Flying Penguins documented by BBC nature crew
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008Monty Penguin’s Flying Circus
So, how many of you were fooled by the BBC’s April Fool’s stunt? We were yesterday alerted to the startling news of flying penguins by a Mr Rolf Opali, and forwarded to the BBC iPlayer page via a link.
The video, a cleverly conceived and executed viral piece for the iPlayer is simply titled ‘Penguins’, and has shot to the top of the BBC iPlayer’s Most Popular list after users from around the world logged on to check out the footage. Whether you fell for it or not, you can’t help but admire the quality of the film, impressive in an age of FX-literate audiences, and the sheer gall of the project.
The film ostensibly follows ex-Monty Python star Terry Jones and a camera filming a colony of Adélie penguins on
The Mirror also ran a piece about a forthcoming TV show called Greyhounds on Ice, where the race dogs are fitted with special shoes and made to race across an ice rink, a la Crufts meets Dancing on Ice.
Previous April Fools jokes involving doctored images include The Sun’s famous giant chicken, supposedly cloned by Dutch scientists. The chicken, bred by Dr Evan Yuon (get it?) was the size of an ostrich, and could apparently supply enough meat for 7,000 nuggets.
The BBC’s Penguins video is currently still sitting at the top spot on the iPlayer’s list, and it available for streaming only (no downloads unfortunately) for the next five days.
