Every year I have grand plans to create an elaborate hoax for April Fool’s Day but I’m caught unprepared. Like this year. It’s still fun to ferret amongst the many jokes and pranksters on the web. NPR usually does something but I didn’t hear the whole show this morning. I think it might be fun to post pranks in comments.
My selection for a likely prank is FashionIndie’s announcement that Christian Audigier has purchased the site. Audigier allegedly said “if you can’t beat them, buy them” -a great line. I admit I fell for it at first blush (we are talking Ed Hardy after all) but after visiting the site and seeing Comic Sans everywhere, I figured that was hint enough.
So what pranks have you found this morning? Share the giggles!
I have a crush on April Winchell/Helen Killer. Enjoy: http://www.regretsy.com/2010/04/01/april-fool/
Google usually puts out some good ones. This year I enjoyed the Google ReaderAdvantage(TM) program. Notice the points needed for the Totally Sweet category. I especially chuckled over the fine print at the bottom of the second link.
Google ReaderAdvantage(TM)
Fine print
Google’s renaming themselves as Topkea is great, but my favorite is Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me’s first look at the new Sarah Palin show: http://www.npr.org/blogs/waitwait/2010/04/wwdtm_first_look_sarah_palins.html.
The letter “Z” is being removed from the alphabet.
My favorite prank was the time that my Grandma sewed my Grandpa’s silverware to the tablecloth :)
Bounce ‘n’ Blend from Chandra
The website http://www.thinkgeek.com/ Think Geek always has awesome “products”, complete with videos and pictures. They have such weird and fun items on normal days that it can sometimes be hard to spot the fakes ;-) My favorite this year is the Tribbles and Bits Cereal
Kathleen,
I am constantly inspired by you, thank you!!!!
Oh yes, the prank……..an artist friend painted her husband’s dinner plate with the food he told her to make for him that evening! This was many years ago in the women’s movement hayday. Today it would be a prank which would get a good laugh from everyone , but then, it was truly rebellious.
Dear Kathleen,
Our shipping manager is the target for all the pranks in our company. I stayed late on 3-31 and wrapped his telephone, including reciever, and computer keyboard in clear shipping tape, in my April Fool’s homage to Christo. I also taped his computer mouse, pen, paperclips and water bottle to his desk. Not a very sophisticated prank, but sometimes the juvenile ones are the most hilarious.
Our VP of sales really outdid herself, though. She phoned the shipping manager and DEMANDED “How is it that style XXX has appeared in the warehouse A MONTH LATE and in the WRONG COLOR, it was supposed to be blue and it is here in PINK and with no embroidery!!” The call was on speaker so the entire production office heard the tirade. The shipping manager panicked immediatley and started shouting for his coworker, “Is XXX in the warehouse?”
The sales VP heard that and flew into a full blown rage, “You don’t have to ask her if it is there, I JUST TOLD YOU THAT I WAS IN THE WAREHOUSE AND I SAW IT!! YOU DON’T HAVE TO ASK ANYONE ELSE!” At that point the shipping manager was hyperventilating and about as close to heart failure as a young guy can get. I was busy tapping out “style XXX” into my computer to see if it was my style that was in the wrong color with no embroidery. Just then, we heard the VP and her assistant shout, in unison “APRIL FOOL!” Shipping manager’s nerves are totally shot.
There’s quite a few pranks listed on Huffington Post. Things I thought were funny (not already mentioned):
Peta announces scientists have created a hybrid rat-rabbit (cute photo).
Starbucks launches a new coffee size, the “plenta”, 128 fl oz.
UK Telegraph announces ferrets will be used to lay broadband cable in rural areas.
Google docs announces a new feature to upload and store anything -free (kitties, keys, whatever).
The Economist publishes article on peak olive oil; Russia is manipulating the market
The best one I saw yesterday was from DeviantArt. They changed every user’s avatar to some lame teeny-bopper movie one and also changed all of their signatures on the message boards. There were 5 movies, I don’t remember the other ones,but my friend got an avatar that said “Go Team Jacob” animated with clips from that twilight movie and then her signature was something like “OMG JACOB!!!!!!!111”
Someone stuck post-it fragments to the bottom of optical mice.
In my office, we like double-sided Scotch tape on the bottom of mice :-)..
What I really liked this year was Dharma Trading’s newsletter.. Here are the good bits in another blog: http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-1.html