Many of you probably already guessed: The story we ran yesterday entitled ‘Google Signs Deal with Iceland’ and Páll Stefánsson’s column ‘Page and the President’ were April Fools’ Day jokes—a long-standing tradition of the Icelandic media.
Readers of Iceland Review Online German will also have noticed that the site carried the Google news—as well as a story about two German bands which had decided to merge and relocate to Iceland.
The best April Fools’ Day gags are, however, when people are persuaded to hlaupa apríl, as we say here in Iceland; to “make an April run” and head off to a certain location.
Yesterday, RÚV, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, ran a story that the State Alcohol and Tobacco Company of Iceland was giving away beer from the mid-winter festival of Þorrablót, which was held from late January to late February. It is not permitted to sell festive beer outside of the festival period. RÚV also ran a story that it was looking for applicants for a presenter for this year’s Eurovision coverage.Twenty-seven people applied for the job.
In other April Fools’ Day news, mbl.is ran a story that Hreyfing gym was launching naked yoga classes yesterday. Many people apparently rang the gym asking about whether or not the class was a joke and two people turned up for the first class.
The tradition of April Fools’ Day news stories is of course not unique to Iceland. The BBC ran a story yesterday with some of this year’s jokes. The hashtag #AprilFoolsDay was used more than 400,000 times in 24 hours.
