Remember when April Fool’s Day was like an episode of Punk’d? When you could get that one person in the office/class/family to believe one outlandish thing all day and the revelation that it was fake had everyone in hysterics? Or radio stations began the day with fake ‘breaking news’ that became water cooler fodder by 8:35 AM?
Sigh. I must admit I love a good practical joke. Whether being a part of or the butt of, there was always a sense of 
excitement for the build up and a lot of laughter at the reveal. (Note: I know there have been many April Fool’s Day jokes that have gone awry – staying on the positive tip today.)
6:30 AM 4/1/2011 – Just like every other day, I got 2 screens open: one for working, the other for monitoring twitter conversations. 6:35 AM 4/1/2011 – over 200 tweets and retweets of the top LOLs of the day:
- LinkedIn Suggests Dead Celebs or Imaginary Characters as People I May Know
- GMail introduces GMail Motion (very funny BTW)
- Richard Branson Announces That He Bought Pluto
- YouTube: since 1911
And I’m sure there will be plenty more. Don’t get me wrong, they are very funny, but they could have been done on any day. Plus, they they aren’t so much hoaxes as they are really good and creative jokes (much like Alanis Morrisette’s Ironic, isn’t so much irony as it is a series of really bad coincidences – but a killer song).
So I feel social media has played down a day that used to be all about the practical joke as an all day event, to pretty much reading The Onion all day long. The Onion rules.
Has anyone planned or been a part of any real April Fool’s jokes today? Please share!
I’ve been trying to think of a good, harmless one for my kids all morning…but alas, the creative juices aren’t flowing quite yet.
Branson buying Pluto is pretty funny, however…
😉
Great points! The most common ones I am seeing on FB are “We’re going into our first ultrasound appointment!” and things like that. But I can’t recall being a part of a really good prank.
Our culture’s sense of humor is kind of like a daily April 1st now that you mention it. I’m supposed to call some guy I don’t know in about 10 minutes for something that will amuse my best friend. We’ll see.
I’m actually still trying to think of a good one. I usually prep the day before to make my story believable today, but I haven’t been compelled.
My 5-year-old daughter took my pillow and put her stuffed animal that vibrates when pressed inside so when I go to sleep tonight the joke will be on me. 🙂
That is SO stinkin’ cute!
Smart kid!
hha.. absolutly smart one. good job kid lol 😉
I agree about all of this, especially Ironic by Alanis Morrissette. I love the song, but no, it isn’t ironic in the least!
Actually I think thats the whole point. Don’t you think that a song entitled “Ironic” which has nothing ironic to it is therefore ironic??
😀
Oh my goodness.
I never thought of it that way.
Thank you for giving me something to say every time someone brings that up.
I haven’t had any today, but I remember one or two doozies from my past. We had a person in the office who had ordered a new truck from a dealer. She waited and waited and waited for it to come in. On April 1st, I had a friend call her and tell her it arrived but when they took it off the trailer it slipped and tumbled over the side crushing the whole top of the vehicle. He must have been convincing because before I could get to her office she was crying and had already called her parents and the dealership.
Good times, good times…
im always the one that falls for the jokes!
yes…without a doubt, because everything gets called out way too effing early. so annoying. oh wait, im 29…i really shouldnt care about april fools anymore.
Never too old to care about April Fool’s!
I brought a pillow and a blanket into school. When my students came in, I said, “I’m sorry! I forgot to clean up my bedding! You know your teachers sleep under their desks.”
The reaction was priceless.
OH I love that one!
YOU WIN!!!!
I agree, takes the prize
*claps*
That’s awesome, and I love it!
Not so much a joke as pure awesomeness – xkcd.com has 3D-eed all of their comics.
To answer your title question – it has. Partly because I think today should be all about one-on-one jokes and pranks. Not FB updates and retweets to the masses. My rallying cry – Back to Basics!:-)
Not yet, but I’m waiting. You always have to be careful of false information on the internet, so maybe the net as a whole got us more used to practical jokes and missinformation.
I don’t really get April Fool’s day. Since it’s a day dedicated to practical jokes, you know it’s coming. So the joke ends up not being funny. It’s really ironic that a day would be dedicated to something that is supposed to surprise people. It’s like telling the turkey it’s dinner on Thanksgiving. It expects it, so it shouldn’t be surprised.
