Everyone’s found themselves at the wrong end of a prank once or twice – but most of the time it happens in private, not on live TV.
But that was exactly the case for Roger Johnson and Babita Sharma of the BBC Breakfast team, who were taken in by a Brexit-Themed April Fool’s joke in The Observer.
The Observer printed a story about a company working on Brexit emojis, but it was the byline that gave the game away – the story was listed as written by “Scherzo Primavera,” which translates as “joke of spring.”
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The story claimed that MPs were expressing concern over the development of the emojis – a Union Jack-sporting dog called Brexit Bulldog and a smiling blue face wearing the stars of the European Union, called Starry Blue.
The intent of the emojis was to let people express their views on Brexit but the story claims their existence had led MPs to suggest imposing tariffs on emojis to dissuade people from using them.
The BBC Breakfast team initially covered the story, but later conceded it was an April Fool when a viewer pointed out the suspicious byline, and the date of the article.
Pointing out the name, Babita laughed: “Why did we not get that earlier?”
Roger took a philosophical approach to being duped, saying simply: “It is of course, today, the 1st of April. And this story we were discussing, as someone said, very enthusiastically… the journalist who wrote it is called Joke of Spring.
“One nil to The Observer. Good story none the less!”
They were far from the only people to be fooled, however, with plenty of the comments on the article showing it had been believed, and many people sharing it on Twitter.
Others admitted they probably would have fallen for the story if they’d come across it.
The trip up on the BBC soon became as entertaining as the emojis themselves, with many taking to Twitter to laugh at the situation.
Others praised Roger and Babita for taking it all in good humour once they realised the error.
Although some thought that what started as a joke would become reality.
It wasn’t the only Brexit themed April Fool’s joke floating around – the UK office of the European Parliament tweeted about an image of a European passport that used the blue of the flag, in reference to the plans to return British passports to blue covers.
There’s nothing wrong with falling for a light joke, of course, and the Breakfast team now have a year to come up with a way to prank The Observer right back!
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