David Beckham joining the Australian soccer team? A stapler sending tweets? It must be April Fools' Day. In keeping with tradition, media outlets, companies, websites and other jokers came up with various April Fools' hoaxes Thursday that ranged from the ridiculous to the absurd. Australian pen maker Artline was advertising a new product in newspapers and on its website www.artline.com.au - a pen that remembers everything you write. The website HowStuffWorks.com came up with the “twapler,” which is a “stapler that automatically sends a message via Bluetooth or WiFi to a Twitter feed detailing exactly what you're stapling at any given moment.” Australian broadcaster ABC put out a spoof interview with an injured David Beckham in which the former England soccer captain said he was set to join the Australian national team, the Socceroos, as assistant manager. The Sydney Morning Herald and ABC radio teamed up for the gag, which was set up in the newspaper's sports section before an impersonator was interviewed on air. The Herald said Beckham had been persuaded to join Australia's World Cup campaign as assistant coach after receiving fruit and a “get well soon” card from the Football Federation Australia (FFA) following a recent injury. Residents of the small Australian town of Murwillumbah woke up to the news in local newspaper the Tweed Daily News that “Avatar” director James Cameron had scouted local rainforests as a location for a sequel to the box-office hit. Meanwhile, flying car mechanics, flavoured newspaper pages and Labour Party election posters depicting the prime minister as a thug were among April Fool's Day jokes awaiting Britons in their papers Thursday. The Daily Mail reported that the Automobile Association (AA), which deals with emergency callouts to car breakdowns, had equipped its staff with jet-packs to fly over gridlocked traffic to reach stranded motorists faster. The Sun proudly declared it had succeeded in creating “the world's first flavoured PAGE,” next to a blank, white square which contained the instruction: “Lick here.” The paper invited readers to “test our page here and guess the taste.” In an elaborate mock-up, The Guardian said the ruling Labour Party was to use Prime Minister Gordon Brown's “reputation for anger and physical aggression” in a new poster campaign ahead of an election expected on May 6. This would portray the leader as a man willing to take on David Cameron, leader of the main opposition Conservatives, in “a bare-knuckle fistfight for the future of Britain,” said the paper.