No it doesn’t expect it……it runs from it!!!
Nothing today. In fact, until I saw this, I had forgotten that April 1st IS April Fools Day. The best thing I ever saw was the year my college newspaper did a spoof issue for April Fools Day. Elephants in the Quad. The Haunted Music building. I kept that issue for well over a decade. I wonder if I still have it safely saved in a ‘safe’ place from which more things vanish than are saved.
I like the Linkedin where Einstein says “gravity not responsible for people falling in love.”
Some classic practical jokes have had a massive audience, but we’re not all cut out to do something on that scale. I once convinced a co-worker that, due to cutbacks at the office, we would have to hang paper towels to dry and re-use them, in order to save money. I could tell she was livid, because she thought I was serious and she doesn’t like to take orders from me. Unfortunately for her, our manager went along with the joke. Late in the day, I revealed the truth. My co-worker was not amused.
Classic rip! Funny, too. Although if it were tried on me, I’d also have to insist on recycling the toilet paper, too. And make my superior do it! Then start hanging wet toilet paper over stall doors to dry. Think of what you could do with a smeared chocolate cupcake. Or worse…
Spectra, I did also tell her we were recycling tp, but I thought people might be grossed out if I put that on here!
I definitely would not have thought of the chocolate cupcake, though! 😀
I’ve lost my April Fool’s Day joy. It used to be the one day a year, we called my stern dad at work and told him one of his kids was killed (a bit sadistic, I know). I don’t know who is to blame for this lost love. I’m sure it’ll return for my kids.
Told my boyfriend I had won a car from the Millionaire for Life Lotto. He believed me and was getting really excited so I announced “April Fools” pretty early. I laughed more than he did but he still chuckled.
Have you heard about the Australian April 1 ad…Goanna (large lizard) Oil, used for water proofing your boots…so powerful that you can’t put it directly on your boots…you have to put your boots on your feet, stand, and rub the oil on your head.
Can the seasons play practical jokes? Because New York is getting seriously punk’d with snow today.
Great post!
My husband did the old “low tire” joke he has done for years. I told the kids that there was actual bug juice in the fridge (my dad calls cranberry sauce ‘bug juice’) and one of them went looking for it.
Got the local bakery to fixed me up a dozen of jelly donuts filled with ketchup. I dropped them off at the office. Let the fun begin!
AAAAAAHHH omg that sounds disgusting – and hilarious!
April Fool’s Day jokes only really work if the person doesn’t remember what day it is. One year we got our boss, a manager of a hotel, to call back Mr. Lion about the reservation. It might have been unoriginal and done to death, but it made us laugh. Don’t think the folks at London Zoo were amused though.
hahahaha, that is funny!
social media is ruining almost anything. social life is pretty much on social media for new generation. hanging out in real life is almost over.
I’d agree to an extent, but at the same time social media can actually help the prank work. Case in point: Starbucks Mobile Pour. There are a surprising number of replies on their Facebook page from people who think it’s real. Many of them are Starbucks employees. If I was inclined to LOL this would be when I would do it. But I don’t LOL.
I watched the GMail Motion clip this morning at work and laughed so loudly that I disrupted a meeting. I couldn’t help it…the guy looked so serious sending an email by pretending to lick a stamp and pressing it on his knee.
Loved it! 🙂
I have not had this many laughs online in a while. It’s nice to take a break from the serious stuff for a day. I also look forward to the products on thinkgeek every year.
It’s just like something you expect now, there’s no way of forgetting it’s April Fool’s day online. I like the creative jokes. Eh.
I agree
Freshly Pressed on April Fools’ Day–now, that’s no joke–congratulations!
Kathy
I haven’t been apart of one today but lived with a brother who’s birthday is April Fools Day. I remember being part of a prank that we played on my brother. My mom made a cake. She placed one of those cake covers over the cake and iced the cake cover. When it was time to sing to my brother Happy Birthday, we all sang to him. My mom gave Steve a knife to cut the cake and he tried and tried but the knife couldn’t cut through the cake cover. Once he stopped cutting we all yelled to him April Fool! Once we all stopped laughing underneath the cake cover was a real cake that we all devoured! Thanks for asking!
