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{{trope}}
[[File:
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.
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Subversions of April Fools' Day is to have something improbable published on that day be actually true (either on that day or on a later date, or when a prank goes [[Dude, Not Funny|just a little too far]]).
In any case, woe betide someone who dies (or worse, is ''born'') on April Fools' Day. [
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
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 and Manga ===
* ''[[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.]]
** In addition April 1st is the site's anniversary, meaning they generally don't do April Fools' Day jokes. That, and it's admittedly [[Tough Act to Follow|kind of hard to top]] Grandiose Gundam.
* In 2010, promotion for the upcoming ''[[
* 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 ''[[
** This case is notable because fan reaction was so overwhelmingly positive and widespread that '''''[https://twitter.com/#!/adultswim/status/202866436597743616 Cartoon Network
* 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.]
=== Comic Books ===
* In 2005, ''[[Magazine/Wizard|Wizard]]'' magazine announced that [[Geoff Johns]] was working on a [[Vertigo Comics]] version of ''[[
* 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 [[
* 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
=== 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...
* ''[[Nintendo Power]]'' does this a lot:
** 1997 ran phony newspaper clippings, one of them saying that the Headless Snowman from ''[[
** 1999 had an article featuring Pikachu from [[
** 2001 discussed "Warp Pipe Technology", a fake [[Defictionalization]] of the warp pipes of ''[[Super Mario Bros.]].'' fame. At least two readers were fooled and wrote in to ask about the technology; their response:
{{quote|
** 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 "[[
* ''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
** 1992: Sheng Long in ''[[
** 1993: Four fake games for the [[Atari Jaguar]].
** 1994: ''[[Rouge Angles of Satin|Streeets]] [[Streets of Rage|of Rage 3]]'' ([[Parody Retcon|allegedly]])
** 1995: [[Nintendo]] publishing a ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' game.
** 1997: Sheng Long in ''[[
** 1998: [[Dummied Out|"All Bonds" cheat]] in '[[
** 1999: The [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|GameShortz]], which was just boxer shorts with [[
** 2000: The return of the [[Intellivision]].
** 2001: [[Sega]] selling Sega Neptunes.
** 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:
** 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 ===
* On 1st April 2008, during the height of the [[
** 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
*** 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.
*** For 2012, Youtube brings out "The Youtube Collection", where you can purchase Youtube in its entirety, packaged and shipped to you in a convenient 100,000-disc collection!
* For one April Fool's Day prank, [[Deviant ART]] replaced the avatars of all users with an animated gif of ''[[Pokémon
** On April 1st 2010, avatars had been changed to [[Twilight (
** For April 1st 2011 troll faces appeared on random places throughout the website (ironic, since the site has a very strict "No Trolling" policy).
** in 2012 cats have taken over DA.
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* The [[Wizards of the Coast]] message board has had some good ones. One instance that sticks out is having everyone's avatar switched with one of the My Little Pony pictures. It quickly got out of hand when people who linked to their wizards avatars on other message boards saw the change, and thought the Wiz_0's(mods) were following them.
** They also once announced a Mattel merger between My Little Pony and Dungeons and Dragons. The pink beholder graphic with bows on its eyestalks remains iconic...
* [http://www.backloggery.com The Backloggery] saw how far you can take [[Cash Cow Franchise
* 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 [[
* 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 [[
* 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.
* ''[[Unskippable]]'': As a preemptive April Fools' Day joke, Graham and Paul's March 30, 2010 video promised to riff on ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', and instead featured ''<s>[[Final Fantasy VI]]</s>'' "Final Fantasy III". "How much difference can one X make?"
* [[Google]] almost always has [
** In 2010, Google put up a link to a new "Google Animal Translate" feature.
*** ''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]!
* [[Image Boards|4Chan]] once added a [[Furry Fandom|/fur/]] channel on April 1st. The userbase was shocked to see it still up on April 2nd. Then they were infuriated when it was ''still'' up on April 3rd. {{spoiler|On April 4th moot closed the channel and [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|permabanned everyone who had posted in it.]]}} The April Fur's Day prank is today [[Acceptable Targets|considered one of the better things the staff have done.]]
** This prank is such a legendary cornerstone of the 4chan community that, when moot added a [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
* [[Neopets]] has done this for over 10 years:
** '''2000''': A page filled with [http://www.neopets.com/badpets.phtml pets that didn't quite make the cut]. (The artists were having a bad day.)
