April Fool’s jokes that disastrously backfired – from a fake volcano eruption to a wife so scared she dropped dead

: "It's a bit silly really, and shows a bit of a warped sense of humour."

Junk mail

In 2016, Google ended up admitting: "Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year."

The internet giant had released an April Fool's feature called the "Mic Drop" which let users add an animated GIF of a minion from the film Despicable Me dropping a microphone to the end of emails.

Once it was used, the email chain would be disabled as if the user had dropped the mic and finished the discussion.

On the face of it, the feature was just a bit of light hearted fun — but because the Mic Drop feature was next to the send button, many people added them into emails by accident.

That led to some wildly inappropriate messages being sent, including to future employers from recent interviewees or to bereaved families from undertakers.

Playboy sanction

The Romanian version of Playboy magazine published a horrific article in 2000 headlined: "How to beat your wife without leaving traces".

They claimed the article was a joke — but it was taken extremely seriously by many and the uproar sparked nationwide protests.

Playboy later apologised and was said to have promised to give money to anti-domestic violence programmes as well as publishing articles which educated men about domestic violence.

Boxer Billy Joe Saunders is currently facing a year-long ban from the sport after releasing a video on social media which appeared to promote violence against women.

He later apologised for the vile clip, claiming his "sense of humour is not everyone's cup of tea", and donated £25,000 to a charity dealing with domestic violence.

Water terrible idea

Radio hosts ended up being likened to terrorists in 2002 when their prank triggered mass panic.

In Kansas City, local disc jockeys warned listeners that high levels of dihydrogen monoxide had been detected in the local water supply.

They said the substance could cause skin to wrinkle and leave people needing to frequently urinate.

But they failed to mention that dihydrogen monoxide is just the chemical name for water.

Over 100 panicked locals called the cops, who were so unimpressed with the radio hosts that they likened it to a terrorist incident.

Cliff clanger

British radio hosts have also had their own prank disasters too.

In 2001, a Brighton DJ broadcast that a replica of the Titanic could be seen from Beachy Head in Sussex.

Hundreds of listeners from miles around flocked to the cliffs to catch a glimpse of the vessel.

But of course, the fabled ship was nowhere to be seen — though the incident did have very real consequences.

Coastguards said a crack appeared in the cliffs due to the weight of all the people who had visited because of the prank.

And a few days later, a large section of the rocks completely collapsed.

The radio station ultimately issued an apology.

Not the end of the world

And it's not just radio hosts who've needlessly started a mass panic.

In 1940, the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia allowed its spokesperson, William Castellini, to issue a terrifying announcement.

"Your worst fears that the world will end are confirmed by astronomers of Franklin Institute, Philadelphia," it read.

"Scientists predict that the world will end at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time tomorrow. This is no April Fools' joke."

The press release turned out to just be a novel way of promoting the museum's forthcoming exhibition about cosmic apocalypses.

But emergency services in Philadelphia were inundated with worried calls and Castellini was sacked.

April Fool's Day murder

Some jokes aren't just in appalling taste — they have deadly serious consequences.

Lin Senhao became known as the April Fool's Day Killer after fatally poisoning his roommate in what he claimed was a prank gone wrong.

His roommate, Huang Yang, died of multiple organ failure aged 27 after he drank water that Lin had spiked on April Fool's Day in 2013.

Lin swiped the toxic chemical N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) from a hospital lab and, he claims, he'd only wanted to cause some mild discomfort with the poisoned water.

But he poured 10 times a lethal dose into the water dispenser that Huang drank from.

Lin was ultimately found guilty of murder and was executed in December 2015.

Loch Ness imposter

A team of scientists from Yorkshire's Flamingo Park Zoo thought they'd made the ultimate discovery in 1972 when they found a mysterious animal's lifeless body floating in the waters of Loch Ness.

The unidentified creature appeared to be the body of the fabled Loch Ness Monster, immediately starting a media storm of reports that the beast had finally been found.

One local resident reportedly said: "I touched it and put my hand in its mouth. It's real, all right.

"I thought it looked half-bear and half-seal… green in color… with a horrific head like a bear with flat ears. I was shocked."

Scottish cops got involved when they stopped the English researchers trying to take the national cryptid back across the border for examination.

I thought it looked half-bear and half-seal

Local witness

But when the creature's body was inspected by the curator of the Edinburgh Zoo, he quickly identified it as the body of an elephant bull seal.

But that triggered a new mystery — how had a creature native to the South Atlantic Ocean ended up thousands of miles from home in a Scottish loch?

It turned out that John Shields, the Flamingo Park Zoo's education officer, had dumped the seal's body in the loch to prank his colleagues.

He'd even shaved its whiskers off and stuffed its face with rocks and been behind the tip-off call which led the scientists to its body.

Shields ultimately admitted the joke got out of hand when police were involved and news of the fake discovery spread around the world.