I’ll have to write a joke blog post today – maybe something like “CBS Awards Charlie Sheen Employee of the Year.”
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
YES!!!
Even wordpress is screwing with our site stats (look on the graph!!, although for you, having made FP it may not be as noticeable!!
Congrats on FP
I think on the contrary, the internet has redefined April Fool’s day, as well as things like crossword puzzles and quiz games. The game now is based on knowing how to find an obscure and minor detail, and being willing to do the work rather than knowing the answer, so a good question will lead you through several steps of research. A good April Fools joke similarly has to be based on non-verifiable information. It’s a refinement and an evolution of thought that I think is actually kind of awesome.
i didn’t do anything this year but about two years ago at my old job, I told my boss I was quitting. I made it look like I was super upset about something, even had some fake tear. I kept telling him that I had had enough! Of course he fell for it and got pretty upset himself cause he didn’t want me to leave. Best prank ever!!! He was pretty mad at me the rest of the day. I love this ‘holiday’ so much fun.
I would think that you would have to be VERY careful about that particular joke. Get the boss at the wrong time, and he/she might decide to “accept” your “resignation.”
I got a friend who doesn’t believe in God and i’ve been trying to get him to believe for a while, so today he tried to prank me sayin he’s had an epiphany n all…but i knew straight away he was joking…but that’s about it! but yeah, really miss those days!
I have a couple planned, one involving a “fortune cookie” toilet bowl and a “presliced, unpeeled” banana…which should be falling out of it’s peel right about now. Unfortunately I couldn’t get anything spectacular together today.
-Michael
In all honesty, if it’s done on a social networking site, I find it annoying rather than funny. I don’t really care if people are “pretending” to be engaged and whatnot.
I haven’t been a part of a joke, but the day is young and my sister isn’t home yet. I’m sure she has something up her sleeve for me.
Now, I understand what was going on with Linkedin. I was like, why would I connect with Ernest Hemingway, Linkedin really needs to fix their privacy issues.
I’ve actually used social media for April Fools Jokes in the past before it became commonplace. I posted a fake engagement ring once. That was fun. Now everyone is in on it.
God reading this felt like an April Fool’s Day joke gone horribly wrong.
No, at least not while Gmail Motion is here. 😀
http://aisjournal.com/2011/04/01/google-introduces-gmail-motion-control-email-with-your-body/
I really wish pranks were still popular. It seems as though people just prank each other on a regular basis, so there’s not much fun in saving a good one for April Fools. I can’t think of a single one from any April 1st, but when I was in high school my youth group pranked each other all the time!
this april fools has been boring! i expected facebook and twitter to be filled with lies but found nothing! very boring day indeed!
Saddam Hussein’s WMD found in Libya
http://wp.me/p1faab-1d
A couple of years ago, I saw an empty box of Xbox. I placed my prehistoric Nintendo Family Computer inside and wrapped it with a very nice looking paper. Then I gave it to my girlfriend as present. As she was tearing the wrapper she was in tears. But as soon as she found out what’s really inside, she literally threw it at me.
I think it got ruined when we all got out of grade school…I have always loved it though…playing jokes on people…especially at work…keeps everybody smiling & makes your day alot better!
I am all about April 1st shenanigans. Big pranks are fun, but even small ones add joy to the day. Like swapping sugar for salt and vice versa. Or attaching an empty coffee cup by magnets to the top of your vehicle and driving around. I have a whole post on ideas on my blog today if anyone’s interested. Hope everyone has a happy April Fools’ Day!
None this year, but last year my Mom and I decided we shoud get my Dad. He’s always the jokester and no one ever goes back after him.
So we decided to tell him all about this prank we were going to do to our neighbors (which was just our plan to get him off out scent) and that we’d be running to Walmart when we were finished. We drove around town for a while and found some broken glass down by an old boat access, sprinkled the glass over the passenger’s seat and floor, rolled the window down and taped up some plastic wrap.
When we pulled in the driveway he just started to freak out. We told him some punk kids must have smashed in the window in the Walmart parking lot as a practical joke. When it looked like he was about to pass out we finally told him the joke was on him!
Hahahaha! That sounds so fun!! GREAT prank! And such a good idea!
This year was actually the first for me to prank someone, and it worked!
