- April 1st, 2009
- Filed under Current Events, Marketing, New Media
Who is April?
At this stage in my Internet life, I’m wise to April Fools’ Day on the web and haven’t truly been had in years. However, that’s not to say I don’t look forward to the one day every year when cornball webmasters and bloggers try to pull one over on unsuspecting visitors. Honestly, I love the cheap humor April 1st brings and thought it would be fun to share a few fool sightings from around the web.
My first foolish sighting of the day was Wikipedia’s homepage. Most mornings I’m greeted with a rather bland but necessary infusion of random trivia from the web’s main tome of knowledge. However, my eyes perked open and a smile came to my face when I saw that the main article today is for a museum called MOBA (Museum of Bad Art). Cool. The best thing about Wikipedia’s “prank” page is that all of the content is seemingly true. For example, Britain’s oldest man, Henry Allington, really does credit his longevity to “cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women—and a good sense of humour.” Latecomers can see the April 1st site here.
An overwhelming amount of unbelievable news is usually a good tip that the calendar reads April one. For example, Warner Bros. Acquires the Pirate Bay for the price of a whopping $13 billion is unbelievable. BMW releasing cars that have a magnetic tow feature is totally unbelievable. And although there are some times I wish Google would really create this feature, Gmail’s Autopilot is unfortunately just unbelievable April news.
Some other notable pranks around the web include…
YouTube’s foolish contribution to April orientation here. Try it yourself by addin “&flip=1″to any YouTube video.
Pizza Hut is apparently getting into the portrait business. Check out their artsy prank here.
Funnyordie.com has been completely taken over by Reba.
LOST is cancelled.
If you were made a fool today or did some fooling of your own, I’d like to hear about it in the comments. And for those of you who think that you made it all the way to the end of my post without getting pranked, why don’t you check out the history behind the name “April.”
April 1st, 2009 at 5:08 pm
The end was PERFECT!! Haha.
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:32 am
I came across the Cornell and Dartmouth merger story – because of a loss in both endowments the two were going to join forces and become Cornmouth University. I thought, man, what a horrible name.
And then a few minutes later, it hit me.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:44 am
My April fools was not online but on TV. Husband told me “Watch, Oprah is the guest on the Daily Show!” I sit attentively on the couch.
“My guest tonight – a very funny actor – currently staring in Monsters vs. Aliens…SETH ROGEN.” I was deeply hurt.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:51 am
Actually, I told you Opera was the guest on the show when we started watching the show. When the guest segment came on, you attentively sat up, leaned towards the television and said “OPERA!?” When it was not Opera you had a very disappointing look on your face.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
haha… Tivoing Opera.. now there is a april fools joke.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:18 am
Jenny,
Lol.
Noelle and Daniel,
Oprah or Opera?
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:37 am
It’s Oprah – Harpo backwards.