So to respect that tradition, BBC News Online will be tracking the best of the silly season stories over the next four weeks.
10. A couple are getting wed after one of them mistakenly sent a mobile phone text message to the other. They started chatting after they realised there had been a wrong number. (Star, 1/8/00)
9. Eight per cent of people keep their underwear in the fridge in hot weather so they can keep cool (Sun, 2/8/00)
8. Dom Joly from Channel 4's Trigger Happy TV, dressed as a burglar and asking villagers if any rich neighbours were on holiday, gets surrounded by 10 policemen and helicopter.(Star, 1/8/00)
7. Man called Jim Gambles wins £4.4m on lottery (Sun 4/8/00)
6. Whippet-doping scandal blamed on chocolate drops (Independent 4/8/00).
5. George Gigg, 95, takes his family on their annual trip to sunny Devon. There are 81 people in his family. (Times 3/8/00)
4. Kids in Oxfordshire village who were fed up with fast cars set up a fake radar speed trap with hairdryers made to look like radar guns. (Mail, 3/8/00)
3. The actor who played Tinky Winky, the Teletubby criticised for being gay because he carried a handbag and is purple, gets married and proves his heterosexuality. (Mirror 3/8/00)
2. 30 hopefuls have answered an advert in the Job Centre for a knifethrower's assistant. Pay is £240 a week. (Express 3/8/00)
1. An angler was speared through the stomach by a giant swordfish which jumped into his boat (Star, 2/8/00)
There will be another top ten next week - if any story catches your eye, you can nominate it before 10AM on Friday 11 August by e-mailing it to caption.comp@bbc.co.uk.
To qualify, stories must be obscure, bizarre, weird, banal or simply unbelievable, and must have received coverage out of all proportion to their importance.