Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,945
edits
April Fools' Day: Difference between revisions
→New Media
| (46 intermediate revisions by 13 users not shown) | |||
Line 4:
A long time ago, April 1st was the start of the new year, and after it was officially changed to January 1st, people who still celebrated at the old date were dubbed "April Fools". Or possibly the term originally referred to people who prematurely celebrated the start of summer (which was traditionally May Day, May 1, in many ancient cultures); the exact origin is unclear. Regardless of where the term originated, it has since become something much sillier.
April 1 is known as '''April Fools' Day''', where almost every single person in the world becomes [[The Fool]]. A time to trick [[Muggles]] that the joke is real, and a time to pull pranks and tricks. You will then reveal the trick with the line "April Fools!"
Within fiction, characters will often play tricks on each other, and will often get into escalating competitions to play the best trick on each other, or catch each other in the most embarrassing lie.
Line 17:
Of course, television has shown some April Fools Day-themed episodes, especially that focuses on the day as a basis of the plot. See [[April Fool's Plot]] for more information.
In Hispanic countries, the equivalent is December 28th, the Day of the Holy Innocents. While not as widespread on the internet as the April Fools' Day, you still should be aware of news coming from the Spanish-speaking side of the world that day.
For the slasher movie, see ''[[April Fool's Day]]'', with the apostrophe before the "s" instead of after.
{{examples}}
== Real Examples ==
=== Anime
* ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' usually has an event on the author's blog where one of the characters takes over the site for the day.
* In 2003, mahq.net made an April Fools' Day [http://www.mahq.net/rants/prank.htm prank announcement] of a ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' sequel, which some websites in Japan apparently thought was a genuine one. And when ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' was released, the uncanny similarities [[Hilarious in Hindsight|just made it funnier.]]
Line 26 ⟶ 30:
* In 2010, promotion for the upcoming ''[[Gintama]]'' movie was changed so that [http://community.livejournal.com/gintama/898276.html Shinpachi appeared to be the main focus]. Worth it for Gintoki's expression in the cutaway panel alone.
* In 2012, [[Adult Swim]] actually '''''resurrected CN's much loved [[Toonami]] block for one night only''''', with all new recorded lines from [[Steve Blum|TOM 3]], airing episodes of nostalgic anime like ''[[Trigun]]'', ''[[Outlaw Star]]'', ''[[The Big O]]'', ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z'', and some a few other anime that had previously aired on both Toonami and Adult Swim.
** This case is notable because fan reaction was so overwhelmingly positive and widespread that '''''[https://twitter.com/#!/adultswim/status/202866436597743616 Cartoon Network actually fully revived the block.]'''''
* In 2012, Crunchyroll announced a new streaming app for [[Game Boy]]. The ''original'' [http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-756509/april-fools-crunchyroll-app-for-gameboy Game Boy.]
Line 32 ⟶ 36:
* In 2005, ''[[Magazine/Wizard|Wizard]]'' magazine announced that [[Geoff Johns]] was working on a [[Vertigo Comics]] version of ''[[Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew]]'', in which the Crew was disbanded, Little Cheese was murdered by one of his teammates, and a new character called the Bald Eagle had to bring them all back together. Then Johns topped this by actually writing it into an issue of ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' the following year.
* In 2009, the big news on the comics blogsphere was Johns again, now working on ''[http://onceuponageek.com/2009/04/01/geoff-johns-and-ethan-van-sciver-talk-vibe-rebirth Vibe: Rebirth]'' with Ethan Van Scriver. At last, one of the most iconic characters in the DC stable is brought back to glory!
** For those who don't follow DC, Johns has done "Rebirth" stories for [[Green Lantern]] (Hal Jordan) and the [[Flash]] (Barry Allen) and is set to do one soon{{when}} for [[Superboy]]. Vibe is obviously a less prominent character.
* in 2010 [[Top Shelf Productions]] released a cover for ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]''[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/04/01/top-shelf-announces-league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen-1988/ 1988] featuring among others [[Back to the Future (film)|Doc Brown]] and [[The A-Team|Sergeant Bosco "B.A." Baracus]].
=== Literature: Magazines ===
* ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' has had several, including a claim that the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S4/E02 The Tenth Planet|The Tenth Planet]]" was meant to be in colour (years later ''The Television Companion'' was still explaining that this wasn't true).
** A sort of accidental subversion: ''[[SFX]]'' claimed in April 2010 that William Hartnell was going to be in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E01 The Eleventh Hour|The Eleventh Hour]]". No-one was more surprised than the ''SFX'' crew when he ''was'' (through the magic of [[Stock Footage]]), along with the other Doctors...
Line 62 ⟶ 48:
{{quote|How can we put this gently? The test subject, Dr. Dru Wiliamskini, has a new nickname: "Steaming Puddle of Goo." Better luck next year!}}
** There was also the infamous Zelda April Fool's joke, showing fake screenshots of Link holding the Triforce. This only further fueled rumors of secret ways to get the Triforce, even after Nintendo repeatedly explained it wasn't possible.
* ''GamePro'' had an annual April feature called "LamePro", which mostly featured crude reimaginings of the hot games of the day, along with some mashups like "[[Barney and Friends]] [[Beavis and
* ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' was so good at this, they ended up creating [[Urban Legend of Zelda|Urban Legends Of Zelda]] out of most of them. They are described in detail in the aforementioned article, but for the sake of summarization:
** 1991: [[Castlevania|Simon Belmont]] in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game]]''.
Line 76 ⟶ 62:
** 2002: Sonic and Tails in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Melee'' (this became [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] when Sonic made it into ''Brawl'').
** 2003: ''[[Dead or Alive]]: Extreme Beach Volleyball'' nude code.
** 2004: ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' [[Wacky Racing|racing games]].
** 2005: ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'' getting a ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' makeover.
** 2006: The [[Hilarious in Hindsight|iGame]].
** 2007: ''[[Super Mario Bros.|Mushroom]] [[Kingdom Hearts]]''.
** 2008: ''[[Lego Adaptation Game]] [[Halo]]''. (Ironically, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100529051201/http://www.megabrands.com/en/kids/halowars/ there are] ''Halo'' [[Misaimed Marketing|Mega Bloks]].)
** 2010: ''[[Call of Duty]]:'' set in [[The American Revolution]].
* ''Game Informer'' has a section in every April issue called "Game Infarcer", complete with a faux cover and mini-articles poking fun at various aspects of the gaming world. In each May issue, GI publishes a few choice letters from people who believed the jokes to be real, despite the fact that every Game Infarcer page has "PARODY" in capital letters at the bottom. Interestingly enough, in 2010, most of the objections were not to the articles, but fake Editor-in-Chief Darth Clark's declaration that his game reviews had surpassed actual games as an art form.
* In 2008, ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20080421203052/http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicles/hrdp_0804_amc_concept_cars/index.html Hot Rod]'' published an article proclaiming the revival of American Motors (bought by Chrysler in 1987). The article contained detailed information and drawings of forthcoming models including the AMX, Matador, Ambassador, Pacer, and Gremlin. It was later revealed to be an April Fools' Day joke.
* ''Road & Track'' usually prints a review of something other than a car, but a mode of transportation none the less.
* In their April 2012 issue, ''Car And Driver'' listed 25 cars that would be released within the next few years. Most of them were [[Subverted Trope|real]], except for the Chrysler TD By Maserati.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* [[The BBC]]'s ''[[Panorama]]'' made [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm a show about "spaghetti trees,"] leading to many viewers asking how they could grow their own.
* The BBC also produced a feature showing a recently discovered breed of penguins which flew to the jungle in the summer.
* A Discovery Channel program played perfectly straight, that proved that yes, in fact The Earth Really Is Flat.
* ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'' made a few April Fools' Day episodes in which there would be various oddities occurring in the otherwise typical episodes (snow falling on set, mispronunciation of names, the ultrasound baby in the Mohawk Productions [[Vanity Plate]] meowing instead of giggling, etc...), [[Non Sequitur Scene|which are never brought up again]]. ABC made these into contests as to who could spot them all. Keep in mind that the major plot points of those episodes have been brought up again, such as Mr. Wick's [[Groin Attack]], so those at least are canon; when rerun, each error is pointed out ''[[Pop Up Video]]''-style.
* [[GSN]] (Game Show Network) did a major host switch on April 1, 2003 among its original programming. Marc Summers hosted ''[[Cram]]'', Todd Newton hosted ''[[Russian Roulette (TV series)|Russian Roulette]]'', Graham Elwood hosted ''[[Whammy (TV series)|Whammy: The All-New Press Your Luck]]'', Mark L. Walberg hosted ''[[Friend or Foe (TV series)|Friend or Foe]]'' and Lisa Kennedy Montgomery hosted ''[[Win Tuition]]''. The five hosts came together for a charity episode of ''[[Lingo]]'', which also had Todd Newton announcing (and Mark and Marc curb-stomping Graham and Kennedy 500-0).
* Speaking of game shows, ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' and ''[[Jeopardy!]]'' both partake in this:
** 1997: ''Jeopardy!'' host Alex Trebek and ''Wheel'' host Pat Sajak traded places. Pat and co-host Vanna White also played ''Wheel'' that day, with Pat's wife, Lesly, at the puzzle board. The flip-flop was [[Lampshaded]] heavily on both shows: ''Jeopardy!'' had ''Wheel''-themed categories in the first round (such as "Buy a Vowel" and "Before & After," which later became a recurring category on ''Jeopardy!'' itself), and "fool"-themed categories in the second, and a Final ''Jeopardy!'' category of "Trinidadian Amateur Ichthyologists." ''Wheel'' had several gag puzzles, including TRADING PLACES as the [[Bonus Round]] answer.
** 2008: Alex wore a fake mustache (he had shaved off his trademark mustache by this point), and Pat tricked Vanna into believing he was bald by wearing a real wig over a bald wig.
** 2010: ''Wheel'' made 10 things wrong with the show. They invited viewers to print out a worksheet from their website, and write down what they thought were the correct answers. Some were obvious (i.e. the Bankrupt wedges having "Bankrut", the Polish translation of that word), some weren't (Pat wearing a stud earring in the second round), and an eleventh wasn't even pointed out (rodeo footage in the opening montage of Hawaiian activities corresponding to the rest of the week's Hawaii theme). ''Jeopardy!'' spliced in different hosts for Alex Trebek on the same day. Alex still read the clues, but Pat Sajak walked out at the top of the show, Neil Patrick Harris was spliced in during the first round, Jeff Probst (who once hosted ''Rock & Roll Jeopardy!'' before his ''[[Survivor]]'' fame) during the second round, and a clip from ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'s'' ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketches featuring Will Ferrell parodying Alex Trebek. There was also an "April Fool!" category concerning joke articles published during the month of April (such as the ''Veterinary Record''{{'}}s "[https://www.everythingzoomer.com/style/home-garden/2006/01/01/whatever-became-of-edward-bear/ Brunus edwardii]" article).
** 2011: Every puzzle on ''Wheel'' (except the [[Bonus Round]]) had the word "fool" in it. Amazingly, the contestants never caught on; you'd think by the third round, they would've been calling L and F, then buying an O.
* ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' has a long history of making gag prize Showcases with obviously silly prizes (e.g. egg beaters and paper plates, "six new cars" that turn out to be Matchbox cars, or even an acute case of athlete's foot as a prize). On another episode, the door that host Bob Barker normally walked through revealed a sign that said "April Fools!" before Bob walked onstage through the audience.
** Drew Carey, after taking over as host on ''Price'', has made several April Fool's gags on each April 1 episode. Except for 2011, he brought in Kathy Kinney, who reprised her role of Mimi Bobeck from ''The Drew Carey Show''. He also does several funny gags throughout — things like playing the ''[[Match Game]]'' music during the credits, having everyone wear nametags that say "Pat", having random sound effects play during the Showcase Showdown instead of the normal ones, etc.
** For 2011, the gag was that the 10,000th...''some''thing was going to happen today, so it was an important episode. Too bad so many things went wrong, from pieces of the set falling apart or malfunctioning, to announcer George Gray getting hit by a tennis ball launcher. And the 10,000th ''thing'' [[The Un-Reveal|didn't even happen]].
* Cranked [[Up to Eleven]] as a prank on Tom Bergeron for the ''[[Hollywood Squares]]'' episode taped to air on April Fool's Day 2003. At one point the male and female contestants were engaged in a heated argument, after which the male contestant made the female contestant break down in tears. Bergeron, who had a deer-in-the-headlights look (but, according to his book, wasn't going to stop no matter what), comforted the "poor woman" as he sent the show to commercial (of course, unbeknownst to him, the camera was still running). At the end of the episode, giggling executive producer Henry Winkler (who was also filling in as announcer at the time) said over the intercom, "Hey Tom...April Fool's." Apparently, Bergeron hadn't realized the airdate of the show...until then.
=== New Media ===
Line 92 ⟶ 93:
** On 2009, [[YouTube]] stole a page from ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' and flipped the site (and videos!) upside down. This lasted even beyond the date itself with a URL suffix. However, it didn't always work (For example, if you're using a YouTube userscript for the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox.).
*** Some videos also weren't completely fixed afterward and will flip upside down when put into high quality.
*** For 4/1/2010,{{verify|reason=Fourth of January 2010? Or is this the format used in only one country on Earth?}} Youtube put a "text-only mode", displaying certain videos as entirely made of text in various colors—including nearly any video with resolution greater than 360p, not just videos [[YouTube]] had done manually. This effectively made [[ASCII Art|Ascii Shading Art]]. Sadly, it was [[Too Good to Last]], and it's not even available by URL anymore.
*** There also was [[Lolcat|a cat]] peeking through the video processing icon. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGF9vAEhRFI See it here.]
*** For 2011, Youtube has a "1911 mode", where the videos are in sepia while music plays over the audio.
Line 106 ⟶ 107:
* I-Mockery releases joke games on April Fool's. In 2008, it was a Pickleman (the site's mascot/creator's alter-ego) game, which was really just E.T. with Pickleman coming after you and killing you. For 2009, it's [[Tetris]] for Charity, where if you get to the 3rd level, $1 is donated to charity. Halfway through the second level, all the blocks are replaced by random NES sprites, which makes the game impossible. For 2010, it's ''[[Pitfall]] 2010'', which looks like the original at first glance, {{spoiler|but depending on the path you take on the first screen, you'll be killed by either the Guts Dozer from ''[[Mega Man 2]]'', the robot ape from ''[[Strider Hiryu|Strider]]'', or ''[[Sinistar]]''.}}
* Ambrosia Software released a free program called ''[[Screen Cleaner]] Pro'', which claimed to be able to fix up monitors by brightening them; you opened the program, waited a few minutes while it "calibrated", and then the monitor would brighten significantly. Apparently a miracle product...except what it ''really'' did was gradually darken the screen, then turn it back to the original brightness. They even went so far as to get a fake positive review from a software site to make it look legitimate.
* ''[[Tales of MU]]'' posted an [https://web.archive.org/web/20120509094324/http://www.talesofmu.com/story/uncategorized/big-news update] in 2009, announcing production plans for a [[Syfy]] channel spin-off TV show, of which the author claimed pride but apparently had little creative control, resulting in significant deviations from the core themes of the novel. It linked to the writer's Livejournal crossposting, where comments revealed the prank. A few commenters disbelieved the announcement because it referenced "the newly branded [[Syfy]] channel" at the end, and were double-pranked to discover [[Sci Fi]]'s renaming on April 1st, though it was widely known earlier.
* The [[Defictionalization|Defictionalized]] Digibutter.nerr once claimed to be bought out by 4Kids. Every forum but the Party, Off Topic and RP forums were locked, and people took on parody alts that made fun of various characterizations and dubbing errors.
