April 2000 who read in the Opinia newspaper that their loved ones were going to be released from the Baia Mare prison in Romania. They made the long journey to the prison, only to learn that the paper had played an April Fool's joke on them. The Opinia later published an apology.想象你的亲人正在监狱服刑，而一天你突然从报纸上看到他们要被提前释放的消息。你满怀欢喜地去迎接他们，最后在监狱门口被告知，这只是个愚人节玩笑，你会怎么想？2000年罗马尼亚的一家监狱愚弄了60个人，结果不得不公开道歉。
2. Glenn Howlett's colleagues at London city hall thought they had dreamed up a great gag. They sent him a memo informing him that the really big report he was working on was going to be due early, in just two weeks. The tip-off was that the memo was dated April 1st. Ha Ha. Except Howlett didn't realize it was a joke. He received the memo while on vacation and immediately cut his vacation short and phoned the office to tell everyone to start getting busy. But as he contemplated the new deadline he worked himself up into an increasing state of panic, until soon he began to experience heart palpitations. Finally he collapsed from the stress and had to take leave from work. As he was recovering he realized it just wasn't worth risking his health to finish the report, so he filed for early retirement. At which point someone told him the early deadline was just a joke. He responded by suing for damages. As a consequence of his lawsuit, city hall banned employees from pulling any more pranks.
伦敦市政厅工作的Glenn Howlett，被他的同事狠狠整了一次。在他度假的时候，他的同事告诉他，他要做的一份报告必须提前上交，最后期限就是4月1日。他信以为真，取消了休假，日夜赶工的同时身体也累垮了，住院的时候他琢磨着这样不行啊，不能因为工作把人给弄残了，于是申请提前退休。就在这时有人告诉他，他被耍了。随后Glenn Howlett控诉他的那几个同事，结果伦敦市政厅从此之后禁止员工之间开这样的玩笑。
3. Paul Goobie tied a dead chihuahua to the bumper of his co-worker's car. His co-worker, Kevin Meloy, got in the car and drove off, unaware that the chihuahua was there. Obviously passing motorists were horrified. But what made the situation even worse was that Meloy was deaf, so he couldn't hear the other motorists frantically honking at him. Happily he drove on for miles until finally someone was able to get his attention. Police charged Goobie with unlawful disposal of a dead animal.
一个叫Paul Goobie的人在同事Kevin Meloy车子的保险杠上拴了一只死去的吉娃娃狗。Kevin驾车上街后，街上的人都给吓坏了。因为Kevin是聋子，他听不见别的司机冲他揿喇叭的声音，所以就拖着一只死狗一路奔驰。最后被起诉非法处理死去的动物尸体。
4. Randy Wood's marriage was over, but apparently he was still a little bitter about the divorce. So he decided to play a prank on his ex-wife. He called her up and asked her to come over, telling her that he had something to show her. Obligingly she drove over, only to find him hanging by a noose from a tree in his front yard. Terrifed, she immediately dialed 911. Emergency services, including firefighters, policemen, and paramedics, soon showed up. But when they went to cut Wood down they discovered he wasn't dead. He wasn't even hurt. He had strung himself up as a prank to scare his ex-wife, using a lineman's harness similar to those used by utility crews. The authorities warned that he would face a fine of up to $1,000 and a year in jail for his prank.
一个叫Randy Wood的人在愚人节给他前妻打电话，说想见她。他前妻来的时候却惊恐地发现他上吊自杀了。于是她拨打了急救电话，还叫了消防队和警察。等人都到齐后，大家才发现是假的，他是用吊不死人的背带上吊的。警方说，罚款可能高达1000美元，并可能入狱一年。
5. Sitra Walker was an employee at a clothing store in Columbus, Ohio. She had only been working there for two weeks, but already she felt that she knew the manager well enough to joke around with him. So on April 1, 2003 she called him up at his home and told him that armed men were robbing the store. The manager immediately called the police, who promptly dispatched four cruisers. Minutes later Walker phoned the manager again and screamed 'April Fools'. Too late. When the police arrived moments later they weren't amused and charged her with inducing a panic. Walker's manager fired her.
一家服装店的雇员Sitra Walker只在那工作了两个星期，然而她觉得自己和经理已经熟到可以开玩笑的程度了。愚人节那天她打电话给经理说店里被人抢了。经理立刻打电话报警，警察派了四辆巡逻车来。等她再打电话来说是开玩笑时，迟了。警察没觉得这个好笑，起诉她蓄意制造混乱。而经理也毫不犹豫地开除了她。
6. On April 1, 2003, as thousands of American-led coalition troops stormed across Iraq, the Iraqi ambassador to Russia, Abbas Khalaf Kunfuth, held a press conference in Moscow. Many were expecting him to announce that Iraq conceded defeat. Instead Kunfuth chose this moment to hold a gag press conference. Holding up a piece of paper that he identified as a news flash from Reuters, he read aloud from it: "The Americans have accidentally fired a nuclear missile into British forces, killing seven." Immediately the room full of reporters went silent with shock. Then Kunfuth grinned and shouted 'April Fools!' Only a few days after this unexpected moment of levity, the Iraqi government completely collapsed.
2003年愚人节的时候，美国为首的各国部队已经开入伊拉克。伊拉克驻俄国大使Abbas Khalaf Kunfuth在莫斯科召开记者会，会上他宣布，美国部队发射了核导弹，导致英军7人死亡。一屋子的记者都吓呆了。然后大使先生笑着吼了一句：“愚人节快乐！”这过后不久，伊拉克政府就被推翻了。
