Talk:April Fools Day 2007

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I'd like to add the Teevee.org/Television City Chronicle's fairly clever story about Dick Cheney joining Wolfram and Hart, but there's the note saying not to add anything by a group without a Wikipedia page.[1] :/ Wintersweet 22:55, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Teamxbox had a couple of other April Fools stories. There was the xbox 360 "brute" edition and a massive Sony recall of all systems.

BusyGamerNews.com reported a forthcoming Wii system update with custom background images, your choice of MP3 music to replace the "annoying elevator music" and other significant improvements that probably won't happen but should.

Chris Lehmann, a contributor on LeaderTalk -- an education administration blog -- claims that US Sec't of Education Margaret Spellings is being replaced by Nebraska Education Commissioner and noted NCLB critic Doug Christensen: http://www.leadertalk.org/2007/04/sweeping_change.html

Professor A.P.Rilföl from Yoke University presents a sharp way to enhance cellphone reception: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/apr07/comments/1752

Virtual world Second Life added a series of random humorous messages to their teleport loading screens. Examples include “Teleporting to preview of Second Death”, “Loading parameters... Finding destination... Deleting inventory... I mean LOADING inventory...” and “WHOOOSH!”. Many of them are jabs at Second Life's frequent technical glitches.

VGMaps.com: The Video Game Atlas (http://www.vgmaps.com) put up maps for "Super Kid Icarus", an imaginary game. (http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/April2007/index.htm#SuperKidIcarus)

Webcomic VGCats ( http://www.vgcats.com ) put up a fake front page that looks like the MySpace page of Solid Snake from the video game series Metal Gear Solid. 66.24.96.111 17:46, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

News.com posted a fake front page: http://news.com.com/. Looks like you're cookied and redirected. Front page comes up once. Headlines include an Amanda Congdon clothed Playboy shoot... Permanent April Fool's page seems to be here: http://news.com.com/1200-12_3-6172227.html Also includes headline: Wikipedia founder's bold experiment - Diagnosed with cataracts, Jimmy Wales invites first 100 people who show up at his home to perform surgery. "There may be some trial and error, but I'm confident the community will make the right decisions," Wales said.

GBATemp has released "confirmation" of their long desired "Temper Card", their latest slot 1 Card interface with 16 Gbits of flash memory. It would be open source. --corbs132

Progressive web development company Advomatic, has repudiated their liberal ways and admitted that they have been working secretly for Republicans for the last 3 years. They posted their real portfolio at http://www.advomatic.com/portfolio/right.

The online game Kingdom of Loathing released a new familiar, available only for one day, which is nominally designed to help players play the game more efficiently and optimally, but is in fact incredibly detrimental. Also, a preview of the next big content update was posted, with screenshots unveiling new "features" such as the ability of monsters to steal and/or destroy your equipment, and a new quest wherein the player must collect one of every item in the game, including the extremely rare and discontinued ones. Twice. --68.2.125.134 15:12, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

The online game RuneScape released in their preview that the month would rotate around the cabbage, inluding new "cabbage armour" which would not protect you from rabbits

The timesonline (timesonline.co.uk) is reporting that HMV is changing the dog in its logo to Grommit! (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1596742.ece)

The webcomic www.applegeeks.com has a farse page popping up with the comic oragedorks and is paroding after the comic and recent news of the site.

http://www.wii.tv/ has a video "sneak peak" of a futuristic Zelda game which is likely an April Fool's joke. --68.63.213.57 19:37, 31 March 2007 (UTC)


http://www.kaleva.fi/plus/juttu648343_page0.htm Finnish newspaper Kaleva published an April Fool's news item.

Austrian news paper Vorarlberger Nachrichten reported a visit by Madonna in the town of Lech. http://www.vn.vol.at/2007-03-31/ They got this information, including a photo, by a reader. It was also reported by ORF, which now replaced the article with a story about information of this joke. http://oesterreich.orf.at/stories/182596/ 85.126.128.10 23:46, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Is today's featured article a prank? --The preceding comment was signed by User:Sp3000 (talk•contribs) 00:04, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
I remember reading a lot of discussion between editors several weeks ago - I think the plan was to put items on the main page that appeared as pranks, but are actually true - so I would suggest that it is a real person called George Washington who was an inventor. -- Chuq 00:20, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Ask Metafilter has a self-parodying homepage up today. http://ask.metafilter.com/april1.mefi Also, YTMND.com's joke is both a parody of the Blogger homepage (http://www.blogger.com) and the MySpace name. I cannot edit, so will someone make these two changes (Ask Metafilter addition and Blogger mention) on my behalf?72.80.110.47 05:16, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Google has introduced TiSP http://www.google.com/tisp/ User:HarrisonX

On the flash portal website Newgrounds, everyone in the forum appear an administrator.

our very own wikipedia has a front page reminiscent of uncyclopedia's nonsensical content, but it's all technically true.