** And a year later, they changed their name to the "Bitlands" (a spin-off site from it already exists) for April 1, 2010. Then it was revealed that there WILL be a name change and it MIGHT be the Bitlands anyways.
Line 114 ⟶ 115:
*** ''And'' changed its name to Topeka.com in response to the city changing ''its'' name to Google, Kansas. [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/different-kind-of-company-name.html Details here.]
** And now, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rznYifPHxDg Google Maps 8-bit] for the [[NES]]. The video itself [[Shown Their Work|shows its work]] by showing that it is for the Famicom, which had networking features the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] didn't.
* MuggleNet posts absurd news items on April 1st, such as claiming Scholastic would rerelease the books with titles like "[[Harry Potter and
* In 2010, the fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5739114/29/Paradise_in_Death Paradise In Death] rickrolled readers. In text form.
* In 2010, [http://agtp.romhack.net/ Aeon Genesis] finally released their translation of ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'' {{spoiler|in [[Final Fantasy X|Al Bhed]]}}.
* [http://www.jayisgames.com/ JayIsGames.com] created their own [http://jayisgames.com/games/spot-the-difference/ Spot the Difference] game that leads into an impossible level. The walkthrough included claims that this was a turning point that leads the game into becoming a [[Deconstruction Game]], but in truth, nothing happens at all if you wait, not even a [[Screamer Prank]].
** In 2011, they [http://jayisgames.com/archives/2011/04/tic_tac_toe.php reviewed] a tic-tac-toe game far too seriously.
** In 2007 they reviewed a supposedly massive browser game that was actually just [https://web.archive.org/web/20160927013552/http://bendtome.fizzlebot.com/ a loading screen that never ended]. After April Fool's they turned it into an [http://jayisgames.com/archives/2007/04/entombed.php actual review] of the ''downloadable'' game it was based on.
** In 2009, they had an [http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/04/quest_for_the_crown.php overblown review] of a game called "[http://jayisgames.com/games/quest-for-the-crown/ Quest for the Crown]".
** In 2012, they created a genuine, playable [[Text Adventure]] game, the joke being its completely ridiculous premise. [http://jayisgames.com/archives/2012/04/jayisponies.php Jay Is Ponies]!
Line 140 ⟶ 141:
*** The Stock Market was stuck; no prices moved up or down.
** '''2010''': More minor jokes:
*** The Battledome: ''In 3D!'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20130914023328/http://images.neopets.com/trousers/video/bd3d1.swf
*** The Prank Warehouse opened up, which allowed users to send various pranks (such as pies or slime) to their friends.
*** Neoboard filters were added—for instance, "3.14" would be changed to "numbers", "snot" would be filtered into "faerie dust", and [[Take That/Other Media|"slime" would be changed into]] "''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''"
*** They also snuck one into their [[Facebook]] page, with some concept art—of the "[[Squick|Meat Faerie]]".
* In one of the most cruel examples imaginable [[Rule 34|that one porn site]] enacted an April Fool's joke resulting in the ban of all lolicon/shota artwork from the site. What makes this particularly nasty is the joke was cooked up in response to e-hentai's ACTUAL ban of all underaged artwork due to [[Moral Guardian]] antagonization of their advertisers, and used the subpoena sent to them as the excuse, doctored up to look like it was sent to [[Rule 34|said pornsite instead.]] The joke was meant to be incredibly obvious, as the featured image was Rugrats (with, at one point, a feature change to Popeye dressed as Sailor Moon in response to an anonymous commenter along with the comment 'But older characters cosplaying as underaged? Yes that's still acceptable.'), however due to the e-hentai debacle, users just couldn't believe it was a joke and [[Wangst|some serious debate went down over the state of the world and continuing persecution of lolicons.]] Some artists even [[Berserk Button|ragequit over what they took to be impending censorship of their art on a site that shouldn't have it.]] All staff were told to keep up appearances for a day after, duplicate pics that were to be deleted were saved up for about a week prior, then commented upon before being deleted to lend to the authenticity. A few artists still haven't returned, and probably never will.
Line 163 ⟶ 164:
* Equestria Daily, a popular blog/news-site for the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' fandom, converted the website from Generation 4 (Friendship Is Magic) to Generations 1-3.5 (the original My Little Pony to the [[Tastes Like Diabetes]], oddly-bulbous-bodied characters from the series immediately before [[Fi M]].)
* The B-movie review site [http://www.stomptokyo.com Stomp Tokyo] reviewed nonexistent movies on 1 April. The first of these was ''[http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/dellon-godhead.html The Dellon Godhead]'', a ''[[Doctor Who]]'' / ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The New Avengers]]'' crossover, supposedly including [[Brian Blessed]] as a football-obsessed Blackbeard.
* Youtuber [https://youtube.com/c/lockpickinglawyer The Lockpicking Lawyer]'s April 1 videos tend to look and sound like his normal offerings, except for the [[Up to Eleven]] [[Double Entendre|innuendos]].
=== Newspaper Comics ===
Line 169 ⟶ 170:
** Kevin Fagan was unable to find another cartoonist to trade ''Drabble'' with, so he drew it with his left hand.
* In 2005, several comics including ''[[FoxTrot]]'', ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'', and ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'', did identical comics where one character plays with a Ouija Board and uses it as an excuse to hit another, eliciting the response "Somehow I imagined the afterlife to be a more peaceful place."
=== Tabletop Games ===
* ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' Magazine, the house organ for [[Dungeons
** One issue had a series of mixed up spells like 'Find Terrain' for which the 'somatic' component was to fall forward, at which you have just 'found the terrain'.
** Another issue had on its cover a chubby warrior holding flowers up to a beholder which had on makeup and flowers...[[Stealth Pun|"Beauty is in the eye of the...Oh nevermind!"]]
Line 178:
** A few years ago, shortly after 3.5 introduced a Flaws mechanic, they did flaws for Commoners (the least powerful of the NPC classes), one of the flaws called "You Got Chickens" had the character suffering a 50% chance of retrieving a chicken any time they tried to draw something from their pack. This was promptly exploited on the Character Optimization board.
** Who could forget the parody songs of "Bard On The Run"?
** One of the first April Fools issues in the early 1980s included the infamous review of ''[[The Spawn of Fashan]]'' that turned it into a gaming meme that has lasted decades.
* [[White Wolf]] published the supplement ''Dudes of Legend'' on April Fool's day. A very NSFW [[Take That]] filled supplement with rules for, among other things, [[The Twilight Saga|using glitter to let vampires go out in the sun]], and gaining superpowers from homoeroticism.
** On April Fools Day 2009 they released the ''Scroll of Swallowed Darkness'', an incomplete, sex-themed supplement for ''[[Exalted]]''. On April Fools Day 2012, they released errata for it.
Line 183 ⟶ 184:
=== Toys ===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140705052421/http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page Bionicle Sector 01], the [[Bionicle]] [[The Wiki Rule|Wiki]], Lost quite a few of their images and pages a while ago, but managed to find some replacement images of the Toa Nuva, Mata Nui, and Makuta Teridax, thanks to a certain [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Derpy Hooves]]...
=== Video Games ===
Line 195 ⟶ 196:
*** In a slight subversion, they also announced a new neutral hero, the Goblin Tinker, for ''[[Warcraft]] III'' on the same day that was not a joke. They tried to make it seem like either of the two could be real but it was fairly obvious.
** 2007: They announced Burgercraft: A chain of fast food restaurants that would serve Blizzard gamed themed food. They also announced the new Alliance race would be the Wisp, the weakest member of the Night Elf army, who could only attack by self-detonating. Finally, a "fired" employee "leaked" the [http://www.wowpedia.org/Patch_1.11_%28Evil_Patch_Notes%29 next patch notes], a list of facetious changes ranging from game breaking (Druids may only shapeshift outside of dungeons) to absurd (Hunter pets have a small chance to attack their owner when hungry).
