A Blog About Making Culture
Your April Fool's Day Joke Continues to Suck
March 31, 2008
Having been blogging for a few years, I've developed a few annual traditions. This one's a favorite: Warning you off of lame April Fool's jokes on the web. Every year, I get called a curmudgeon, or lambasted for having no sense of humor. And every year, the jokes online get lamer and lamer.
I'd mentioned that Your April Fool's Day Joke Sucks two years ago, revisited the idea last year, and have been proud to have been joined in my assessment by luminaries such as Joshua Schachter and Andy Baio in taking a critical eye at this sort of thing.
The exception, of course, is if you're doing something truly hysterical or on a magnificent scale. But I fear we won't run into too many of those.
Previously: Aesthetic Integrity
Darren Barefoot
Huzzah! I’ve come to lament April Fool’s Day on the web.
Matt Killmon
It’s true. The last April Fool’s joke I remember loving on the Web was when the GIA fooled Famitsu magazine in Japan into printing their exposé of a direct sequel to Final Fantasy VIII (complete with impeccably faked screenshots) as a real story. That was impressive.
Then they CLOSED on April Fool’s. That was kind of the end of it for me.
DaveD
You know what? You come off just a bit… arrogant.
And that ain’t no April Fools Day comment. Just a comment from someone who understand what having fun is about.
I’m betting you played Scrooge sometime in your past.
Stormchild
Word. April Fool’s Day has become a showcase for its namesake.
Let it die.
Captain Obvious
DaveD, I’m afraid you may be the last person on the web to come to that particular realization.
ned
my favourite was probably when they announced gears of war 2
gearsofwar2.tk
Anil
I can see how people who weren’t raised on watching Morris Day might think I’m being arrogant when I’m really making just as much fun of myself as anybody else. Here’s a hint: The picture of me standing at a mic pontificating looks like I’m full of myself to people who don’t know me, while everyone who reads me site that knows me in person gets that it’s mocking my tendency to bloviate. I’m actually quite pleased that it works on both levels, and if I can be simultaneously seen as both someone who doesn’t know how to have fun and as someone whose pranks are at least as well-known his actual accomplishments, then I’m delighted.
Still waiting to find that April Fool’s joke that’s gonna have us all ROFLing.
Ole Eichhorn
The only really good April Fool’s joke I can recall was Google’s introduction of gmail. Everyone thought it was a joke because of the idea of offering that much storage at no charge, but the joke was on them :)
Christian
This article could be subtitled, “I’m a real kill joy at parties.”
Robert Byce
I think that Youtube’s April Fool’s Day joke for this year is excellent. Click on one of the featured videos.
http://uk.youtube.com/
Max
But what about the Mrs? What does the little lady say about April fool’s day?
martin english
The point is that most of the jokes ARE lame. Michael Arrington pretnding that proclaiming himself a VIP is funny, just reminds me how arrogant he is. Whatever happened to the REAL WORLD jokes ? like the BBC and it’s spagetti farms ?
maybe I prefer more subtle humour… like the aprill 2004 announcement of gmail - nice reverse play there.
Michael Parekh
Second that, Anil.
Steven Fisher
April Fools Day through normal channels is simply abusing them. If you’re gonna pull a prank, do it in some new way. Blogs and news stories are lame.
Although I’ll admit TidBITS got me good a few years ago with their “iChat Beta can now communicate with MSN!” If all fake stories were that subtle and well-written, I’d enjoy the experience a lot more.
liza
max, that was brilliant.
daveD : Arrogant? you so don’t know anil.
anil : this post needs more of teh kittees. you also forgot fake steve jobs. you have to admit his prank last year was clever.
Deva Hazarika
Anil, many US bloggers are now posting them during the daytime March 31 US time, thus making them EXTRA HILARIOUS.
Deva Hazarika 
Also eagerly looking forward to your April 1 post “Hmmm, April Fool’s pranks by bloggers this year actually original and quite funny” - that will be a LAUGH RIOT.
Shelley
Why Anil, this sounds exactly like something I’d write.
Golly.
Loic
“the jokes online get lamer and lamer”
Hey Anil, agreed, but is your picture with the microphone on the top right of your blog a lame april fool too? If it is you definitely qualify in the top ones :)
no really buddy, change that picture… really…
Jesse Gardner
I don’t think April Fool’s jokes have to be hysterical or magnificent to bring some lightheartedness to the internets. Sometimes it’s those little gotchas that brighten up the first of April.
kaykoa
I could make a joke about his first name. But I won’t.
My advice is, if you don’t like his advice, don’t listen to it.
Anil, since you seem a bit depressed, I’d like to share something with you. I’ve been saving this video for a long time, and it always seems to touch my heart in dark times: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZOU8GIRUd_g
All the best.
Kevin
I just hate that April Fool’s is now starting on March 31 for those of us in the PST. It’s like Christmas, startin earlier and earlier every year. Pretty soon we’ll have to give gifts.
Dan
Trying to convince Wordpress users to switch to Movabale Type—that was your April Fools joke right?
wza
I’m not sure what’s more lame, bad april fools day jokes, or telling about other people’s bad april fools day jokes.
Your fun might not be other people’s fun man, let it go.
Bucky Slingshot
You should be putting the apostrophe AFTER the s in ‘fools’. The day was once known as “The Day of All Fools”, and is celebrated by the pranksterism of many. It is not named after a single fool.