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** '''2004''': A new TCG expansion pack, "Quiguki Armageddon". It featured a parody of their Usuki toys, called Quigukis (based off of the frog-like Quiggles). The Quigukis underwent [[Defictionalization]], everything else did not.
** '''2005''': [http://www.neopets.com/possiblepets.phtml 50 new Neopets], with the announcement that the maximum number of pets an account could have was now 10 (instead of 4). A poll was held, and the most popular (the Lamameeah) was released as an actual Neopet (the Gnorbu), while a few others were released as Petpets.
** '''2006''': To stabilize the Neopian economy, [http://www.neopets.com/neocharge/help.phtml NeoCharge] was introduced, which taxed users for each page they visited. Failure to pay debts would supposedly result in accounts being flagged, and actions being taken to "compensate"
** '''2007''': The Battledome was closed, as well as the Battledome section of the forums, and any weapon shop.
** '''2008''': The NeoBuddy system was introduced, where a questionnaire would match you up with a buddy (Bug Eye McGee for most, Sir Fufon Lui for a few), [[Stop Helping Me!|who would pop up from time to time and give advice]].
** '''2009''': It was announced that the pets would be phased out in favor of [http://www.neopets.com/neoplants.phtml Neoplants], and there were minor jokes around the site as well:
*** The Hidden Tower was closed until further notice, as was the Faerieland Employment Agency.
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*** 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
*** They also snuck one into their [[
* 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.
* [http://www.sydlexia.com/ SydLexia.com] posted [http://www.sydlexia.com/top100vb.htm the 100 Best Virtual Boy Games Ever]. It's obvious that the overall number of [[Other Nintendo Systems|Virtual Boy]] games is nowhere near that number. ''Virtual Boy [[
* On podcast ''[[All Movie Talk]]'', in the intro portion for the last Tuesday before April Fools' Day:
** Sam told listeners that the episode contained the word "movie" more times than any other episode, and encouraged listeners to verify this (true or no, that's a lot of time to be counting the word "movie");
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** Sam listed off the segments for the episode (which were, of course, totally false);
** and finally, they introduced themselves as each other.
* [http://www.wcnews.com Wing Commander CIC], a [[Wing Commander (
* [[
** Banning the latter "e"
** Changing the entire layout to create GameFAX, a site all about the [[
** Promoting random users to moderator status (though obviously not giving them actual power)
** Putting up a fake notice on the homepage about the site being shut down for illegal activities
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* TASvideos publishes joke runs during April fool's day. For an example, a speedrun for ''Color a Dinosaur'' or ''Desert Bus''.
* From 2005 to 2009, [http://www.vgmaps.com/ VGMaps.com: The Video Game Atlas] used to feature maps for fake video games. In order, these are [http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/MapsOfTheMonth-2005.htm#04 The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening Advance], [http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/MapsOfTheMonth-2006.htm#04 Mega Man Solid X: Guns Of The Mavericks] (solid-x.com links dead), [http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/MapsOfTheMonth-2007.htm#04 Super Kid Icarus], [http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/MapsOfTheMonth-2008.htm#04 The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Hours], and [http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/MapsOfTheMonth-2009.htm#04 Metroid Dread].
* Ponibooru (a Danbooru-like website for ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
* Equestria Daily, a popular blog/news-site for the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
* 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 ''[[
* 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 ===
* In 1997, several comic artists swapped strips, producing such oddities as a ''[[Dilbert]]'' comic in the style of ''[[Family Circus]]'' (which ''[[Dilbert]]'' author Scott Adams described as one of the signs of the Apocalypse).
** 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 & Dragons]], would usually dedicate their April issues to sillier fare. For example:
** 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!"]]
** 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.
* Palladium Books has a combination fanzine/sourcebook for ''[[Rifts]]'' and other Palladium titles called ''The Rifter''. The created an April Fool's Issue called ''The Rifter 9 1/2'', which was full of ridiculous characters, alternate rules, and other silly content. A [[Running Gag]] throughout the issue was that Palladium Books had been sold to the fictional Percy Ferkleberger, who began effecting massive changes in ''[[Rifts]]''. The most notable example was the new rules for "Giga-Damage," which was a massive in-joke regarding the game's love of [[More Dakka]], the fact that ''[[Rifts]]'' tends to attract [[Munchkin
=== 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]]...
