My least favorite holiday

[cleolinda]

Item one: Why I hate April Fool's Day, or, at the very least, April Fool's gags that do not make their fooliness clear enough.

Item two: Google is totally okay by me, though, because they know how to do it right. Seen any other good ones? (Favorites so far: News announces the new member of the lj advisory board; Smart Bitches, Trashy Books taken over by Dear Author; ESPN to air Election Deathmatch Coverage.)

Comments

[speakerwiggin.livejournal.com]

I just made a similar "loathe of april fools'" post.

but there are some good jokes out there. my fav so far- thinkgeek (http://www.thinkgeek.com)'s fake products on the front page! :D!

I want that shirt... and that lock... I want all of it!

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

Gmail's is pretty good:

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

I laughed.

[odontomachus.livejournal.com]

Then again, if anyone can do it, it's Google.

[odontomachus.livejournal.com]

Moot (4chan) was so aghast at the spate of rickrolling he put up a banner about it on 4chan:
"YouTube, GameFAQs, LiveJournal, deviantART, and isoHunt are all running April Fool's Day pranks based on 4chan memes... Christ. More here." (http://youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU) ()

[ms-treesap.livejournal.com]

*Squees* An Oban Races (?) icon!

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

There haven't been many good ones today - though google always does something good! I used to on Padawan's Guide, and they usually went over really well, but I was out of ideas for this year.

My favorite might be from slashdot.org a few years ago when they changed their site to be pink and titled "OMG Ponies!"

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna say Blizzard's won the day with its two-pronged attack: Molten Core for consoles (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/moltencore/) (yes, the Atari 2600; the trailer is wondrous) and new bard class (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/bard/bardclass.xml). They're geek-heavy, but not so much that someone who doesn't play the games (*waves*) doesn't get them.

Wikipedia's front page was brilliant for a bit, but they seem to have taken down most of the funny (if entirely accurate) links.

[acaciakitty.livejournal.com]

I play World of Warcraft and a little part of me wishes the new Bard class was real. I want to fight evil with the power of rock!

This was cute

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1774394

[takethisstep.livejournal.com]

Gmail introduces "Custom Time". http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

That's probably my favorite (but only because I hadn't seen Virgle yet).

[takethisstep.livejournal.com]

Whoops. In the time it took me to find the link someone else posted about it. Sorry.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Check out XKCD.com's site today.

See, that's the kind of April Fool's stuff I don't mind. It's hurtful and or embarrassing things I can't stand. Or things that make me look foolish and/or gullible, which, hey, misplaced pride perhaps, but my oldest sister ALWAYS manages to get me with the kind of jokes that then make me look dumb for believing them. *sigh*

[aymaera.livejournal.com]

I just went to check it out, and then realized that I had already seen the comic, and hadn't even noticed it was in the wrong feed! The Dinosaur comics in the QC feed had me a bit confused but I just scrolled right by it... duh.

[ipomoea.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen the general Google one! I'd thought the Gmail thing (http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html) was it for them this year.

Oh, but also, I laughed and laughed when I saw that Gawker had allegedly sold Jezebel to Conde Nast.

[norwegianne.livejournal.com]

I like this: http://community.livejournal.com/ljdq/148794.html

[supersyncspaz7.livejournal.com]

My brother's birthday is today, and I am still attempting to think of a way to get him for the year that he got me to turn on the sink and the hose then completely soaked me (he wrapped a rubber band around it, ai yi yi). Since I really can't top that (it would resort to near cruelty, and I'm not that mean), I just wrap his presents up in odd boxes. One year, we gave him video games in a pizza box. This year, I've wrapped his present (an iPod) in a brown lunch bag.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

The guy from Laughing Squid has dubbed today Annoying Internet Day. SO TRUE. (Although I also enjoy the things like GOogle and what have you :) )

Not to mention Annoying Older Relative Day. Gah. Glad I'm too old for that to be done to me now.

[sucrelefey.livejournal.com]

It is a fine line between being funny and being an ass. Usually intent indicates which it is. If it is to entertain others, odds favour funny if it's to entertain yourself odds favour ass, which is the key difference between jokes and pranks.

[allie-meril.livejournal.com]

OTW has decided that English is overrated. (http://community.livejournal.com/otw_news/28869.html)

[divinemissa.livejournal.com]

Every featured video on the front page of youtube (not the promoted videos at the way top) will rickroll you. Not hilarious but kinda cute.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I really, really want to Rickroll everyone at work.

Except that would be followed up with 15-minute discussions with each of them as to what a Rickroll is, why it's so funny, who's that strange redheaded lad and who's doing his voice?

It would very quickly become swallowed in tedium, but still, it'd be awesome.

[thecenterlane.livejournal.com]

I'm not really fond of it either, but more because I'm really, really bad at spotting the joke. Like this year, my boyfriend emailed me at work to tell me that my external harddrive (which is full to bursting, so to speak) had somehow wiped itself. I promptly emailed him back in all caps and spent about five or six minutes searching on google for ways to recover the lost files (nearly in tears the whole time) before he called me to say it was just a prank. >___

[jackieocean.livejournal.com]

deviantArt's was kind of lame - they changed everyone's id icon (http://jackieocean.deviantart.com/) on the site to an animated pokemon icon that says "So i herd u liek Mudkips??"

[hana-ginkawa.livejournal.com]

I thought it was cute...

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Wiki has a comprehensive list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1%2C_2008

I like Gizmodo's: They're including Mr. T in every article. Also, Lostpedia reports (http://blog.lostpedia.com/2008/04/fcc-cites-abc-5m-for-profanity-for-lost.html) that ABC is being fined $5M for profanity in the whispers heard during Lost.

These episodes of Lost included numerous profanities as well as explicit sexual and bodily function language embedded in so-called “Whispers” in two episodes of Lost broadcast in March, “The Other Woman” and “Meet Kevin Johnson.” The audio track of these whispers, when played backward, allegedly reveal indecent language.

Oh, and Nestle to change the name of its Butterfinger bar to "The Finger."
http://www.thefingerbar.com/

[germankitty]

I found a link to a LOTR game on Fark ...

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

Girl Wonder (http://www.girl-wonder.org)'s forums are now looking to save fruits & veggies from oppression.

(sings) I hear the screams of the vegetables!

[cupcakery.livejournal.com]

Jezebel (http://www.jezebel.com)'s one is rather much annoying me, with their CondeNast-ization.

[missnanna.livejournal.com]

It annoyed me at first, now I've hopped right into it and am having a blast.

[yuna1881.livejournal.com]

yeah today I pretty much found out what being 'rick roll'd' means and after the third time i just decided to go for it and do it to others myself instead of staying mad.

[bigeyedrabbit.livejournal.com]

April Fool's Day makes me all crankypants, too. Thank God, no one's played any mean tricks on me this year.

[lily-handmaiden.livejournal.com]

I was pretty fond of this one from OfficeQuotes: http://www.theofficequotes.com/news/10

And "Jane Austen Ate Hamsters":
http://www.sionmc.com/ja/ja2007.htm

[pinstripe-bindi.livejournal.com]

Jezebel claims to have been sold to Condé Nast and are turning into a vapid celebrity-and-fashion obsessed site for the day. All the Gawker Media sites are doing some variation of it. The webmaster of a feminist site I write for actually fell for it and was about to post a panicked entry before I set her straight.