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April Fool's Day

 
  

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A
08:32 / 30.03.03
Okay, April Fools' Day is just about upon us once more. It seems to me that the very concept of April Fools' Day seems to be slowly dying. I don't remember the last time anyone bothered to try to fool me, or the last decent large-scale public April Fools' Day prank.

So, this year, I want to actually see, and take part in some proper fucking fooling, and I want all of you people to get in on the action, too.

Unfortunately, I'm running pretty low on decent ideas at the moment, but surely some of you folks have some worthy schemes lurking within you. Please, share your ideas for April Fools'-related trickery with us all.
 
 
Bear
08:55 / 30.03.03
I used to love April Fools as a kid, I remember turning all the clocks back in the house, everyone was late and I got in trouble but it was worth it

Do Mars still do a fake ad in the news papers, Irn Bru used to do one too.

Must be sites about the day - hooray something to do here at work!

Where does it come from anyway, how did it start?
 
 
Bear
09:02 / 30.03.03
I knew it would be those evil French -

In sixteenth-century France, the start of the new year was observed on April first. It was celebrated in much the same way as it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first. There were some people, however, who hadn't heard or didn't believe the change in the date, so they continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them "April fools." They sent them on a "fool's errand" or tried to make them believe that something false was true. In France today, April first is called "Poisson d'Avril." French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends' backs. When the "young fool" discovers this trick, the prankster yells "Poisson d’Avril!" (April Fish!)
 
 
Mazarine
13:20 / 30.03.03
NPR usually does a bizarre story on April Fool's day that sounds just weird enough to be true. One year they claimed that Starbucks was setting up a network of pipes around the country to transport coffee directly from Seattle to its franchises. Another year they claimed that the Boston Celtics had drafted a seven foot tall Irish basketball prodigy, who had a few conditions: Celtics would be pronounced Keltics, not Seltics, and the US national anthem would be sung in Gaelic. They were pretty funny.
 
 
Rev. Jesse
16:34 / 30.03.03
I remeber one story in which NPR or the BBC reported that penguins in the Andes were attempting to learn how to fly by hurling themselves off of cliffs.

It really seems that the news media is the only group of people who take April Fool's seriously, although I think last year we got hit with a massive snow storm on the first, no Fooling.
 
 
Cloned Christ on a HoverDonkey
21:34 / 30.03.03
Everyone must remember the time that the BBC showed workers harvesting spaghetti from a 'spaghetti orchard', plucking it from trees and placing it in baskets ready to cook.

I think the main reason that the media don't get away with it any more is the fact that people no longer take the media's presentations as Gospel; everyone is a jaded cynic nowadays.

And people don't pull tricks on one another because we're all so goddam busy and are too tired/preoccupied to actually concoct an original prank.

It's about time that we realised just how important making your fellow human look like a complete idiot is, and knuckled down to some serious skylarking.

Howsabout laxatives in the breakfast cereal? Imagine the fun to be had as you scoff at your spouse's premature return from work due to an embarassing 'accident', you shouting 'April Fool' upon their bow-legged return home.........
 
 
Jub
09:42 / 31.03.03
I remember being done so easily last year, when I saw a programme saying they were going to make a film of Eastenders. Dumb bastard.

The best one I saw was on an old football show; the presenter (des lynham maybe) was in the studio with the guests and behind them was a glass wall behind which was the office, and you could see all the people working away at their desks. All of a sudden two people at the back stated brawling and you could see people trying to separate them and then they got involved and in the end it was just a massive bundle. I thought it was really funny.
 
 
lolita nation
14:35 / 31.03.03
I once got my boss to call one of my co-workers and say he was fired. It was hilarious, but the "fired" guy got so upset when he thought he was fired that the guilt kind of overshadowed the funniness.
 
 
A
22:43 / 31.03.03
There's a documentary on tv tonight about how the moon landing was faked. I wonder if the date is just a coincidence.
 
 
Loomis
06:24 / 01.04.03
Don't you think we should keep a clear distinction between a proper prank and just lying to somebody?

