Taken for a fool again?

CHANCES are that by the time you read this, you'll already have made a prat of yourself at least once.

If it wasn't the old "your shoelaces are undone" gag or the shouted "look behind you!", it will have been some elaborately-constructed hoax about the news.

Any warnings about the Swiss spaghetti harvest being hit by global warming? Or stories about Burger King manufacturing a special version of its Whopper for left-handed people? You've been had.

Yes, folks, it's April Fool's Day. If you don't want to end up with egg on your face, you had best approach the whole of today with a pinch of salt.

Good rule of thumb: disbelieve everything you are told, and just about everything you read or hear on the news. At least until you've worked out which bit is the spoof, and that is half the fun.

There is a whole slew of theories about how April Fool's Day started (see panel).

Whatever its origins, its continued popularity proves we all enjoy playing tricks on each other from time to time.

But why?

Confirmed prankster Simon Eldritch has his own theory. Simon it was who put his best friend - York Labour councillor Paul Blanchard - up for sale on eBay. "Best mate for sale," his advert stated. "No reserve. Just please take him. He's 29 and I've known him for 26 years. He's been OK but now's the time to get rid." It added cheekily: "He's about 5'4" high and, due to his liking for pies and cream cakes, about the same wide. Hours of amusement, with some pre-programmed phrases."

Bidding for the hapless councillor reached £212 before eBay called a halt to it after deciding that selling a human being amounted to slavery.

It was just the latest in a long history of prank and counter-prank between the two friends that started when they went to nursery school in Acomb together 26 years ago.

Simon reckons Paul started it, by enrolling him, without his knowledge, in a Humpty Dumpty book club. "That's the first one I can remember," he says. "I was about eight, and I was mortified because I had grown out of Humpty Dumpty by then. So I had to get him back, and it developed from there."

Since then, their endless attempts to get one over on each other have included sabotaging each other's CVs, writing inappropriate references - and Simon posting up a web-page with Paul's picture superimposed over the body of an enormously fat man, with the legend: "As far as I'm concerned, the pie is the limit!"

What makes pranks like that such a joy, says Simon, is the expression on the victim's face. "It's that initial reaction," he says gleefully. "That look on their face which is burned into your mind forever." Paul, he insists, makes the perfect target. "He has a better look of distress on his face than anyone else. His eyes have a look of pure horror!"

Paul took being flogged off on eBay with good humour. At the time, he told the Evening Press: "Apparently it's illegal to sell a human being on the internet - which is just as well, really, as I don't think my wife, Heather, would have been too keen on me being sold off."

Now he admits the whole thing was hilarious. Which doesn't mean he's not going to get his own back.

Watch this space....

Apart from being the result of a warped mind, Simon insists people playing pranks on each-other is a sign of good friendship. "I think it's probably necessary to keep friendships going," he says. "I would probably have got rid of him (Paul) by now if we didn't do something like this!"

With Mike and Tony Hartley, however, it is more a question of keeping it in the family. The pub-keeping brothers - two of six children - run the King's Arms in York and the Castle Inn at Sheriff Hutton respectively.

Their history of playing pranks on each-other goes back a long way. Mike remembers, years ago, playing pranks on his brother in the days when he was a mechanic. "He had this tool box and we used to fill it with oil or weld his spanners together," he says.

Tony upped the stakes recently, however - kidnapping a 5ft tall wooden statue of Eric The Viking which Mike was given five years ago and which had occupied pride of place in his pub. Tony subsequently delivered a ransom note: "To the Kings Arms: Pay up or he (Eric) stays at the Castle."

The idea was to raise cash for York Hospital's special care baby unit - but the kidnapping took place in February and Mike has yet to cough up. He and his regulars have raised the money (Tony wants to hand over £500 to the special care baby unit altogether) - but there is no way he is going to give it to his brother until he has got his own back, Mike vows."Revenge is on the way!" he says.

So why do the brothers think we all enjoy playing tricks on each-other? "It's a bit of fun!" says Tony.

"As long as nobody gets hurt. You don't want to go too far so that people lose their temper."

True pranksters such as Paul and Simon, Mike and Tony play tricks all year round. For the rest of us, April Fool's Day is the perfect excuse.

With next year's April 1 in mind, here are Paul and Simon's top tips for a good prank:

Keep it personal - the prank has to be unique to the person you're tricking, and something they will appreciate

Make it relevant - if you aredoing it to get revenge, make sure it's in proportion to what the subject of your prank did to you

Don't take things too far

If possible, make sure you're on hand to catch the expression on the victim's face!

Top April 1 hoaxes

- Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

In 1957, the BBC's Panorama screened a spoof report announcing that due to a very mild winter, and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop.

Footage showed Swiss peasants apparently pulling spaghetti down from trees. Lots of viewers were duped, and many rang in asking how they could grow their own spaghetti trees.

- The Left-Handed Whopper

In 1998 Burger King published a full-page advert in a US newspaper announcing a new item on their menu.

The left-handed Whopper, they said, included all the same ingredients as the original one (lettuce, tomato, hamburger etc) - but with all the ingredients rotated by 180 degrees for the benefit of left-handed customers. Thousands of customers went into the restaurants to ask for the new burger.

- Patrick Moore

In 1976, astronomer Patrick Moore announced on Radio 2 that as a result of a unique, once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment (Pluto was going to pass behind Jupiter), at precisely 9.47am the gravity of Jupiter and Pluto combined would counteract Earth's own gravity, making everything lighter.

Moore told listeners that if they jumped into the air at this exact moment, they would experience a strange floating sensation. Hundreds of people subsequently rang the BBC to claim they had done so.

Evening Press hoaxes

- The King's Arms

On April 1, 2003, the Evening Press reported the King's Arms, Mike Hartley's famously flood-prone pub on Kings Staith, had been raised by 12 feet to avoid being flooded in future.

We accompanied the story with a photo. Guess what? The whole thing was a hoax.

- Walmgate Bar

Last year, we reported on proposals to remove Walmgate Bar and transport it, stone by stone, to Monks Cross.

It was a hoax again - although some might say it would be preferable to what the council has actually done with its barmy new traffic management scheme.

How it all began...

Nobody really knows, to be honest.

Theories range from the claim that it is a continuation of ancient rites to celebrate the return of spring (a season when the weather is very changeable and so 'nature plays tricks on man') to a suggestion it descends from a Roman winter festival, the Saturnalia, which involved lots of dancing, drinking and merrymaking.

Slaves were allowed to pretend that they ruled their masters for the day and a mock king - the Saturnalicius princeps or Lord Of Misrule - reigned for the day. Saturnalia developed in medieval times into the Feast Of Fools.

The most popular theory, however, claims that it is all to do with the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in the sixteenth century.

This moved the beginning of the year from the end of March to January 1.

The new calendar was first adopted in France and, so the theory goes, those who refused to accept it were mocked or sent on 'fool's errands' because they were considered old-fashioned and out of touch.

Things developed from there.

In other words, it is all the fault of the French.

Updated: 10:56 Friday, April 01, 2005