Creating the massive Sanders portrait required arranging about 65,000 red, black, white, and gray tiles over the course of six days, all for the benefit of people browsing Google Earth and presumably aliens passing by on spaceships ... although the latter have yet to radio back to confirm they've seen the logo (maybe they're Popeyes guys). And hey, bonus: KFC got a neat time-lapse video out of it!

Eight years later, if you enter the coordinates on Google Maps, there's no trace of the Colonel's mug. Not even some empty buckets littering the desert. Simple publicity stunt that faded away, or massive government cover-up? Only the super-intelligent, genetically modified chickens secretly running the company know.

Apparently, citizens of several countries have collectively decided that Lenin's drab wardrobe (which was about as varied as that of a Simpsons character) needs to be involuntarily upgraded with more festive offerings, including vibrant blouses, flashy coats, and pink polka dots. In Ukraine, pimping Lenin with the national colors has become a fun way to symbolize the struggle for independence, while others just want to shelter him from the weather by dressing him in traditional Ukrainian tunics:

Online KPRU

However, as is often the case, it's easy for Slavic tomfoolery to give way to petty vandalism once vodka and bear meat enter the equation. In Saint Petersburg in 2009, a group of unknown individuals decided to pack the leader's once-proud ass with explosives -- whatever their intention was, the result looked like Lenin had a plate of borscht that disagreed with his intestines.

via English-Russia

Perhaps jealous of all these shenanigans and sad because they didn't have a Lenin of their own to deface, a Polish town decided to cut out the middleman and erected a brand-new sculpture to commemorate the Bolshevik leader ... depicted pissing in public, li'l Vlad in hand.

The Independent

Of course, this isn't exclusively a European custom: one Czechoslovakian statue that was taken down after the fall of communism was brought to Seattle, where it's routinely redecorated for occasions like Christmas, Beatles-themed parades, and Gay Pride celebrations.

Scott Beale

No, that "Hollyweed" sign wasn't a collective hallucination -- it was the work of Danny Finegood, best known as the man who kept making L.A.'s most famous landmark his bitch. It all started when, armed with a few friends and some tailored plastic sheeting, the 21-year-old art student set about turning the Hollywood sign into a giant pot joke for a class project, which of course earned him an A (for "Acapulco Gold"). Finegood had found his calling: on the next Easter weekend, he used his magic drapes to cover one of the L's in the sign, and L.A. woke up with a big "Holywood" awkwardly staring at its face. The stunt was repeated in 1987 in honor of an upcoming papal visit.

Though it's easy to picture Finegood as some giggling Adam West Batman villain, he actually saw himself as an "environmental artist" and wasn't afraid to use his personal canvas to make political statements. In the middle of the Iran-Contra hearings, he commented on the media frenzy around Oliver North by once again vanda- sorry, environmental artisting the sign to make it say "Ollywood."

via Wiki Commons

Finegood's masterpiece was probably when he somehow managed to change the letters in "Hollywood" into "Oil War" in 1990 to protest the Gulf War. This time, however, the pissed-off authorities ripped his work down well before sunrise, robbing the city residents of a chance to misinterpret the wordplay as an invitation to a Super Soaker fight in the La Brea area. Although Finegood retired from the giant-letter-molesting game after that, along the way he inspired others to mess with the sign -- such as supporters of '90s presidential candidate Ross Perot, who assaulted Angelenos with this terrifying mental image:

Paramount

So the Needle's destruction was a joke -- but the panic, unfortunately, was real. As soon as the short, fake segment aired, the city of Seattle collectively lost its shit. The ensuing avalanche of frantic 911 calls effectively shut down emergency services, and a team of doctors was dispatched to the site to offer aid. The station was also swamped by distraught callers who had feared their family members were among the rubble, despite the fact that the "newscaster" specifically said everyone was fine (presumably they thought that was the April Fool's joke).

King TV

Once they realized they'd been duped, the station, the emergency departments, and pretty much everyone in Seattle were pissed at the guys who temporarily shut down their city. They were allowed to keep their jobs, though, since most residents quickly forgot about the stunt when a new vegan doughnut shop opened up. Remember, this was pre-9/11, so collapsing buildings could still be considered hilarious comedy; if the same prank happened today, it would probably result in the invasion of at least three foreign countries.