===
* In possibly one of the most elaborate April Fools' Day schemes ever, IGN.com spent six months filming the trailer for a live action ''Zelda'' film. [http://movies.ign.com/dor/articles/863515/legend-of-zelda-movie-trailer/videos/legendofzelda_filmtrailer_040108.html The trailer] was hit or miss with the fans; some were ecstatic that the movie was being made, others were horrified at the idea. In any case, an impressive amount of detail went into the making, complete with CGI monsters, music taken from the games, and a complex storyline expressed in three short minutes of filming. The only clue to its status as a hoax was the purported release date for the actual movie—April 1, 2009. At one minute after midnight on April 2, 2008, the site admitted it was a fake, and released their making-of featurette, which is longer than the trailer itself.
** It appears that in 2009, they announced [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef7kyNVU--c&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_280884 the release] of a "hardcore" expansion of ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl'' that apparently differed little from the regular version except for the addition of decapitation and [[Bloodier and Gorier|gratuitous blood and gore]].
** In 2010, IGN made [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4DHllroiqM another fake movie trailer] for ''[[Halo]]''... {{spoiler|''reimagined as a [[Bollywood]] epic.''}} [[Ear Worm|FINISH THE FIGHT!]]
** In 2011, instead of focusing on video games, IGN parodied ''[[Harry Potter (
** 2012 had [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOqHUa2LfNY a trailer] for a [[Saturday Morning Cartoon]] [[Band Toon]] [[Animated Adaptation|adaptation]] of ''[[
* [[Blizzard Entertainment]] has a tradition of April Fool's jokes which runs back at least to the development of ''[[
** 2006: They announced the Two-headed Ogre. The ridiculously complex rules for playing such a creature (you literally had to play with a second person on a second account, randomly assigned) made it obvious it was a joke.
*** In a slight subversion, they also announced a new neutral hero, the Goblin Tinker, for ''[[
** 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 ''[[
** 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
** 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
* The 1998 [http://everything2.com/title/TextFire Textfire Hoax] produced a collection of playable text adventure demos (including ''Coma! An Interactive Action Thriller'' and ''[[
* Steam once did an April Fools' Day gag by releasing fake patch notes for ''[[
* [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/April_Fool%27s_Day_2005 Many] [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/April_Fool%27s_Day_2006 people] [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/April_Fool%27s_Day_2007 celebrate] [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/April_Fool%27s_Day_2008 April] [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/April_Fool%27s_Day_2009 Fool's] [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/April_Fool%27s_Day_2010 in] a funny and aggravating fashion in the ''[[
** Now Serebii is claiming they don't like misleading the public, undoubtedly setup for THEIR jokes.
*** Probably the best one was releasing the rest of the English ''Diamond and Pearl'' data in one fell swoop after trickling it out bit by bit. Making us think it was fake was the joke in itself: The names were real.
** Now take another look at those "new Pokémon" from 2005. [[Hilarious in Hindsight|As of Generation IV, there really]] ''[[Hilarious in Hindsight|is]]'' [[Hilarious in Hindsight|a pre-evolution of Chansey, and also a Pokémon that looks a lot like "Korechu" (Shinx).]] April Fools' Day joke, or stealth preview? (And remember, the fabled "Pikablu" turned out to be Marill, so...)
** For 2011, Bulbagarden changes its name to "Fushigarden" (Fushigidane, the Japanese name for Bulbasaur) and acts like it was 1998, when Pokémon was still young.
* The day before April Fools' Day 2009, the developers of the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]].'' fangame ''[[Mushroom Kingdom Fusion]]'' released [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuNDQqa5ACY this video].
** The video is private now, it was a video showing gameplay of a "new character", Mickey Mouse.
* Harmonix appears to release ridiculously silly (and not at all rock-like) songs for ''[[Rock Band]]'' during the week of April Fools' Day. In 2008, it was [[Portal (
** A tradition broken in 2010, when instead they opted to release an entire [[Jimi Hendrix]] album.
** In 2012, they announced a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueS7rbHqo_k&feature=youtu.be board game].