In my case, facebook worked wonders!lol! Here’s what I did http://2wildwindyheart.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/april-fools-day/
How come I wasn’t pranked by any social media this April Fool’s??? 🙁 🙁
I have agreed! My stream has been filled with utter nonsense today. Can’t wait to get back to normal.
Sincerely,
Jeff Zelaya
http://jeffzelaya.com
I colored the milk green, and my younger children were afraid to drink it. I also switched cereals in the boxes and got my oldest (14 year old) who was actually a little mad. I also put sugar in the potato chip bag.
My fav joke I played on my nephew. Ever since he was a baby, I would tell him stories about an invisible monkey that controls his life. Every week I would tell him new stories about how the invisible monkey would be very angry if he didn’t believe in him. Now, my nephew is 26 and nothing anyone can say or do will convince him the invisible monkey doesn’t exist. Hilarious.
I’m actually part of an ongoing April Fool’s joke, as the best jokes are never revealed.. except to people I don’t know on this post of course 🙂
A year ago today I tin foiled ever last item on a friend of mine’s cubicle down to the wheels on his chair, the pens in his drawer, the walls of his desk and even the individual keyboard keys. He still has no idea it was me but has a fantastic ball of tin foil on his desk still. I’m not sure I’ll ever tell him – much more rewarding that he’s been talking about it all day again a year later.
Here’s my April Fools prank for the day. For 24 hours only, I’m selling a unique one-of-a-kind art collage homage to Rebecca Black’s viral video “Friday” in my Etsy shop.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/71259276/friday-song-lyrics-collage
I’m just a big kid at hear and my April Fool’s blog today proves that!
http://avaaston.wordpress.com/
Congrats on getting Freshly Pressed, no joke!
Blessings,
Ava
xox
I hope not 🙂
Thanks,
Joel Raes
I think that social media makes it harder to fool people today because everyone is on guard because they’ve seen it posted somewhere that it’s April Fools. It used to be easy because people didn’t realize it was April 1 and were easier to surprise.
Social media has totally ruined practical jokes! They too quickly fizzle out when people google or use facebook to difuse the situation. OUr building principal told us he was leaving for St. Lucia in a principal exchange program… I didn’t buy it for a second but still commendable for trying 🙂
Sadly, I was not the butt of an April Fool’s Joke today. I had thought of a few, but with all of the political correctness in the world (and my office) today, I decided it’d be better to keep it inside.
My mom used to get me every year!
Thanks for this post.
Darlene
I actually think social media has improved April Fool’s Day. I know people (I tend to be one of them) who usually don’t take jokes very well, but with pranks played and shared via social media, everyone can enjoy the joke without it being at another person’s expense … or at least not a single person. And social media has opened up so many more ways of enacting pranks, too – just look at all the accompanying videos and such that people create to support their April Fool’s tricks! Best example: ThinkGeek.com’s annual product releases. I have some highlights on a post today if you’re interested 🙂
I still havent played a joke on anyone!
The clock is ticking here in AZ..lol
Joel Raes
Oh, believe me, April Fool’s Day is alive and well. We convinced a coworker to go down to Costco and check out a smell-o-vision. (Imagine a scratch-n-sniff sticker and a TV having a baby.) Yes, this man, father of a college freshman, went down there, called us and said there was no such thing, and we told him the store employees must be messing with him because the smell-o-vision just came out. He ended up getting set straight after talking to the store manager, lol!
That’s hilarious… I especially like the google one.
Just this one:
Saddam Hussein’s WMD found in Libya
http://wp.me/p1faab-1d
Yes, social media killed April’s fools day’s jokes, unless you live in a cave
I snickered at Branson buying Pluto.
I guess internet pranks aren’t the same as doing stuff in real life. As you have mentioned, there are sites where you can get to read stuff like these all the time. Then again, it is sort of amusing to see them from other sources, too, eh?
I fell for the gmail motion because I so wanted it to be true! I envisioned our whole world of motionless, half-dead looking computer users suddenly waking up and looking alive again!
A friend and I actually changed our Facebook profile pics to that of a mutual friend and then changed our names to hers so there was 3 of her on facebook my friend and i kept posting fuuny update like, I have irritable bowel syndrome etc. When she woke up she thought someone had hacked her account and told everyone not to respond to the status but my friend and i get responding to her and her friends. It was so hillarious because no one could tell which one was the real person.