Like in that Simpsons episode when Bart shakes up Homer's beer in the paint shaker at the hardware store and puts it back in the fridge, that's a prank. Calling up someone and telling them they're fired and watching them get upset and then laughing at their gullibility is just fucking annoying. "I can't believe you fell for that!" Well why wouldn't you? If someone did that to me I'd be handing out bags of fives like Santa Claus at the home for naughty children.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
06:43 / 01.04.03
Too true. Calling someone a fuckhead and then saying "Ah - HA! Tricked you! You're not, really!" isn't exactly up there with the spaghetti-tree-affecting drought stories of the past.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
06:58 / 01.04.03
Or the Alternative 3 TV documentary... does anyone have, or know where I could get, a copy?
 
 
Whisky Priestess
08:01 / 01.04.03
I'd check out a copy of the Guardian - they usually do a mischievous little article somewhere on page 3 or 4.

Last year I remember the Sunday Times got in on the act, in the "We Love Each Other" column. They had Ann Widdecombe and Eminem singing one another's praises.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
12:19 / 01.04.03
"God bless those crazy pagans!"
 
 
Jack Fear
12:27 / 01.04.03
My six-year-old stole all my underwear out of my dresser drawer last night and hid them in a pillowcase in her bedroom.

It would've been a great prank, but she was so pleased with herself that she couldn't keep it a secret—she revealed the trick to me first thing this morning, before I'd gone looking for clean underwear.

Great pranks require patience, and patience, for six-year-olds, is in short supply.
 
 
Mourne Kransky
13:13 / 01.04.03
I'd check out a copy of the Guardian - they usually do a mischievous little article somewhere on page 3 or 4.

I presumed the splurge on revolutionary abstract artist "Blinky Palermo" in the centre of G2 was their feeble attempt for this year, WP. Might have been more impressive had G2 not been full of the Chapman Brothers painting puppydog heads on Goya's prints of the revolutionary wars a couple of days back.

One of my evil colleagues phoned one of the lecturers and pretended to be a smitten student, left a message on his answering machine saying she'd be back in today because she so wanted to see him again. Poor wee soul has been wandering around the Dept looking for this innamorata all day, unaware that everybody else knows why he's so distracted. He's beginning to look a bit crestfallen at this end of the day, not having been leapt upon yet by a pining pupil.
 
 
Saveloy
13:39 / 01.04.03
Xoc>

Hmmm, if it is a gag then the Serpentine Gallery is in on it too. And I could be doing him a disservice but I can't see Adrian "Laughing Boy" Searle taking the piss out of himself or the art world to that extent.
 
 
Mourne Kransky
15:30 / 01.04.03
So the Chapman Brothers were a premature spoof?
 
 
Saveloy
10:36 / 02.04.03
Heh, if only, eh? I'd like to believe that the Chapman Bros themselves are a spoof - a living piss-take of yer average smirking, misanthropic, constantly amused (and only amused, not even disgusted) smart-arse nihilist WANK FACE. But, sadly, I don't think they are.
 
 
lekvar
22:56 / 31.03.04
OK, here we are a year later. Anyone have anything spectacular planed for April 1? I'm wracking my brains but can't get much further than putting shrink-wrap on the toilet. Since that will get me flat-out KILLED, I need to come up with something else. Suggestions? Any past glory/shame you'd care to share?
 
 
w1rebaby
00:04 / 01.04.04
Christ, and there was me looking at the dates and thinking "no, hold on, it's only the 31st, what's going on?" without, say, reading the year.

I even opened up my calendar to check.

Nah, I can't be arsed doing anything. Haven't really got anyone to do anything to; there's not much humour at work. Hopefully the promotion I got today wasn't a premature April Fool.
 
 
michellerino
01:02 / 01.04.04
I don't plan on anything too cruel, but I plan on messing with my co-workers by fudging up their computers: taking the ball out of the mouse, switching the left- and right-click, unplugging their keyboards, etc.

For my boss, I printed out pictures of monkeys and put them on her family photos in her office.

For my darling husband, I plan on switching the salt for the sugar and putting vasoline on the toilet seat.

I don't want to get anyone too badly, for I don't want to get it bad next year!
 
 
Baz Auckland
02:09 / 01.04.04
Am I a fool for reading the entire thread before I noticed that it was all written last year?
 
 
Mourne Kransky
07:48 / 01.04.04
Know whatcha mean, Baz. I was surprised to see I'd already posted, twice.