* [[Furcadia]] has released a number of pranks on April Fools' Day. One prank flipped upside-down and reversed the player's view window of the world on main maps, so navigating was extremely difficult. Another, recurring in some form each year, is a global text
* ''[[Gaia Online]]'' has a history of pranking its users on April Fools' Day, often by finding creative ways to blow their heads up.
** In 2004, strange gift boxes appeared randomly around the main site. Users who clicked on them had their faces covered in soot until they changed outfits. "Sootfaces" eventually became a reason not to change your avatar, until the great avatar resave wiped them out.
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** In 2007, Gaia did a repeat of its classic 2004 joke, with boxes that apparently gave out Platinum Halos. (The Angelic Halo is one of the most expensive items on Gaia, and a silver version had long been requested). Equipping it gave you a classic "Sootface".
** In 2008, The Easter Bunny (who happens to be a cyborg. [[Old Shame|Don't ask]]), angry that its holiday was being neglected, gave out Easter Eggs. When April 1st rolled around, users were asked to open their eggs...KABOOM! They also released a special pair of pants that could be worn as a multitude of different things...except, ironically, pants. (That pose was added in on the second)
** In 2009, in response to [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|complaints about Gaia accepting sponsorships and "selling out"]], Gaia created its most elaborate prank yet. The logo was altered to read "OMNIDRINK", with a tiny "presents Gaia Online" in the corner. A video on the main page implied that Gaia had been forcibly bought out by a [[Mega Corp]], that made products you were not supposed to drink. (Including a hilarious "Personal Improvement Spray", that apparently made you more manly). Players who visited the information page would see multiple messages asking them ''NOT TO DRINK OMNIDRINK PRODUCTS'', and would be given a free sample of "Personal Improvement Spray", with a "CHUG IT!" option. [[Your Head Asplode|The results aren't pretty]].
*** The Gag carried over to zOMG!, Gaia's MMO. Player's logging in will find that Omnidrink has redecorated Barton Town, and that a new [[Expansion Pack World]] (Based off both Greek and Aztec Mythology) has been added in. Players get a chance to board an Airship that will take them to this new world, but find that it simply takes them to a fake loading screen, parodying zOMG's infamous loading issues from earlier builds. Upon returning to Barton Town, players received an equipable error message.
*** ''users'' began playing along with the ''zOMG!'' prank, by discussing the new world at length and explaining to those fooled that the airship had crashed because it was attacked by an Air Shark (made slightly more believable by the presence of a [[Bonus Boss|Landshark]] in the beach area). The Air Shark was later homage by an evolving item's pose.
*** The forums played along with the joke as well, and began a war between those who had been brainwashed by OMNIDRINK, and the resistance.
** In 2010 Gaians signed on to find a swf image with a ''video'' repeating "Loading..." over and over. On the left of the image was a button to be clicked, this button led to a 404 SUSHI ERROR page. Later, users were able to gain an item called "[[Final Fantasy|Phoenix Up]]" from the fake 404 page ...which later turned into a sootface, as well as a bonus pose of a Grunny {{spoiler|coming out of the urn holding Johnny Gambino's ashes}}. They also added several blaring banner ads, some that even covered up avatar editing and trades. As of now there's no proof they were connected, but it ended up backfiring, and the developers fixed it.
*** Also, [[Money Sink|<nowiki>Dernier* Cri</nowiki>]] returned with a single item that cost '''300 million gold''' and was only about a few pixels wide. The description says that it was made for "commemorating a very special day", which shows that Brennivin is at least in on the joke.
** In 2011, Gaia decided to do [[Something Completely Different]]. Mike Sego stepped up for the job of replacement CEO after Craig decided to step down to pursue his own interests. When word got around that Mike had worked for Facebook in the past, there were considerable fears and doubts within the userbase concerning how he'd handle the site, eventually morphing into rumors that Facebook had in some manner acquired Gaia and was ruining the site. So much like Omnidrink, the staff relieased the Meowbook event as a response to the rumors. The forum posts all showed people with a few randomly chosen cat head clippings imposed over their avatar's head, emotes all recived a visual overhaul to give them cat ears, even the shop keepers were given cat heads. A Premium Cat Feast item could be claimed over the entire weekend by clicking the "brought to you by Meowbook" banner underneath the regular Gaia logo and clicking the submit button on the fake Meowbook signup page.