** 2008: Due to Blizzard's parent company purchasing Activision and changing its name from Vivendi to "Activision Blizzard", Blizzard announced a "second prestige" class: the Bard, which required you to play ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' while playing ''World of Warcraft''. Also, poking fun at Sony's attempt to turn their MMO ''[[EverQuest]]'' into a ''[[Warcraft]]'' style RTS, Blizzard announced that they were releasing "[[WoW]]: Heroes of Azeroth", an RTS prequal to World of Warcraft. It was literally Warcraft III, and also served to poke fun at [[WoW]] players who were [[Adaptation Displacement|unaware of the previous games and lore]]. There was also the announcement of the "Tauren [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Moorines]]" for [[
** 2009: Blizzard announced a dance battle system complete with trailer. The controls were said to work like riding a vehicle in ''Wrath of the Lich King''. For ''[[
** 2010: Blizzard announced a new character rating for ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' called the [[Fun with Acronyms|Equipment Potency EquivalencE Number]] a vertical bar on your character that [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|grows]] as their gear improves (a [[Take That]] at players who rely too much on gear ratings to determine their worth), and the Battle.net Neural Interface which [[And I Must Scream|permanently]] immerses the player in full VR and [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|hopefully doesn't cause any permanent brain damage]]. And the WoW Armory character feeds had all boss kills changed to "<Player> Cheesed Boss" and all loot changed to "<Player> [[Ninja Looting|Ninjaed]] [Item]". Blizzard also introduced the new Battle.net matchmaker, a dating site where players would find romance in the form of "Someone to pwn noobs with." They also announced ''[[Diablo]] III'' blankets and pillows and a Deckard Cain GPS voice pack to go with it.
** 2011: Blizzard announces Crabby, an expy of [[Stop Helping Me!|Microsoft's Clippy]], to assist on the forums and in-game for ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. For ''[[
** 2012: Blizzard will evidently be producing: [http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/blizzkidzz/ Educational games for children] such as "Zergling Teaches Typing" and [[Oregon Trail|"The Westfall Trail"]]; [http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/supplydepot/ A mobile game], "Supply Depot 2: [[Halo: Combat Evolved|Combat Elevated]]", about the exciting Starcraft metagame of raising and lowering Terran supply depots, with features such as [[Mass Effect 3|color-coded endings]] and [[Team Fortress 2|lots of unlockable hats]]; [http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/zergotchi/ Plastic toys] to replace the authenticator, called [[Tamagotchi|Zergotchi]], who grow and require periodic feeding to continue supplying authentication codes; A line of [http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/news/?d=2012-4#312334 teen-oriented literature] set in Blizzard universes and [[Take That|inspired]] by [[The Twilight Saga]], [[The Hunger Games]], et cetera; It's noteworthy that for the past several months they had been accused of dumbing down WoW with concepts from [[Pokémon]] and [[
* The 1998 [http://everything2.com/title/TextFire Textfire Hoax] produced a collection of playable text adventure demos (including ''Coma! An Interactive Action Thriller'' and ''[[Flowers for Algernon]]'' and "Operation" adaptations) that represented the ostensible catalog of a commercial [[Interactive Fiction]] studio.
* Steam once did an April Fools' Day gag by releasing fake patch notes for ''[[Counter-Strike]]: Source'' that started with features such as "cost of sniper rifle reduced by 50%", "de_dust map removed" and "jumping now increases travel speed by 50%" and got progressively more ridiculous.
Line 229 ⟶ 230:
* Every year, some gaming magazine/website or another announced that Nintendo and Camelot were finally making ''[[Golden Sun]] 3''...then it was actually announced at E3 2009, which was sadly nowhere near April 1.
* Not even ''Aya Reiko [[Touhou]]'' is safe from this. On March 31st, 2008, a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9mVq2kZ9co&fmt=18 false trailer for a spinoff RPG] was released. The fact that the trailer was basically a hack of ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'''s engine, along with having very professional-looking graphics and remix of an official Touhou track, just made the revelation that it was all a lie and this amazing-looking game would never ever be playable hit even harder.
* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has done [https://web.archive.org/web/20130701042432/http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/April_Fool%27s_Day a joke each year] since 2005.
* In 2008, the ''[[Puzzle Pirates]]'' staff "accidentally" allowed everybody to read a (fake) staff-only forum, which was filled with posts like "Bug report: My 'send instakill' button is grayed out."
* In 2000, Cyan announced Myst Mayhem, ''[[Myst]]'' turned into a [[First-Person Shooter]] game. The gun-turret tower and foreground gun did appear as [[Easter Egg]]s in real!Myst.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Which became (more) [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] when [[Magical Girl|Platinum The Trinity]] was announced for ''[[
** And when Arcsys announced they would port ''Arcana Heart 3'' to console.
** And even more when [[Mikako Takahashi]] (Heart Aino's seiyuu) guest stars into [[
* ''[[
** Diango was later re-used in the 2005 and 2008 jokes, where two more popularly demanded items, dragon platebodies and dragon kite shields, usually abbreviated to "Dragon Plate" and "Dragon Kite" respectively, were sold. They were, of course, actual plates with a dragon on them, and kites with a dragon on them that could be flown. These joke items remained in the game after April Fools' Day, although re-named to make the fact that they were jokes more obvious. Dragon Platebodies were actually added to the game later.
** Their 2007 joke was a fake newsletter on the front page claiming a lot of silly cabbage-related updates were going to be released that month, with an actual newsletter being released the following day.
** In 2009, they did something else cabbage related by making cabbages wieldable, and gave the ability to make some of the cabbages in the game able to move on their own and be kicked- with the secret joke that if you kicked one from Falador to Oo'glog (Which takes a really long time), the Cabbage King, Brassica Prime (mentioned in the 2007 joke) would show up and congratulate you.
** In 2010, they announced that they were making a [[
* Some versions of ''[[Football Manager]]'' have an [[Easter Egg]] / April Fools gag that shows up only when both the in-game date and the actual date is April 1st.
* Every April 1, [[Bungie]] releases new information about ''Pimps at Sea'', which apparently has the most advanced and complex economy in a game, ''ever''.
* [[League of Legends]] has dabbled in this a few times, back in 2009, they announced Urf, the Manatee. A Manatee who uses [[Improbable Weapon User|a Spatula and a Chicken foot]], but it was quickly revealed to be a joke. The NEXT year they did it again, but made it look much more official, but again, didn't come full circle. They actually had a STORY for the second joke, another champion had killed and skinned the poor manatee. (Said champion then got the skin of the flayed manatee as an [[Incredibly Lame Pun|in-game skin]]) At least the second time, all the money spent on the skin went towards [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|real-life Manatee Preservation Groups]].
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20110710162853/http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=623097 In 2011], they posted a set of patch notes that would either be ridiculous in a game balance method, uses [[Memetic Mutation]], or are otherwise pointless changes to make a joke on an aspect of the characters being 'changed'.
* ''[[Minecraft]]'' had an [http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Locked_Chest in-game] [[Take That]] at ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'''s crate system for April Fools 2011.
* [http://www.nick.com/games/the-fairly-oddparents-unfairly-oddparents.html Unfairly OddParents] ''is'' an April Fools joke, composed primarily of [[Meaningful Name|unfair]] [[Trial and Error Gameplay]].
Line 251 ⟶ 252:
* The teams of two indie fighting games produced fake screenshots for supposed retro handheld versions of their series in 2012: ''[[Skullgirls]]'' had Skullgals for the [[Neo Geo Pocket]] Color, and the familiar puke-green classic Game Boy colors found their way to the supposed [[DSiWare]] "Nettou [[Battle High]]".