Library of Congress to Outsource Auxiliary Cataloging Functions

The Observer reports that Tony Blair is to take up acting http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2047498,00.html

Kirby's Rainbow Resort changed their main page to 4Kids' Kirby website. 76.184.188.124 13:31, 1 April 2007 (UTC) torrentbytes.net have been hacked by the staff

The Sunday Telegraph that the London Olympics in 2012 are to be shared with Paris http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/01/nfool01.xml

eBaumsworld.com added a "pay to surf" feature where users can earn money simply surfing the site. They teamed with the fictitious afpfinancial.com to transfer payments to viewers accounts.

The free anti-DRM kids book The Pig and the Box is getting a Special Edition. http://dustrunners.blogspot.com/2007/04/pig-and-box-special-edition.html Features the characters being fined by the MPAA and the crazy squirrel assassinating the leaders of the Piratpartiet. MrAndrews 16:13, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

google introduces google gulp which claims to make your brain smarter and includes an auto-drink feature http://www.google.com/googlegulp/

Google Gulp was Google's April Fool's joke from 2005, not the one from this year. See Google's hoaxes. - 71.204.85.200 19:49, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

teevee.org's 11th annual April Fool's Day parody is the Television City Chronicle, documenting all the news that's fit to print in TV Land.

APOD (Astronomy Picture Of the Day) showed a picture of the First Space Quidditch Match http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070401.html

Contents

[edit] Slashdot not a hoax

Is it just me or has Slashdot had the new rating system online since Friday, which was in fact 30th of March? Swizec 20:03, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

http://www.4colorrebellion.com/, a popular Nintendo website/blog, changed the front page to show a teaser for a re-design and a loading bar that only goes up to 98%.

[edit] Gromit becoming HMV Logo not a hoax

The Sunday Times reported that HMV are replacing the dog in their logo to Gromit.

This news item is also covered on the BBC News website - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6516235.stm

Yup, check this quote from the same BBC article;

HMV will be using the image for three months to support the promotion of children's DVDs at its stores.

Should we remove it from the list? Vanguard 22:03, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nintendo WFC

The Ninntendo WFC is down today, so I'm guessing it's related to April 1st --Rabin 20:44, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

It is? dposse 20:46, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, I couldn't connect, my internet works fine, and I was right next to my router. Someone else on the forum I go to said that it was down, too. --Rabin 23:36, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 1up.com's Messageboards

They've revoked all user ranks and requested that they pay in order to access them.

[edit] GooDay

This same thing popped up in Google's hoaxes. I removed it there as well. I haven't seen it, and there should be a 'help page' explaining the 'new feature', which hasn't shown up in either place. If such a references exists, feel free to add it in both places.

Remember, this page is only reporting April Fools jokes, not inventing them. --Dlevenstein 22:02, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Somebody put it back in, saying that the source was on the login screen, which I verified as True. However, unless there are any other pages that tell us about it, it may not be a good idea to leave it there, since somebody else marked it with citation needed. Does anyone know of any place to go to for references? Google usually has them for their hoaxes. --Dlevenstein 00:05, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
I'm removing it, since I haven't had any responses to indicate otherwise. --Dlevenstein 11:41, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mi6 John Travolta story

This story isn't fake, he actually talked about it on the Friday Night With Jonathan Ross chat show on March 30th. I can't prove it as of yet, since I don't have a clip of the show, but I'm sure some entertainment publications may have reported it. Vanguard 22:26, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Here's the original report (it's worth noting the article is dated March 31st, the day after he appeared on the chat show). I'm going to remove this one if no-one has any objections. Vanguard 22:30, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
..and another one. I think that's sufficient evidence to warrant it's removal. Vanguard 22:34, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] It's a funny gag, but don't extend it to here

Under the "real events mistaken for April Fools jokes" section, is this item:

I shouldn't even have to argue this, but the article is clearly a joke. Not only are the advertisements some of the funniest coffee ads ever made, but more importantly, the article was created five days ago. I don't know how exactly long it takes for an article to become featured, but I know it doesn't happen over five days.--134.173.200.14 22:46, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I doubt you can fake the multiple government websites linked to on that article. dposse 23:02, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
I'm glad you got a good laugh from those 90-year-old coffee ads I picked out! Just goes to show the contextual nature of humor.--Pharos 01:25, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Gizmodo

Gizmodo.com posted a series of ...posts, on things that aren't techically impressive at all. Like automobiles and steam powered trains and the RCA Lyra. 71.185.119.189 23:20, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] www.destructoid.com

The website has been changed to "Brian Crecente's Hair Palace." http://www.destructoid.com —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.62.178.53 (talk) 23:32, 1 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] I-mockery

Frogger flash integrated into main page.