* ''[[Command
* Every year, some gaming magazine/website or another announced that Nintendo and Camelot were finally making ''[[
* Not even ''Aya Reiko [[
* ''[[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
* ''[[
* ''[[
** 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 ''[[
* 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 ''[[
* [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]].
* An example that very rapidly became [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]: in 2006, Gamespot did [http://www.gamespot.com/news/april-fools-analyst-revolution-will-take-lead-in-2010-6146958 an April Fools' article] predicting the triumph of the console then known as the [[Nintendo]] [[Wii|Revolution]] in the next [[Console Wars]] on the strength of its low price (for both the console and its games), its [[Virtual Console|library of classic, inexpensive downloadable titles]], and its ability to tap into markets that aren't thought of as "core gamers". Did we mention that this was meant to be an April Fools' joke?
* The teams of two indie fighting games produced fake screenshots for supposed retro handheld versions of their series in 2012: ''[[
* 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, usually using his proprieties on some outrageous new premise. To date:
** 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 ''[[The Garden of Sinners]]'', 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 play in said year.
** 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.
=== Web Animation ===
* The ''[[Asdfmovie]]'' series has a possible example: two days before April Fools' Day 2011, creator TomSka and animator RageNineteen responded to fan ZxHeiserxZ's request "Make an ASDF film/movie for like 20 mins or so :D" by making the [[Stylistic Suck]]-filled ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15rEf75OHNM THE TWENTY MINUTE ASDFMOVIE]'' [[Literal Genie|in 20 minutes]].
* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' has done a few April Fools' Jokes.
** In 2003, homestarrunner.com became kingoftown.com, complete with a new intro and main page featuring the [[Unpopular Popular Character|not-at-all-popular]] incompetent ruler of Free Country, USA. ("King of Town! Hooray!")
** In 2004, the site was replaced with a bogus domain registration site from the fictional Thorax Corporation...which was actually a flash cartoon where Stinkoman showed up to fight a animated GIF of a shovel-wielding stick figure. ("Hey, Stickly Man, whaaaat are you doing?")
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** In 2010, the site's intro was suddenly replaced with [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|HSR Xeriouxly Forxe]], a parody of [[Darker and Edgier]].
* Episode 17 of ''[[Making Fiends]]'' was released on April Fools' Day. Absolutely nothing was strange about it. Well, besides the fact that every dialogue was spoken in Bulgarian. A subbed version was later released...in [[Intentional Engrish for Funny]].
* In 2008, [[Super Mario Bros Z|Alvin Earthworm]] made an animation of the head from ''Mario Teaches Typing 2'' giving a [[
** 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
* In late March 2006, the Chris Hastings and Kent Archer of ''[[
** 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
** 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.
* In 2008, ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' (which uses images from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films) claimed they had received a cease-and-desist letter from Lucasfilm, and would henceforth be making the comic using [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0082.html photographs of themselves] re-enacting the films. (Move mouse over the comic image)
** In 2010 the narrative switched from being a gaming session into a ''[[The Princess Bride (
* 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, ''[[
* 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, ''[[
* ''[[Nof NA|Nature of Nature's Art]]'' added a temporary panel one
** 2010's April Fool's joke is an elaborate and surprisingly thoughtful comic about a sullen looking man who adopts a Pikachu, {{spoiler|Shows it enough of the world and all of its good and evil that it becomes enlightened}}, and uses it to win a tournament. It really has to be seen to be believed.
** 2011 continued the tradition with a comic about a man who creates "the next human brain". {{spoiler|And then the Pikachu from last year's April Fools comic shows up and takes him into another dimension. Or something like that.}} It's a bit of a [[Mind Screw]].
* For 2008, in ''[[The Phoenix Requiem]]'', Jonas gets into his TARDIS and vanishes (pictured above).
* In 2009, ''[[
** Which is now [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] with the coming of [[Dumbing of Age]]...
** In prior years, Willis ran ''[[
** 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.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* 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, ''[[
* In 2010, ''[[
* 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
* 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
* ''[[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
* ''[[Evil Plan the Webcomic]]'' pulls something every year.
** In 2010, they posted what looked like a repeat update of the last page. It was actually a gif, and after a few seconds, it degenerated into an edited ZALGO mess, complete with blood pouring from the characters' eyes.
** 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
* In 2012, ''[[
* 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]]).