Paul D. Waite
Stoopid internet. Be more funny!
Andy Davies
I sort of get what you mean…
Good April Fool’s Jokes are few and far between, and every idiot^H^H^H^H^H blogger/news site etc. feel they have to have one, resulting in a few funny ones and plenty of lame ones.
Yakov
April Fool’s Day is the first annual Day without Google search. We have created a special search cloud for the day on www.quintura.com
DC Crowley
‘no sense of humor’. Realization is the first step Anil, that is really positive man!
Matt
I got a april fools that doesn’t suck! Spoof your Caller ID to anything and give someone a call of their life! You can even record it for free.. not trying to spam, but just dropping a great idea out for anyone that wants to do one! Check out PhoneGangster.com - also offers free 5 Minutes.
Happy April Fools
Anonymous
Is this supposed to be some sort of joke? Lame
Winslow Theramin
Wait…. This is and April’s Fool Joke right? Oh jeez man, you got me!
It’s just bristling with irony!
Cruftbox
Don’t you get it?
Anil really loves April Fool’s jokes on the net and this post is his joke on the rest of us. He especially loves the one about you switching from a Mac to using Vista!
He spends the whole day surfing the web for jokes, laughing and IMing links to everyone in his buddy list, then complies them into top ten lists, and submits it to Digg!
Ed Sutherland
Imagine the Washington Post running a story about Hillary Clinton being found guilty of a crime, or the Wall Street Journal writing that Wall Street crashed, then saying “Ha! April’s Fool!” Very few people would think it funny, or professional.
Why should the Web think it should demand serious consideration on one hand, but act like children, on the other?
Beerzie
Yep, yep, yep.
Winslow Theramin
Christ Ed, get a grip.
Stiv Bators
Neologism watch: “empeanutemandemed”
To stealthily keep a snack bowl in the workplace common kitchen filled with Peanut M&Ms for weeks on end until the entire workplace puts on 15 pounds. The joke only ends when the VP of HR is forced to send out a memo demanding the practice stop.
Mark
Wow. You know, you’ve appeared to be a humorless schmuck a number of times in the past, but this post goes so far beyond your usual pompous jackassery that it must actually be an April Fool’s joke. So to “attack” April Fool’s in your own April Fool’s gag, that’s true irony.
Congratulations, Anil, you’re a TRUE fool now.
Anonymous
Worst april fools joke ever: Bungie selling themselves lock, stock, and barrel to MS.
Hanan Cohen
Here’s a true April Fool’s story that happened to me today.
I wanted to pull up a prank at work. Annoucing something that will get everybody mad. I consulted my boss before posting it. He told me “DON’T!!!!!!!!! it’s actually considered in higher levels”.
Dan
btw what I said in my comment above was intended as a joke—it just didn’t come off right (or get spelled right)
Nelson
I’m mostly with you, Anil. But I have to say that the PayPerTweet hoax got me pretty good. The Aussies have an advantage getting the jokes out a day early, and the announcement was just obscure and plausible enough that I spent several outraged hours before figuring it out.
Christopher Brown
You’re joking, right? I get it. I get it. Just a joke. April Fools. Haha.
Poopsie
Your blog continues to bore me. Please stop blogging.
Anil
But I have to say that the PayPerTweet hoax got me pretty good. The Aussies have an advantage getting the jokes out a day early, and the announcement was just obscure and plausible enough that I spent several outraged hours before figuring it out.
I think you raise a great point, Nelson — there are some good examples out there. But part of why PPT worked was that it wasn’t actually on April Fools’ Day, it was understated, and it was plausible. How many of today’s “har har we bought Google!” jokes have any of those traits?
Rob Torres
Over at Topix, we blew out our top three headlines (in our skybox) and replaced them with April Fool’s stories. Our readers seem to be getting a kick out of it.
Tom Hoad
This is hilarious. You all need to get out more.
I suppose people have too much fun at Christmas as well, eh?
Just take a step back and listen to yourselves, for all our sanity.
Andreas
Agree!
When you make an April Fools joke on a company or news website, you are basically fooling your customers. Note how this is distinctly different (as in “not funny”) from fooling your friends. Therefore, the jokes are lame by nature as business is not funny, and your customers don’t want it to be funny. They want it to work.
corn blight
April Fool’s jokes are for people who don’t have a sense of humor the other 364 days of the year.
Anonymous
ANIL DASH A blog about killing culture
Rip Ragged
Once in a while somebody says something so obviously correct that it requires congratulations.
Thank you, Anil.
There is no more asinine observation in the year than April Fools. Honestly, if you’re not funny the other 364 days, this square on the calendar doesn’t make your lame wit any sharper.
Elliott Bäck
Gotta roll with it, Anil. I get my fair share of “get back where you belong” from people who don’t know how to pronounce my name :)
Greg
Agreed 100%. None of this shit is funny and I’m exhausted of all the stupidly lame stories that so many sites expose us to.
Finite
The thing that makes me most certain that this is nothing more or less than Anil’s own April Fools’ joke is his continued refusal to put the apostrophe after the s.
It really is not referring to any one fool..
Dean Weston
www.bbc.co.uk They have a really quality production for this years april fools - Rare penguins footage
frisky?
Anil, It was your post from last year that inspired me to do this: http://youraprilfoolsjokesucks.com/
:-)
f.
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