* Operation Rainfall, an online campaign famous for getting the Wii games ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'' and ''[[The Last Story]]'' to the United States, announced that they would add another game to the campaign: ''[[Love Plus]]'', a rather notorious [[Dating Sim]] that is otherwise known as [[Daydream Believer|"that one game where somebody married one of the characters in real life, ceremony and all."]] Considering the series's reputation, most people smelt a rat, [[Serious Business|and some wondered if they were being suicidal]], since they've built up a reputation as crusaders against [[No Export for You]]. And sure enough, it was a joke.
* [[Nasuverse|TYPE-MOON]] has a penchant to do quite elaborate pranks on their website for Fool's day,
** 2005: ''Neco-ARC: the Movie'', a film starring everybody favorite [[Joke Character]] from ''[[Melty Blood]]''.
** 2006: ''Hazakura Romantic'', a seemingly original BL novel concept (co-opted with [[Nitroplus|Nitro Plus]]) that left many people wishing for their [[Defictionalization]].
** 2008: Type Moon as a [[Professional Wrestling|girl wrestling promotion]]!
** 2009: moon.cinemas.jp, a site imitating a typical movie theater chain front page, where all the movies were parodies of well known films strarred by their characters (up to including a parody of [[Densha Otoko]] starring [[Fate/Zero|Weaver Velvet and Fate/Zero!Rider]] that was revived as the April Fools joke for [[ufotable]] in 2012). [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] because one of the "movies" announced, one based in the (then book only) epilogue for the movie series of [[Kara no Kyoukai]], was eventually done and released for real.
** 2010: Rather than fully changing the main page as in former years, [[Twitter]]- sorry, [[Bland-Name Product|TMitter]] feeds were added to the site. Hilarious and very in character Twitter feeds from their most popular characters. This will keep featuring on the following years in addition with whatever joke they
** 2011: Instead of a typical joke/parody, for their main page they released a serious short story about the very concept of April Fools, titled "[http://bimyou.blogspot.com/2011/04/room-of-april-witch-type-moon.html The Room of the April Witch]". For their mobile site, on the other side, they reprogrammed it to show a different (parodic) image and accompanying text with each reload.
** 2012: ''Koha-ACE'', a poster for a movie parodying [[Gundam AGE]]. The accompanying texts did a [[Self-Deprecation|self-deprecation number]] on [[Vaporware|their constant delays]] on ''Mahou Tsukai No Yoru'''s release, through.
** 2013: ''Back Alley Satsuki - Chapter Heroine Sanctuary'', a hilarious parody of ''[[Saint Seiya]]: Sanctuary Chapter'', with new episodes being released during the day. Featuring [[A Day in The Spotlight|a lot of characters from their lesser known franchises]], and even a character from a light novel written by a member of the staff of the [[Development Hell|eternally unreleased then-visual-novel-now-anime]] ''Girls' Work''.
** 2014: TM-channel, a series of [[Nico Nico Douga]]-like "streams" of several characters, some of them done in a vlog style.
** 2015: A triple combo: the "release" of a new character for the capsule minigame in the [[PlayStation Vita]] version of [[Fate/hollow ataraxia]], a [[Pokemon]]-style championship on said game (complete with [[Bland-Name Product|A-tuborudo and The Big Ben Company]] branding), and "Imperial Roma", a talent agency launching the [[Idol Singer|idol careers]] of several characters ([[Fate Extra|Nero]] being the main spotlight), complete with release dates and everything. The TMitter this year turns to be a particularly elaborate one, with 28 accounts running at the same time in the same storyline.
** 2016: ''all'' the illustrations of the main page had been replaced by ones on the same style of KOHA-ACE and other comedic parodies. Also the news has become more comedic ones, under the concept that the site has been invaded by the characters of their mobile game ''Fate/Grand Order''.
** There is also ''Fake/states night'', a joke spinoff concept written by [[Baccano!|Ryohgo]] [[Durarara!!|Narita]] of all people as a April Fools for his own site. Later released as ''[[Fate Strange Fake (Literature)|Fate/strange fake]]'' in the official TYPE-MOON magazine.
Line 277 ⟶ 278:
* In 2008, [[Super Mario Bros Z|Alvin Earthworm]] made an animation of the head from ''Mario Teaches Typing 2'' giving a [[Rickroll]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR0C55F8Eqg See it here.]
** In 2009, he redid a fight scene from the most recent episode, but with all the characters' sprites replaced by images of [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Sprite]] [[Visual Pun|cans.]] In addition, the background was replaced with sausage packs.
** In 2010... Nah, it's too weird for a description. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQljOzqSGMI Just watch.]
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* In late March 2006, the Chris Hastings and Kent Archer of ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' posted on the site news that they thought they were being stalked by ninjas. On April 1, this was followed up by a post in which the ninjas killed Hastings and Archer, then imitated them and announced the end of the comic.
** In 2008, they put up [https://web.archive.org/web/20080409202904/http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=9&issue=11 this comic,] which was only ''slightly'' odder than the comic's usual fare.
*** In 2009 they began a new campaign of in-strip product placement, while on the newly fan-run forums a campaign of McNinja-themed word filtering of random phrases was enacted.
* ''[[The Book of Biff]]'' did this at least twice. In both instances, an established element of the comic is rendered differently and the author blocks out any comments pointing these out. The very next day he unblocks the comments, posts the non-joke version of the same comic, and moves the joke comic to a different page.
** In 2008, Biff's [[Unusual Eyebrows|face]] looks [https://web.archive.org/web/20121028012811/http://www.thebookofbiff.com/fools.html normal].
** In 2009, [[The Speechless|Biff]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20121216041734/http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009-April-Fools.html speaks]!
* In 2009, ''[[Brawl in the Family]]'' was briefly replaced with the rather bizarre ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20100527072042/http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/comic151.html Waluigi in the Family]'', or WiTF, starring Waluigi. It updated 17 times over the course of the day. The eight-digit strip numbers were a nice touch.
** In 2010, the front page was adorned with a [https://web.archive.org/web/20101229172317/http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=1118 "letter from Nintendo"] ordering the comic to shut down. It listed the comics that Nintendo had issue with, and their offenses. {{spoiler|In summary, the letter ordered the comic to shut down because Waluigi hates it.}} Underneath the letter, there were also new ''Waluigi in the Family'' comics.
** In 2011, the comic was called "Philips' Box", with its jokes based on the CD-i games. The main story was that Mario hits a box, freeing the spirits of the CD-i games. Over time, King Dedede goes crazy since Kirby, Waddle Dee and Adeline had been possessed by the spirits and wonders what could end their insanity. At that moment, Waluigi comes back from his vacation and scares the spirits away back into the box by taking his clothes off.
** In 2012, the author was sick, so he wrote a Waluigi apology letter.
Line 295:
* In 2010, ''[[Kristoph Gavin Ace Attorney]]'' did one of these, where [[The Dog Was the Mastermind|a minor character is suddenly revealed to be the true killer]], and shoots the protagonist.
* ''Queen Of Wands'' very briefly put up a shot of one of the characters tearfully confessing she was pregnant, to fan concern. Soon after, this was replaced by a different, jokey comic. Later in the [[Story Arc]], the same pregnancy scene was used exactly and unironically. On April 1st.
* In 2008, ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'', ''[[Questionable Content]]'', and ''[[
* In 2009, the author of ''[[Goblins]]'' claimed that the author of ''[[Least I Could Do]]'' had [http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20090326 used one of his characters] without permission and that he was suing.
* In 2008, ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' replaced the [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=385 latest page] (at the time) with [[media:gc-aprilfools-385.jpg|this.]]
Line 306:
** In prior years, Willis ran ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]''[http://shortpacked.com/comic/book-1-brings-back-the-80s/03-customer-protection-rackets/aprilfools/ -esque strips], recycling the artwork in subsequent years in ''Dinosaur Comics'' fashion.
** One prank in particular April Fools changed Shortpacked's site layout to that of "[[Evil Twin]]" McAwesome's which in fact, introduced them.
* In 2008, ''[[The Wotch]]'' celebrated by having Robin abruptly decide, "Oh, who cares if this makes sense or not, I'm doin' it!" and [http://www.thewotch.com/images/4108Joke.jpg dramatically smooch Cassie]{{Dead link}}. 2009 took a different angle by saying that since Anne (the author) had hurt her arm, which she had, Jason would be [http://thewotch.com/?epDate=2009-03-31 taking over the artwork] for the next month. It actually went over pretty well, even among those who bought it.
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' had not one but two non-canon arcs for April Fools' Day, the first (called April Fool's Week) consisted of odd fillers that featured things like Tedd and Sarah making out, Sarah becoming a Were-Squirrel and the page not actually being drawn one day. The second (known as II slooF lirpA) followed Dan accidentally altering the rules of the dimension, transforming all the characters.
* ''[[The Whiteboard]]'' has done an AFD strip since the first one after the strip began, most of them playing on the general theme of [[Fan Service]]. In 2009, the author changed the front page to look like a directory listing, including folders for "alternate storylines", a "passwords" text document, and even a well-executed Rickroll. Readers actually called the site's host to warn them of the security hole.
* In 2010, ''[[
** For 2011, all of XKCD's comics are in 3D. This is also [http://xk3d.xkcd.com/ still findable.]
** 2012 brought us [http://xkcd.com/1037/ a comic] which becomes completely different comics on different web browsers or operating systems, and sometimes even changes due to your physical location on Earth. One appeared only to people who [https://web.archive.org/web/20140704080509/http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=82442&start=360#p2951223 signed up to see Randall's talk at CNU.]
* In 2010, ''[[Questionable Content]]'' updated with a [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1634 page] straight out of ''[[Show Within a Show|Magical]] [[Boys Love|Love]] [[Yaoi Fangirl|Gentleman]]'', complete with matching page layout. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Glowing crotches are involved.]]
* In 2010, ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'' replaced the entire cast with [[Nedroid]] characters (Reginald in place of T. Rex, Beartato in place of Utahraptor, etc). Not just in the latest page, but in the entire archives.
* In 2010, ''[[Unwinder's Tall Comics]]'' changed its name and format to ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120517164232/http://tallcomics.com/?id=65 Unwinder's Short Comics]''.
* In 2010 the ''[[Dresden Codak]]'' website was given a [[Le Film Artistique]] paintjob by [http://www.vimeo.com/10593465 This video].
** [http://vimeo.com/39131013 And again] in 2012.
* In 2009, Several characters from ''[[Namir Deiter]]'' and ''[[You Say It First]]'' (both drawn and written by the same people) ware swapped for each other, with the dialog for both comics remaining unaltered. In 2010, both comics were drawn with the characters appearing as human.
* ''[[The KAMics]]'' in 2005 [https://web.archive.org/web/20120607081943/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/4771282/ KAM quit] which actually started off a short storyline; in 2009, to wrap up a [https://web.archive.org/web/20120607082435/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/5111920/ humorous] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130403045616/http://www.drunkduck.com/Magical_Misfits/5113530/ disagreement] between him & the author of ''[[Magical Misfits]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20120607082450/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/5121122/ did this]; and in 2010 turned it into an April Fools Month turning his various characters into ponies.
* While [[Holiday Wars]] has never down a special for April Fools' Day, it does include it as a character. It's portrayed as a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifting]] [[The Trickster|prankster]] enslaved to the Easter Bunny.
* ''[[Bittersweet Candy Bowl]]'', [http://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c49/p1.html "In The End"]
* In 2011, ''[[Here Wolf]]'' was replaced by the fake comic ''Stupid Priest''.
* ''[[Femmegasm]]'' and ''[[World of Fizz]]'' swapped artists for April Fools Day in 2011.
* In ''[[Impure Blood]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20130117145533/http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/SpecialPages/2010AprilFools.html the author and the artist traded roles for the strip.]
* In 2011, ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'' [http://beyondthecanopy.com/?webcomic_post=beyond-the-manopy-188-2 briefly turned into a parody] of ''[[Fist of the North Star]]''.
* In 2002, ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' had Garland [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2002/04/01/episode-133-if-you-did-see-it-coming-you-might-be-psychic-joke-comic/ destroy the universe].
* ''[[Far Out There]]'' pulled the fake "ending" gag in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130721020557/http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1067764/page-wait-what/ 2009] and again in [https://web.archive.org/web/20161002012544/http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1071310/page-oh-not-again/ 2010].
** 2011's [https://web.archive.org/web/20161028204338/http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1156080/page-pop-tarts-spiraling-towards-the-earth/ April Fools] began a tradition of "debuting" a drastically new style: fist [[Dada Comics]], followed by [[Sprite Comics]] in [https://web.archive.org/web/20161028204343/http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1461524/page-nes/ 2012].
* In 2012, ''[[Homestuck]]'' did two fake updates that set off the update notifiers without actually adding or changing anything. The actual updates that fell on April 1 involved {{spoiler|the [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Bigger Bad]] ''killing'' the [[Author Avatar]]}}, so they seemed like jokes—but turned out to be a real plot development.
* ''[[Evil Plan the Webcomic]]'' pulls something every year.
Line 333:
** In 2011, they had an obviously fake link to download a fictional theme song for the comic. Turned out that the link really DID go to a theme song, by Andrew of [[Songs to Wear Pants To]].
** In 2012, they redesigned the site and did "Planstuck," parodying ''[[Homestuck]]'''s art style and use of gifs. The artist updated throughout the day based on comments from the readers, finally clocking in at 95 updates.
* In 2012, ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]'' replaced their homepage with [https://web.archive.org/web/20120626014612/http://nonadventures.com/no-nad.html No-Nad Ventures], a company selling fake testicles for neutered pets.
* In 2012, ''[[Cucumber Quest]]'' was abruptly retooled as the [[Testosterone Poisoning|testosterone-fueled]] ''Cuke or Die II: Cuke Harder''. ([http://cucumber.gigidigi.com/?page_id=375 Preserved here.])
* In 2016, several webcomics decided [http://www.willpjk.com/newsfeat/the-extremely-original-way-webcomic-artists-are-making-fools-of-us-all to pull unanimously the same "extremely unoriginal" joke]. Among those in the game were ''[[Cyanide & Happiness]]'', ''Safely Endangered'', ''The Awkward Yeti'', ''Extra Fabulous Comics'', and over 40 other webcomics.
* ''[[Nerf Now]]'' [http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/1782 finally] turns into [[Naughty Tentacles|tentacle hentai]].
* ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'' has [http://yafgc.net/comic/0674-the-fellowship-of-the-stick/ "guest comic"] (2008), ''[[Doctor Who]]'' crossover gag (2009), ''the second part'' of ''Doctor Who'' crossover gag (2010), "suddenly, DINOSAURS" page (2011), The Beholder King answering a question about his plans (2012), and a page named "[http://yafgc.net/comic/2886-explanations-and-revelations/ Explanations And Revelations]" (2016).
* ''[[General Protection Fault]]'' has run April Fools' stunts in [https://www.gpf-comics.com/archive/aprilfools/ 1999] (an artist swap), [https://www.gpf-comics.com/archive/aprilfools/index2.php 2000] (another artist swap), [https://www.gpf-comics.com/archive/2001/04/01 2001] ( "how many errors can you find?" panel), 2004 (a pallete swap, no longer available), [https://www.gpf-comics.com/aprilfools2006.php 2006] (retro website), [https://www.gpf-comics.com/ICE_Seizure.html 2011] (the infamous "this site has been seized" gag), [https://www.gpf-comics.com/games/webcomicquest/ 2016] (the site was replaced with a text adventure game), [https://www.gpf-comics.com/aprilfools2019.php 2019] (a spoof "new sweb server install" page), and [https://www.gpf-comics.com/aprilfools2021.php 2021] ([[Hampster Dance|Fooker Dance]]).
