A rerun: PSA: April 1

[yendi]

(I posted this exact same entry a couple of years ago, but it's worth reposting)

PSA: April Fools' Day
Reminder: Tomorrow (April 1) is April Fools' Day.

As a general rule, take any story you read online with a grain of salt. Two, even.

Personally, I find some aspects of the "holiday" to be repugnant. I'm not a fan of actual practical jokes (something that might tie into my love of horror movies, in which practical jokes often lead to the creation of a new serial killer), as I think they're more often than not an exercise in being mean for its own sake. And I've seen way too many of them backfire. This goes doubly for blog entries.

Remember, too, that people do die on every day of the year. Fake celebrity deaths don't work as a practical joke, in my book. The death of Brandon Lee, for example, was reported on April 1 (although he died the day before). And Martha Graham, Marvin Gaye, and Leslie Cheung all come to mind as folks who died on April 1 (can you imagine, given the way he died, if folks had just dismissed the reports of Gaye's death?).

But I do appreciate the clearly-over-the-top stuff the holiday brings out in some sites. The KOL changes, for example, or the annual ThinkGeek "sales."

So, consider this my statement that A) I won't be posting any bogus entries tomorrow, and B) that I will be pointing out some of the better fakes sites on the net.

Comments

[luis-mw.livejournal.com]

How would you rate the London radio station that once ran the breakfast show as though it were an hour ahead - i.e. announced the 7 o'clock news when it was really 6am? Apparently, lots of people got dressed in an awful rush and got to work an hour early, totally failing to check their watches, alarm clocks mobile phones, the TV....

[yendi]

I'm not sure. A lot of that would have to do with context and timing. In this day and age, I'd hardly feel much sympathy (given all the other means of verifying time). But, say, thirty years ago, when most folks didn't have all of those options, I could see making the assumption that the clock was broken and overreacting. Part of it really depends on how the prank was played.

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

The difference between a practical joke and a shenanigan is that after a shenanigan, nobody needs to change their clothes.

...or file charges.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

'something that might tie into my love of horror movies, in which practical jokes often lead to the creation of a new serial killer'

Cropsy! Cross-dressing dude from Terror Train!

...um, who else? I know there have to be more, I'm just blanking.

[yendi]

Slaughter High, Urban Legend, The House on Sorority Row (and possibly the remake, which I haven't seen), and The Toxic Avenger all come to mind (although the last isn't technically a serial killer).

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

It's rather amusing the number of joke ThinkGeek products that they've later gone to sell for real..

[yendi]

Yeah; I consider it a sign of their brilliance.

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

Likewise. I have one of them on my universal wishlist.

[jerel.livejournal.com]

I welcome the chance to see clever website jokes. I'm not much in for fake blog/LJ posts.

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who likes to find someone who's planning a practical joke, offer to "help" them with it, and then conspire with the intended victim to arrange for the joke to backfire on the perpetrator.

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

I was working for the WA Museum when an April Fool's Day joke nearly backfired. They'd conspired with reporters from a local TV station to do a fake scientific story claiming that the metallic looking flies one sees are actually an indicator of gold deposits in the area, hence their prevalence outside the Perth Mint, Kalgoorlie's "golden mile", our wealthier suburbs, and the homes of individuals who had just been convicted of swindling the aforementioned Perth Mint.

April 1st that year was a Sunday, traditionally a slow news day... but for once, there was a lot of news, and the story was rescheduled for Monday by an editor who wasn't in on the joke. The team at the museum had to scramble to get the story pulled.

Ironically, the alleged swindlers were much later found to have been framed, and were acquitted.

True story (and yes, it is after noon here).