Ah, foolishness
As you may have noticed, it's April Fools Day. Here at the Irish Trojan's Blog, I managed to pull off my third-ever, at least somewhat successful April Fools joke. (Flashback: Kerry-McCain '04, Dean O'Hara resigning.) But what else is happening around the Interwebs on this day of jokes and pranks?
Well, as usual, Google came out with a couple of obviously fake new "products." Frankly, their April 1 "announcements" are kinda lame, IMHO, because they're never really believable -- with the notable exception of the one time they made an April 1 announcement that wasn't a joke, back in 2004, when they introduced Gmail on April Fools Day. Remember that? And how it was endlessly debated all day long, with lots of people saying it was literally too good to be true? Best marketing stunt ever!
Anyway, the most kinda-sorta-believable fake "news" report I've seen today is the announcement of a Microsoft-Yahoo merger. (Ma-hoooo?)
Meanwhile, over in Britain, the Daily Star reported that Daniel Craig thinks James Bond should try being bisexual. Not to be outdone, the Sun revealed that "French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to have pioneering stretch surgery in a bid to make him taller," so that "when surgery is completed he will be an inch taller than his stunning ex-model wife Carla Bruni." And, sticking with the Bruni/Sarkozy theme, the Guardian announced that France's first lady "has been appointed by Gordon Brown to spearhead a government initiative aimed at injecting more style and glamour into British national life." Heh.
And then there's this, from the BBC:
Methinks the Brits are just plain better at this April Fools business than we colonists are. :)
Additional roundups of sundry April Foolishness can be found here, here, here and here. And here's a list of the ten best April Fools pranks ever.
Did any of y'all see, read about, experience, or pull off any good April Fools jokes today?
i think it would be cool if the onion reported only real news today.
Posted by: yea | Apr 1, 2008 1:38:54 PM
I like the MS-Yahoo story, because that one might be true. This has been in the tech media for a while - MS wants Yahoo, Yahoo is trying to figure out how to get out of it without ripping of their shareholders, who were getting a good deal when all that started.
Posted by: B. Minich | Apr 1, 2008 1:47:11 PM
I told a girl I was wearing a condom but I secretly slipped it off.
Posted by: Asshole | Apr 1, 2008 1:51:27 PM
YouTube was awesome today.
Posted by: Marty West | Apr 1, 2008 2:18:52 PM
Last night I promised my blind nephew that if he prayed real hard before he went to bed, he would wake up being able to see.
Posted by: Joe Mama | Apr 1, 2008 2:28:19 PM
I just called all of my ex-girlfriends and told them I have HIV.
Posted by: JT | Apr 1, 2008 2:52:41 PM
Brendan - one of the things I miss over here is April Fool's morning pranks - back in Scotland, there is an additional wrinkle - if the prank isn't triggered until after noon, it is deemed to have rebounded on the prankster ... so pranks have to be done not only with skill yet also with timing so that they catch their targets in the AM ...
The New Scientist used to have some great April issues ...
They also tend to be in better taste (or more tastefully exquisite BAD taste) than JT's "incurable romantic" idea ...
Posted by: Alasdair | Apr 1, 2008 7:03:41 PM
Well done today, Brendan.
Posted by: kcatnd | Apr 1, 2008 8:12:37 PM