=== Web Original ===
Line 346 ⟶ 350:
* On April 1, 2012, instead of an Animorph review, [[Cinnamon Bunzuh]] surprised everyone by releasing a review for [[Stephenie Meyer]]'s ''[[The Host (novel)|The Host]]''. Except when one actually clicks the review, it consists of nothing but an Andalite troll smiley (Which bizarrely actually works) and a note:
{{quote|''"This book is really long, and we are lazy. Sorry folks!"''}}
* In 2016, the government of [[Canada]] posted [[Wolverine]]'s war records - at least, the declassified ones - to the web. [http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/news/Pages/2016/acquisition-records-supersoldier-james-howlett.aspx See them here].
==== [[TV Tropes]] ====
* For April Fools 2011, all the avatars in the forum were changed to [[media:april fools 2011 spartacus 8552.png|a picture of]] [[Spartacus]], and [[I Am Spartacus|all usernames had "Spartacus" placed in front of them]]. After that, they began to rotate between several others, including:
** [[Star Wars|A Stormtrooper's helmet]], changing everyone's name to "Trooper [Troper's name]". [[media:april fools 2011 trooper 5853.png|april_fools_2011_trooper_5853.png]]
** A [[Everything's Worse with Bears|Bear]], with "Grizzly [Troper's name]". [[media:april fools 2011 bear 6305.png|april_fools__2011_bear_6305.png]]
** A [[My Little Pony|purple, butterfly-winged pony]], with "Pony [Troper's name]". [[media:april fools 2011 pony 7896.png|april_fools_2011_pony_7896.png]]
** [[Spider-Man]], with "Spider-[Troper's name]". [[media:april fools 2011 spiderman 3825.png|april_fools_2011_spiderman_3825.png]]
** [[Looney Tunes|Tweety Bird]]'s head, with "Tweety [Troper's name]". [[media:april fools 2011 tweety 6095.png|april_fools_2011_tweety_6095.png]]
** [[Firefly (TV series)|Serenity]], with "Still Flying: [Troper's name]". [[media:april fools 2011 serenity 5847.png|april_fools_2011_serenity_5847.png]]
** A [[Nothing Is Scarier|blank]] [[Our Ghosts Are Different|space]], with "Ghostly [Troper's name]".
** And a [[Doctor Who|Weeping Angel]], with "Unblinking [Troper's name]". [[media:april fools 2011 unblinking 3564.png|april_fools_2011_unblinking_3564.png]]
** April Fools' Day 2012 started a little bit early ("Somewhere on Earth it is April 1st") on this wiki, with the home page being translated to a random language, including Portuguese, Redneck, and [[Star Wars|Yoda]].
* For the [[Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness]], some joker entered [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN5Mqr6tRlw Hugga Wugga] from [[The Muppet Show]] under Level 7 ("Soprano and gravel"), and Cookie Monster's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye8mB6VsUHw C Is For Cookie (That's Good Enough For Me)] under Level 9 ("Cookie Monster vocals - the [[Trope Namer]]"). Someone fell for it.
=== Western Animation ===
Line 356 ⟶ 373:
* WeLoveFine, which sells licensed ''[[My Little Pony]]'' (mostly ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Friendship is Magic]]'') and ''[[Jem]]'' [[The Merch|merchandise]], came out with [http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/04/new-welovefine-product-hoof-hands.html My Little Pony hoof-hands] and [http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/04/01/welovefine-introduces-my-little-pony-hooves-and-hologram-proje/ Jem and the Holograms projecting earrings] in 2012. Trying to add either of them to your cart rewarded you with a 15% off code that lasted until Monday April 2nd 11:59pm.
* [[Adult Swim]]. 2012. While it began with the introduction to [[The Room]] (which had been their joke in previous years), it quickly went in a different direction, bringing back [[Toonami]]<ref>Canceled in September 2008</ref> for what was thought to be one night only. But then [[Adult Swim]] asked the fans what they thought on [[Twitter]]... They wanted their [[Toonami]]. As of May 26, 2012, they're getting it.
=== Real Life ===
Line 378 ⟶ 394:
* The Swedish television channel SVT had a glorious one in 1962. Known radio technician Kjell Stensson told the viewers that by simply cutting up a nylon stocking and attaching it to the television screen, they would get color TV!
* A few years ago one Christchurch newspaper published a news report about how the iconic Christchurch City Cathedral was going to be demolished due to bad structural damage. This became [[Harsher in Hindsight]] considering the catherdral ''was'' demolished in 2012 after a 7.9 earthquake struck the city.
== Subversions ==
=== Anime and Manga ===
* ''[[Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z]]'': The announcement that there was going to be a [[Magical Girl]] anime [[Spin-Off]] of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' was presumed as an April Fools joke due to being announced on said date.
** More than that: it was announced on an April 1st, then nothing was said about it for months and months, with no new information to be had anywhere, until a follow-up announcement on, you guessed it, the following April 1st.
=== Comic Books ===
* A few years ago, Marvel announced that ''[[Spider Girl]]'' had been [[Uncancelled]] on April 1st.
=== Film ===
* The [http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/03/31/leonard-nimoy-transformers-dark-of-the-moon/ casting] of [[Leonard Nimoy]] as the voice of Sentinel Prime in ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]: Dark of the Moon'' was announced near April 1st. Extra skepticism points thanks to Nimoy's retirement from acting (which, as of this, clearly didn't stick).
=== Literature: Magazines ===
* ''New Scientist'' ran a story in the 90s about sending signals faster than light, on April 1. The following week they published a reader's letter asking whether the article itself was a joke, or whether it was serious and they'd published it on April 1 to make people think it was a joke. The editor replied, "The joke was that it wasn't a joke." Arguably a double subversion, since the article was a lot less Earth-shattering than its title implied.
=== New Media ===
Line 416 ⟶ 417:
* An ''accidental'' subversion: [http://www.gamefront.com/ Gamefront] (known back at the time of the incident as Filefront) announced on March 24, 2009, that they planned to shut down by the end of March. However, they managed to deal with their issues at that very moment and thus didn't close down after all; they just happened to be unfortunate enough to solve their problems by April 1st.
* Like ''Naruto The Abridged Comedy Spoof Series Show'', ''[[My Little Pony: Camaraderie Is Supernatural]]'' started as an April Fool's joke for 2011 from the creators of ''[[Sonic F]]''. It got popular enough that another episode was made.
* On April 1, 2010, [[Sonichu|Christian Chandler]] vandalized the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131016194228/http://www.sonichu.com/cwcki/List_of_Christian%27s_edits_to_the_CWCki CWCki], the site dedicated to him and his webcomic. Most users assumed it was a prank at first.
=== Tabletop Games ===
Line 424:
** The ''real'' Fool's Day Joke was the announcement that they were banning the Plains card: one of the resource cards you need to ''play the game''.
** In 2010, they put up an "Arcana" (mini-article) that was just a [[Long List]] of [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|increasingly ludicrous]] rumors they want to debunk. Only the first 5 or so (of 38) were plausible enough to merit debunking.
=== Video Games ===
Line 432 ⟶ 431:
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'''s Jarate weapon for April Fools' Day 2009 is now a genuine weapon as of the Sniper vs. Spy update, release by the end of May 2009.
** Valve have also made multiple ''[[Counter-Strike]]'' April Fools' Day updates.
** On the subject of Valve again, 13 indie games on [[Steam]] saw odd updates relating to potatoes on April 1st, 2011. Surely enough, these potatoes served as the omen to [https://web.archive.org/web/20111202175836/http://valvearg.com/wiki/Valve_ARG_Wiki something] [[Portal (series)|more]] [[Alternate Reality Game|sinister]] than a mere foolish prank...
* Similiar to the ''Powerpuff Girls Z'' example above is ''[[Mario
* The newest version of ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', two years in the making, was released on April 1, 2010. No surprise that the website broke within the hour.
