Whale of an April Fool’s prank


The staff at the Somerset County Gazette newspaper in, of all places, Somerset County, England, decided to play an April Fool’s Day joke on their readers. They ran a fake article titled Beached whale draws crowds to Taunton park in which they claimed a whale, named “Gotcha” by locals, “tugged itself out of the water and shuffled up the bank, across the foopath and onto the main grassed area” of a city park. Despite claims that whales can live out of water for up to a week and are actually quite friendly, “Gotcha” was purported to have eaten one woman’s Yorkshire Terrier. In response, a local farmer was hired to bring in a “fresh supply of newborn lambs” to satisfy the whale’s appetite. The next day, the newspaper ran a story letting its readers off the hook and asking to hear from anyone who fell for the joke and tried to go see the whale. 

We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, here are links to the two articles: