San Serriffe
On 1 April 1977 the Guardian produced a 7 page travel supplement on the tiny tropical republic of San Serriffe, “a small archipeligo, its main islands grouped roughly in the shape of a semicolon, in the Indian Ocean”, which was apparently celebrating ten years of independence.
The country was in fact completely made up as an April Fool’s joke. The name San Serriffe and the shape of the islands were just the first clues; everything connected with San Serriffe was named after printing and typesetting terms.
The name itself refers to sans serif typefaces; Bodoni, the capital, is a variety of typeface; the two main islands are called Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse; the indigenous islanders are known as flongs, a mould for making type, and the whole Republic is ruled over by the dictator General M J Pica, named after a unit of measurement in type. The Guardian
I howled with laughter when I found this, it really appealed to my sense of humour. I love the detail that went into the joke and was amazed by the follow up coverage it has also generated.
What was interesting was how many of the clues I could now spot having done section 4, it was made all the more delicious because I could join in the joke and spot most of the typographic terms. Something I doubt I would have been able to do before the course!