* Ogmo from ''[[Jumper (video game)|Jumper]]'' has been announced to be a playable character in ''Super [[Meat Boy]]''. The fact that Ogmo and Meat Boy himself are look-alikes left those who saw the news skeptical.
* ''[[Narcissu]] -side 2nd-'' was supposed to be released on April Fools' Day. It got updated a few hours early, and some still think it's an April Fools' Day joke.
* One April Fools Day, Max Barry announced that the UN-like organization in his browser-based nation simulation game [[
* ''[[Hatoful Boyfriend]]'''s introduction states that the character designs were released on April Fools' Day, and there's an anecdote (could be truth, could be just an [[Urban Legend]]) that the creators of this game had originally intended for the game to be a normal [[Dating Sim]] with human guys and posted bird designs for these guys on the website as an April Fools' joke, only for fans to love them so much that the game ended up being all about dating birds instead.
* Roxio announced an ''[[Angry Birds]]'' [[The Anime of the Game|animated series]] on April 1st 2012.
* Whilst ''[[League of Legends]]'' usually plays this straight, a notable subversion was the announcement of the long awaited champion Lee Sin, the Blind Monk who was released a few days later. In the April Fool's version, he was indestructible and could kick across the map but the player was filtered through a blurry screen. Here's the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3DWCGs3Tl8 April Fools spotlight] compared to the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6SleHuJjLo real spotlight.]
=== Web Comics ===
* Subverted in 2010 by ''[[Looking for Group]]'' who chose April 1 for some real yet unlikely plot development. It would seem that two party members met long ago, but the sane one was too badly hurt to remember in detail.
* ''[[Loserz]]'' brought us [https://web.archive.org/web/20110519182203/http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/206 this strip]. Jodie completely naked!
* After [[Webcomic Time|several months]] of ''[[Megatokyo]]'' being almost entirely Miho and Piro talking, April 1st, 2012 unexpectedly delivered a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|barely]] offscreen naked [[Magical Girl]] wrestling match and Piro getting smacked in the face with a washbasin. [http://megatokyo.com/strip/1332 Canonically.]
=== Web Original ===
* [[The Other Wiki]] features a set of articles each April Fools' Day, and despite their absurdity, each of them are true. Of course, the site also runs rampant with pranking, such as changing all the links on the [[Rickroll]] article to point to, well, a Rickroll.
=== Real Life ===
* [[Marvin Gaye]] was shot and killed on April 1, 1984 by his father. People were shocked the next day because then they knew it was true.
* People did not initially believe Tazz's departure from [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] was real because it was so close to April 1.
* You have to see this to believe it: [http://uniwatchblog.com Uni Watch Blog], a website dealing with sports uniforms, posted a prank article on April 1, 2009, claiming that a certain NFL team was going to adopt a lime green alternate jersey; the prank fooled the makers of [[Madden NFL|Madden NFL 2010]], who inserted the uniform into the game. Cue the September 28, 2009 game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Chicago Bears, and the Seahawks [[Crowning Moment of Funny|wore lime green uniforms]].
* "Think Geek" added a [[Star Wars|Tauntaun]] sleeping bag to their catalog as an April Fool joke ... but response was so great they're now checking with Lucasfilms about making that bag for real. ([http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/bb2e/ They got permission.])
** The same happened with the [http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/interactive/a5bf/ Personal Soundtrack t-shirt], which was an April Fools' Day joke that was so popular they ended up actually making one.
** Same with their ever popular [http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/hats-ties/9352/ 8-bit tie.]
* Following a shift in power at [[CBS]] and complaints over his appearing to be overly power-hungry, sportscaster [[Captain Obvious|Brent Musburger]] ended up getting fired on April Fools' Day 1990, with his calling the NCAA Basketball Championship game serving as his lame duck assignment prior to joining [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] Sports.
* The death of comedian Mitch Hedberg was questioned because it was announced on his website on April Fool's Day.
* Steve Jackson Games had an announcement about the long-desired ''Ogre'' update on April Fools Day 2012. But it wasn't a joke, the wargame ''was'' being republished. (The Kickstarter campaign was fully funded ''before the formal announcement''.)
== Fictional Examples ==
=== Anime
* [[Suzumiya Haruhi|The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi]] had an April Fool's day episode where Achakura tries and fails to trick Nagato several times.
* ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' has a chapter where the Platoon fools Fuyuki and Natsumi into thinking they have gotten serious about their invasion of Earth - they even hijack some news broadcasts and internet sites to amplify the effect of their supposed attacks on the population. It even includes a number of [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to [[Orson Welles]]' radio adaptation of ''[[War of the Worlds]]''.
Line 479 ⟶ 474:
** Meanwhile, when asked, [[Cloudcuckoolander|Tsukasa]] tries her hand at a ''recursive'' April Fool's lie, confusing Kagami a bit:
{{quote|Tsukasa: What I said just now... I lied... when I said I lied?}}
=== Comic Books ===
* The [[Batman]] story ''[[Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth]]'' takes place during April Fools' Day. Early in it, [[The Joker]] tells Batman that he's going to shove a pencil [[Eye Scream|in a girl's eye]] (which later inspired a Joker in [[The Dark Knight Trilogy|a different adaptation]]), only to later reveal he was just april fooling Bats and the girl is fine. According to [[Word of God]], Two-Face doesn't shoot Batman in the comic's last page despite getting tails from his coin because it was April Fools' Day.
=== Film ===
* In the 1939 film ''[[Goodbye, Mr. Chips]]'', the boys of Brookfield school play pranks on the masters on April first, and the eponymous Mr. Chipping's wife goes into labour. {{spoiler|Sadly, both Kathie and the baby die.}}
* Featured in the [[Slasher
=== Literature ===
Line 495 ⟶ 487:
* According to [[Word of God]], [[Harry Potter (novel)|Fred and George Weasley]] were born on April 1st.
=== Live-Action TV ===
* A first season episode of ''[[Community]]'' had a plot centered around Britta's attempt at an April Fool's Prank, after being called a 'killjoy' one too many times.
* In a Season One ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' episode, Holly tells Lister that an attack fleet from the Norweb Federation is after him for his crimes against humanity—he left two sausages to go mouldy three million years ago, and they now cover nine tenths of the Earth's surface. They also have a final electricity demand for £180 billion.
Line 503 ⟶ 494:
'''Lister''': But it's not April!
'''Holly''': Yeah, but I could hardly wait six months with a red hot jape like that under me belt, could I? }}
=== Newspaper Comics ===
* An old ''[[Peanuts]]'' strip has Lucy coming up to Charlie Brown at school recess and telling him the little red-haired girl wants him to come over and eat lunch with her. Charlie Brown nervously walks off, then - after a [[Beat]] panel - returns to shoot a [[Death Glare]] at Lucy as she says, "April Fool!"
* [http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2012/04/01 This] ''[[FoxTrot]]'' strip, involving Jason watching the season premiere of ''[[Game of Thrones]]'', only for HBO to put on a joke episode with ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' toys. It has to be seen to be believed.
=== Western Animation ===
Line 514 ⟶ 503:
** ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'' had an episode about April Fools' Day with Eliza and Tyler pulling pranks at each other.
** Ditto ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''. It's his favorite holiday!
** Add ''[[CatDog]]'' ("Kooky Prank Day") and ''[[The Fairly
*** ''[[The Fairly
** As did ''[[Hey Arnold!]],'' where Arnold finally gets one up on Helga, with plenty of over-the-top flirting on Arnold's part as he does so - probably influenced by the post-movie feelings inferred that Arnold has for Helga starting to surface.
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': the first clip show used April Fools' Day as a framing device. Bart, trying to outprank Homer, puts a can of Duff in a paint shaker. The ensuing explosion of high-pressure beer puts Homer in the hospital, where the family talking about his past experiences triggers the [[Flash Back|Flashbacks]].
Line 527 ⟶ 516:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Dude, Not Funny]]
[[Category:Holiday Tropes]]
[[Category:Pranking This Index]]
| |||