Claims included a Taco Bell ad that it had bought the Liberty Bell, an iconic symbol of American independence
People crave a good story.
Perhaps that's why these five far-fetched food fantasies on April Fools' Day in previous years fooled the public hungry for a good story — and maybe something new and delicious to eat.
Check these five out.
1. Taco Bell chimes in with landmark claim
Fast-food chain Taco Bell took a daring risk in 1996 by claiming it bought the Liberty Bell, a National Historic Landmark.
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"It will now be called the ‘Taco Liberty Bell’ and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing," said the print advertisement.
The ad appeared in seven major newspapers around the country.
Doritos Locos tacos and a fountain drink are arranged for a photograph at a Taco Bell restaurant, a unit of Yum! Brands Inc., in Redondo Beach, California. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Image)
Taco Bell claimed it was an effort to reduce the national debt and encouraged "other corporations … to do their part."
2. Beer made with bull testicles
Rocky Mountain oysters – sliced and deep-fried bull testicles – are actually a Colorado delicacy.
Oyster stout, meanwhile, is an old Irish tradition of making a beer that pairs toasty dark malts with briny flavors of the shellfish.
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So it wasn’t too much of a stretch for Wynkoop Brewing Co. of Denver to announce 12 years ago that it was making Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout.
That’s right: dark stout made with bull testicles.
"Boy, the Wynkoops really stepping up their game up," enthused one reviewer in a spoof video.
The gimmick proved a sensation. Wynkoop later released, and still brews, a beer made with bull testicles.
3. Switzerland's delicious spaghetti harvest
The BBC, the British media giant, caused an international sensation on April Fools' Day in 1957, with a TV report that there had been "an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop" that year in Ticino, a region of Switzerland on the Italian border.
Children from St. Ann's Primary School in London recreate the BBC's iconic 1957 spaghetti-tree hoax. (Tesco via Getty Images)
"At the time, spaghetti wasn’t necessarily a dish that British people would’ve known about," History.com writes of what it calls "one of the most famous April Fools' Day pranks of all time."
The website added that some BBC viewers "reportedly asked about how they could grow their own spaghetti at home."
4. Edison turns water into wine
Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877.
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The following year, the former New York Graphic newspaper ran a screaming headline in 1878 claiming that "Edison invents a machine that will feed the human race!"
Proving that delicious April Fools' Day gags are nothing new, the story claimed that the new contraption by the New Jersey inventor could turn dirt into meat and water into wine.
American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison (1847-1931) with an Edison Standard Phonograph, at his lab in West Orange, New Jersey, 1906. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
The author admitted at the end of the report that the story came to him in a dream — but several other newspapers around the country ran with the story.
5. Man invents London’s top-rated restaurant
Oobah Butler was a frustrated London writer who was hired by restaurants to post fake but positive reviews of their eateries for TripAdvisor.
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He became a viral sensation in 2017 when he invented a restaurant, the Shed at Dulwich, and turned it into the top-rated eatery in London, England via fake reviews.
It went from No. 18,149, the lowest-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor, to No. 1 in London in six months.
The burner phone he used rang off the hook with people pleading for reservations; at one point, the non-existent restaurant was searched 89,000 times in one day.
"The appointments, lack of address and general exclusivity of this place [are] so alluring that people can’t see sense," Butler wrote of the gambit on Vice.
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.
Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.
