雙語故事:史上五大最失敗的愚人節玩笑

ine 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.

想象你的親人正在監獄服刑，而一天你突然從報紙上看到他們要被提前釋放的消息。你滿懷歡喜地去迎接他們，最後在監獄門口被告知，這只是個愚人節玩笑，你會怎麼想？2000年羅馬尼亞的一家監獄愚弄了60個人，結果不得不公開道歉。

n 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.

倫敦市政廳工作的 Glenn Howlett，被他的同事狠狠整了一次。在他度假的時候，他的同事告訴他，他要做的一份報告必須提前上交，最後期限就是4月1日。他信以爲真，取消了休假，日夜趕工的同時身體也累垮了，住院的時候他琢磨着這樣不行啊，不能因爲工作把人給弄殘了，於是申請提前退休。就在這時有人告訴他，他被耍了。隨後 Glenn Howlett控訴他的那幾個同事，結果倫敦市政廳從此之後禁止員工之間開這樣的玩笑。

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.

一個叫Paul Goobie的人在同事Kevin Meloy車子的保險槓上拴了一隻死去的吉娃娃狗。Kevin駕車上街後，街上的人都給嚇壞了。因爲Kevin是聾子，他聽不見別的司機衝他撳喇叭的聲音，所以就拖着一隻死狗一路奔馳。最後被起訴非法處理死去的動物屍體。

y 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.

一個叫Randy Wood的人在愚人節給他前妻打電話，說想見她。他前妻來的時候卻驚恐地發現他上吊自殺了。於是她撥打了急救電話，還叫了消防隊和警察。等人都到齊後，大家才發現是假的，他是用吊不死人的揹帶上吊的。警方說，罰款可能高達1000美元，並可能入獄一年。

a 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.

一家服裝店的僱員 Sitra Walker只在那工作了兩個星期，然而她覺得自己和經理已經熟到可以開玩笑的程度了。愚人節那天她打電話給經理說店裏被人搶了。經理立刻打電話報警，警察派了四輛巡邏車來。等她再打電話來說是開玩笑時，遲了。警察沒覺得這個好笑，起訴她蓄意製造混亂。而經理也毫不猶豫地開除了她。