Good spoof on the Today programme this morning about the Archer's theme tune being remixed by Brian Eno. I was ironing away, thinking, Great! Then I remembered the date.

Oddly, there was a bit of reportage later, as I listened on the Walkman on the bus, about chickens nesting in a nuclear device. Apparently not a spoof but I was convinvced it was for a while.

Went to Cross and Flame (Christian /multifaith website) just now and discovered it was entirely bedecked in shades of pink and purple with pictures of fluffy kittens and "HomoLiberal World Agenda Site" on a banner at the top. Hehe! That's the best April Fool ever.
 
 
Jub
07:49 / 01.04.04
No - you're alright baz. Just been resurected is all.

GMTV pulled a blinder this morning. Diet water - they made it seem rather plausible.

Also liked the Sun's effort - hidden away about p27? - Outrage at Speed Cams on Hawks - Operation Hawkeye

This morning I've told a colleague that while she was in the loo, Mr Lyon called for her and gave her the number for a zoo in Kent.

Quote - 'This is a wild animal park, now piss off!'
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
07:51 / 01.04.04
Happy fiscal New Year, everyone.
 
 
Jub
09:10 / 01.04.04
2 more...

Sottish Parliament's costs down

Pedestrian Congestion Charge
 
 
Loomis
10:58 / 01.04.04
Aaargh I got fooled!!

I work for a training company, and a guy at work got himself a fake yahoo address and was emailing me all morning with irritating questions and I was being all polite and efficient and he kept it up and said he wanted to book a private course for lots of money. I even called the trainer and made plans with him! Then this guy wanted me to call his mobile which I did, and it was my mate hiding upstairs, and I even spoke to him for a minute and had no idea. Then he said he’d give me the office number to call and speak to April. April Fool.

Bastard!! Pretty funny though ...

I did manage to get him back though, just before midday:

I jumped on the boss’s computer and sent an email to my mate complaining about the waste of time he had caused and how the trainer had cancelled an important meeting for this course. He was shitting himself. Then he called up the trainer to apologize with us all listening. Yes!
 
 
Loomis
10:58 / 01.04.04
Mr Lyon is priceless however. I have made a note to use that next year.
 
 
pomegranate
13:38 / 01.04.04
better than mr. lyon, for the zoo, i think, is ms. ella font.
one of the best pranks i've ever heard of wasn't pulled on april fool's day. this guy worked at a large international bookstore chain, where every hour they switched stations/jobs. one of those jobs entailed just walking around the store with a phone, taking incoming calls and getting books/cd's/etc. off the shelves and holding them for the caller if they so desired. so he took this phone and called the store, thereby reaching one of his coworkers. he said he was looking for a book on "radicles," [say it rad-a-clees], "the greek god of skateboarding." this guy took it at face value and tried valiantly to find it. the caller, by this time, had kind of informed his nearby coworkers about it, because he kept repeating it, over and over, "yes, RADICLES, the GREEK GOD of SKATEBOARDING." then he had to hang up cos he was laughing too much. so he called back, and a different person answered, one who wasn't in on the joke, and he said, "i'm sorry, i just got disconnected. someone was helping me find a book on radicles, the greek god of skateboarding?" so the person who answered *that* call gets on the *all-store intercom* and says, "whoever was helping someone find a book on radicles, the greek god of skateboarding, please pick up line 4." the people in the know about the joke are of course peeing themselves at this point. so my friend keeps talking to the poor mark, and as this guy's working hard, running all over the store trying to find an appropriate book, my friend walks right up behind him, still carrying on the conversation. hilarious.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
13:41 / 01.04.04
Oh, of course, my wishing to you all of a happy fiscal New Year wasn't anything to do with my getting the date wrong...


'twere a fooling! Yes!

(April 6th. Be there. I'm getting hammered in Trafalgar Square.)
 
 
Jub
13:50 / 01.04.04
I wondered about that, but didn't like to say anything lest you said "HAHAHAHAH ARPIL BLOODY FOOL!!!!"
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
14:01 / 01.04.04
Phew.

*wipes sweat off brow*
 
 
Jub
14:04 / 01.04.04
taking the piss?
 
 
Char Aina
17:55 / 01.04.04
i claim fool's day as my own, as april the first is my birthday.


(if you think i havent heard it, you're wrong)
 
  

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