World's First Ever Flying Penguins?

LONDON, April 1, 2008 — -- April Fool's Day has come around again and Britain's media is celebrating it with gusto.

A BBC television spot showed a video of the world's first flying penguins.

Ostensibly filmed for a documentary called "Miracles of Evolution," the video shows a colony of Adélie penguins suddenly taking to the skies as the astonished presenter, ex-Monty Python star Terry Jones, looks on. The TV spot was supposedly filmed on King George's Island, 1,000 kilometres south of the Falklands.

These "miracle penguins" also made it to the cover of The Daily Mirror, which quoted the filmmaker, Prof. Alid Loyas (an anagram for "April Fools' Day"), saying: "We could hardly believe our eyes. It was amazing. It's the perfect example of Darwin's theory of evolution working in reverse."

The newspaper also discussed the other astonishing discoveries made by the filming crew: a lizard which swallows itself to avoid predators, and a musical frog which attracts mates by rapping its legs together.

Flying penguins dominated The Daily Telegraph as well. The paper announced that the BBC had "remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, Miracles of Evolution."

The reports were so convincing that Chris Tryhorn, a columnist for The Guardian, said that the story gave him "pause for thought, mainly because to be an April Fool it would have to have been the result of an unusual three-way collaboration between two rival papers and the BBC." All three organizations worked together in this instance, to put a smile on their audience's faces.

The Guardian led with a story on the darling of the British press, French first lady and former top model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The Italian-born songstress, the paper revealed, has been appointed by the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to inject a dose of "style and glamour into British national life."

Her new job would require Bruni-Sarkozy to move to London for three months while she turns her attentions to "improving the U.K.'s dress sense and cuisine." She even plans to launch a cheaper version of the Dior suits worn by her during last week's state visit to Britain. No word yet on how British supermodels Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell feel about being looked over for this enviable new assignment.