Awesome!
Actually social media totally got me today. I went onto IGN (a video game and review site) and saw this link to something that said “Harry Potter TV series.” I looked into it and it was this convincing trailer of some TV show called “The Aurors.” I got so excited, that I totally forgot what day it was and called up all of my friends just to tell them about this show. That was probably the best I have ever been fooled.
The Bangkok Post totally punk’d every one in Thailand yesterday releasing news of Justin Bieber moving to Thailand to be with his girlfriend haha.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/229831/thai-girlfriend-causes-justin-bieber-to-relocate-to-bangkok
I LOVED the Google prank. It was so intricately planned and executed.
You do have a point here. Guess its time to sensitize social media to a bit of leg-pulling:-)
We used to have some parrots as pets back in Sri Lanka. They escaped one day. Two months later on April 1, after my sister and I came home from school, my Dad said “go look at the cages – the birds are back.” We did so eagerly to find empty cages – he had us there.
Heard of #fe11?
The best April fools here yesterday in snowy upstate New York, where we are all getting tired of shoveling, was the weather storm warning. We were told we’d be getting another 8 inches, but only got half an inch.
Social media is itself a joke. Indian entertainment supplement Bombay times tried this lame joke saying that Rihanna and Eminem would be attending India Sri Lanka WC Final and perform there too.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2011/04/01&PageLabel=35&ForceGif=true&EntityId=Ad03500&ViewMode=HTML
haha Unbelievable! If media weren’t that obvious april fool jokes in newspapers would still have some spark!
The BEST April Fool’s joke I have ever seen is the one LA Times ran a few years back where they announced that Taco Bell have bought sponsorship rights to the Liberty Bell and from now on it will be called Taco Liberty Bell…people were absolutely up in arms about it… and I bought it…lol!
I remember a good one: It was back in the Clinton days, when my tech support group all had those huge pagers with displays of the news, etc. I found a way to send messages directly from the internet, back then there was no security, anyone could send a message if you knew the code of the pagers, and I had all of them! I send a very official message that appeared to be from the news service: “President Clinton Resigns!”
Well, all of a sudden people were calling everyone they knew to discuss the “news”
Because of the attention this got, and the embarassment of all the managers having to call their list back to say it was a haox, well, I let them all blame it on the news company and never took credit for it.
the best usefull post.
Naah, Youtube prank was the best! 😀 have time? Visit my site. 🙂 http://tabatot.wordpress.com/
That bieber/ thailand post was amazing!!!!
Hahahaha!
Hmm well Friday was my wedding anniversary, a date deliberately chosen for the seriousness of the day – obviously. There is a daily “groupon/coupon” company that send out deals every morning, and on Friday they were offering Mammal rides of 2 hours for $10. The picture showed a little girl smiling intently whilst holding onto a harnessed dolphin – yes you could say it looked legit. Rules firmly started that the dolphins were highly trained and one must be able to hold there breath for 10 seconds in order to partake in this “deal”.
Admittedly for a split second I was thinking WOW, but then the realisation of it came back slapping me in the face and with that started an ALL DAY random laugh attack…224 people had “bought” the deal…over the hours id keep checking back to see more and more and more people had bought into the deal, numbering well over 2200 by midday…but just before 12 I sent the deal to my mother in law, questioning as to weather this would be a suitable anniversary gift for her water mad son…her reply keep me laughing for the rest of the day – “Mmmm! Looks exciting, but my first reaction was that he may think it is a bit cruel on the dolphins. Do they have the poor things already caged up somewhere, and ready to harness up?”
We have a number of foreign nationals running businesses in the area who speak a variety of African and Asian languages. I emailed our sales staff a list of languages offered by the local University and told them that they were required to choose one. They would have to attend a Saturday morning class for 15 weeks. The response was entertaining.
I didn’t pull any jokes this year, but I have done my share in the past. One of my best, many years ago, was on a friend who collected PLAYBOY. (Keep in mind that this was years before the Internet.) I told him that I had heard that the next month’s Playmate Of The Month was going to be an ex-nun, who had walked out before taking her final vows, and that she would be posing in part of her old habit. I managed to keep a straight face, and he fell for it.