[edit] Wikipedia did you know

The "Did you know..." stuff was a bit more vulgar than usual like "Richard de Southchurch, Sheriff of Essex, planned to attack London with burning cocks" and "Serge Voronoff's surgical technique of grafting monkey testicle tissue onto human males has some modern supporters." Perhaps this should be mentioned under Wikipedia. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bobthesmiley (talk • contribs) 01:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] South Park Studios

Had unescapable popups stating that "mr_noob will eat you!". When one clicked "Okay" or "X", another box would pop up. An administrator named "mr_noob" was added as well. Then, The word "episode" to "willy dribble", "on" to "off" and "South Park" to "pokemon". A new episode preview was posted, but many think it's a fraud becuase episode previews are almost always revealed on Mondays and that there are no pictures at all. The description reads:

"Fantastic Easter Episode" Determined to get the real story behind why he has to decorate eggs for Easter, Stan falls in with an eccentric society that guards a legendary secret.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.1.34.2 (talk) 02:16, 2 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] April 1, 2007 headlines from linux.org

Please add to the article page. Thanks.

[edit] Chocolate Jesus statue

Supposedly artist Cosimo Cavallaro has created a chocolate sculpture of Jesus called "My Sweet Lord", in an exhibition planned to open on April 1st. http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2047001,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1 Zuytdorp Survivor 12:39, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

That wasn't a prank. i read that story two days before April Fools day. It's a real story. dposse 14:26, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

ProgressiveU, home for blogging about Progressive topics, had a blogger post a topic on Scientific Evidence for God?? Blog is here: http://www.progressiveu.org/233947-scientific-evidence-for-god

[edit] April Fool's articles on ArXiv

Three fake article preprints were released on ArXiv as april fool's jokes:

The first two of these have an author name that's an anagram of "April Fool". All have lots of in-jokes in them; the first one even references Wikipedia in the same fashion as a student would, down to getting the wrong name for the page (they used Axis-of-evil rather than Axis of evil; the first link didn't work until I created the redirect as I fell for the april fool's...)

Am posting this on this talk page rather than the article as I'm not sure which section to put it under on the article page. Any suggestions? Mike Peel 23:42, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] April 1 'Vandalizing' on Wikipedia

What's the rules about adding silly stuff to WP on April 1? Is it only really for the mods to undertake, and anyone else will be stared at/warned? --Anoma lee 12:13, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

No, especially as there aren't moderators. The rule isn't any different to any other day of the year - same warnings apply. Jokes in non-article areas are fine, as long as they don't prevent other users from carrying out the usual tasks. -- Chuq 12:32, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Economist

Has anyone spotted the April Fool in The Economist this year. Indeed, is there one? Matthew 14:36, 3 April 2007 (UTC)


[edit] what is April 1st?

i think it´d be usefull to add a short paragraph about what April 1st is (people from other cultures doesn´t know what it is). in spain and other latin-american(?) countries we have a similar custom on December 28th: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos_Inocentes

[edit] Suggested move

I suggest we move this to April Fools' Day 2007, as the article is not about the calendar date, but specifically about April Fools' Day-related events of the day.--Pharos 00:36, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Good call. I think this should be done for April 1st articles from past years as well. --Czj 01:21, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] My conflict of interest

OK, this will probably be my one and only personal conflict of interest on a marginally notable encyclopedic subject, but I think I have to disagree with this edit, removing all mention of George Washington (inventor), a semi-prankish article I wrote which was the Featured Article last April 1. While I agree that my faux-hoax was not terribly notable in the grand scheme of things, this page has dozens of online hoaxes from various relatively minor websites, while Wikipedia is one of the world's top ten websites. Geez, even Uncyclopedia (a parody site of Wikipedia) gets a mention!--Pharos (talk) 05:52, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Obscure stuff

Alongside lots of well known stuff, there was a lot of material about very, very obscure websites. I've removed all but the most significant of those because I don't see the point of clogging this article with obscure stuff that nobody but the webmaster and a few friends will care about. --Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The 13:06, 25 May 2008 (UTC)