Another trick that I would pull regularly would be to approach a female acquaintance, and whisper to her, “I hate to tell you this, but I think you have a run in your pantyhose.” Invariably, they would look down, whereupon I would remind them what the day was. The time it worked best was when my victim had had a run the previous day, and her reaction was something like, “Oh, not again.”
Very interesting info, i am waiting for more !!! Keep updating your website and you will have a lot o readers
Nice post. Im a little late, but yesterday I took my wife’s phone rite before she left for work in the morning. She must have called me like 10 times or so asking me if I saw her phone anywhere. Then she began to panic, she was like “I think someone stole my phone.”. Meanwhile I was cracking up. Sadly I had to break it to her before she ended up calling AT&T to report it stolen.
I actually didn’t see too many April Fools pranks online. It was pretty disappointing.
I’m so glad I read this! Because, well *blush* I didn’t realize the Gmail Motion thing was an April Fool’s prank. I wondered why they would do something so stupid, but hey, I figured it was a beta for some other kind of thing they’d roll out later… boy do I feel stupid!
Hmm well my tutor tried one but no one fell for this. I’m an animal care student and we have tortoises including two large Sulcatas. In her lesson she tried to claim that they’d contracted ‘West Nile Virus’ and that no one would be allowed to exit the college campus until we’d all be cleared. No one fell for it.
And this wasn’t on April Fool’s but this was a prank I was victim of a few years back. I was on a Guide camp and it was our last day so as a treat our Guiders had been into the nearby town and had brought us back various fizzy drinks. During the meal I needed the toilet and when I came back my ‘friends’ had poured me a glass of Sprite, they’d added vinegar into it and it was disgusting.
Did the Onion run real news on April Fools’ Day?
My favorite April Fool’s prank? Easy. When we were kids, my sister and I used to put a rubber band around the sprayer attachment on the sink. The first person to use the sink would get sprayed. After a few years, the rubber band would be seen, so we resorted to clear tape. Year after year after year someone got a face full of water. It never got old.
Today, this guy hid behind this piece of cardboard – a tall one, I’m afraid – and pushed it over just as I walked by. It was pretty funny, even though the joke was on me.
I agree, I think we need to get back to the very root: whoopee cushions, fake spiders and booby traps!
My best friend ruined my best April Fool’s Day joke the way the social networks ruined it for you. I was going to tell all our friends and my family she was now engaged to her long-time boyfriend and so that everyone would hurry up buying presents, because the wedding is supposed to take place really soon. To my deepest resentment, she really got engaged on the eve of 1st of April. Although managed to tell her I was pregnant, instead of the initial plan.
I wouldn’t say social media has ruined April Fools’ Day, more-so it has made it harder to pull off a successful prank. It’s come to the point that I don’t take anything I see on Facebook or Twitter seriously on April Fools. It’s kind of a bummer. However, I do enjoy a lot of these “creative jokes”. Gmail motion=genuis.
For a second I had my friend convinced I was pregnant again.
I’m no good at pranks but my boyfriend pulled off a good one at his job…and recorded it.
One friend posted a picture of a Mega Millions lotto ticket that showed the winning numbers. Had me going for about 5 minutes till I looked it up myself and saw the winning number was for the prior day. By then it was too late, and he managed to snag a few other fools into verifying it.
Had a blast Saturday morning with a high school tuba ensemble – kids were hired for $10 per house starting at 7am. Show up, ring the doorbell, play revelry, play a Christmas carol (Deck the Halls) laugh that it isn’t Christmas and say April Fool’s. Play the Oompa Loompa Song and get back in the cars for the next destination. Great “prank”! Made lots of people smile, got lots of video!
I agree that April Fool’s isn’t the same as it used to be. Personally, I’d rather have GMAIL say my account has some issues and needs to be restored. Then during the restore process, my backup file gets erased/corrupted and now all my email is lost. While clicking on the support button, it opens a window that says April Fools and takes me to my inbox.
I’ll have to write a joke blog post today – maybe something like “CBS Awards Charlie Sheen Employee of the Year.”
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
nice joke ……….;) realy
Hi – thanks for the info – i didn’t change anything to the site. Can you let me know if this is still happening in the RSS feed?