==
* The April 1 episode of ''[[Madd Man]]'' was not in fact about John Maddaloni trying to do a stunt and looking lame, but actually a fake trailer for a melodrama with hand puppets. Well, not puppets, just hands...[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Mim6mvqmo it's easier if you watch for yourself.]
* [[
** In 2009, the hosts of [[Unskippable]] pretended to stage a [[Hostile Show Takeover]] and reviewed [[X
** In 2010, the usually [[Motor Mouth]] Yahtzee recited ''Ode to Melancholy'' in a very slow, ponderous manner.
* In 2012 [[Loading Ready Run]] announced that they would be renaming their site to "CatingCattyCats" to produce exclusively cat-related content for a Chinese company as part of a corporate takeover.
{{quote|
* In 2012, Grooveshark (a music streaming website) introduced a new feature where [[Hipster|Hipster Otis and Hipster Jen]] pop up to offer inane commentary on any song you play.
* On April 1, 2012, instead of an Animorph review, [[Cinnamon Bunzuh]] surprised everyone by releasing a review for [[Stephenie Meyer]]'s ''[[The Host (
{{quote|
* 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.
==
* In 2009, [[Cartoon Network]] replaced the majority of their programming with a surprise ''[[
** In 2010, they added fart and belch sound effects to almost every cartoon they aired throughout the day, even to the intros.
** One year they ran the same ''[[Screwy Squirrel]]'' cartoon for twelve hours straight.
* Infamously done with [[South Park]]'s season 2 premiere in 1998; the audience was expection a resolution to Season 1's [[Cliff Hanger]] about who Eric Cartman's father was, but instead they got an entire episode dedicated to the farting Canandian [[Show Within a Show]] Terrence & Phillip that aired on April 1st. Reactions from viewers were quite negative, leading to Trey Parker & Matt Stone resolving the cliffhanger in the season's second episode. This was later [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the episode Terrance & Phillip: Behind the Blow.
** It was also referenced in the 2010 episode "Eat, Pray, Queef" which ALSO aired on April 1st. The creators actually originally intended to do a whole episode about the Queef Sisters, but went against it.
* WeLoveFine, which sells licensed ''[[My Little Pony]]'' (mostly ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
* [[Adult Swim]]. 2012. While it began with the introduction to [[
==
* ''Discover'' Magazine has published a number of notorious articles featuring absurd scientific discoveries, such as a macroscopic subatomic particle improbably named the "bigon."
** The most infamous of these articles is the [
** One dealt with a native culture that had "computers" by tying multiple knots in ropes using a system they had devised. Of course a little common sense applied showed that this was not only silly, but an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]] - they were ''[[Don't Explain the Joke|knot computers]]''.
* Online tech news site [[The Register]] regularly put up joke articles on April 1st. The articles are usually gone by the next day however, although some of them are archived for posterity.
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* A popular joke is the "Fools' Day Parade", wherein someone announces a time and place and big acts for a parade that never happens. Some of the more entertaining press releases are of New York's "Annual April Fools' Day Parade", written by world-class prankster Joey Skaggs.
* British newspaper ''The Daily Mail'' pulled one a few years back by claiming (then-)Prime Minister Tony Blair had replaced the black door of 10 Downing Street with a red one.
* Many cable networks do April Fools' Day pranks. For example, [[Adult Swim]] will change their lineup or insert jokes into their programming: in 2005 it was fart jokes during [[Anime]]; in 2006 it was a "stealth premiere" of the finale of ''[[Perfect Hair Forever]]''; in 2007 they aired the complete ''[[
** Memorably, the fart gag caused such an angry and ''immediate'' [[Internet Backdraft]] that the sounds were removed for the late-night second airing.
* [http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/hotelicopter.asp The Hotelicopter].
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* In the late 1980s, the U.S. Armed Forces Network (radio) in Europe celebrated April 1st with such news items as an invasion of Germany by giant grasshoppers. Also, the German "phrase of the day" feature was replaced with a ''cow'' phrase: "Moooo!" which means, "Hey, watch where you're putting those cold hands, buddy!"
* Something about the radio business must really lend itself to these. From 1964, [http://www.musicradio77.com/images/apfool4pcm.mp3 here's WABC's Dan Ingram] being victimized during his on-air shift.
* On April 1st of 2010, the cd trading site swapacd.com included a link on their homepage promising users "free credits". Instead of credits that can be exchanged for CDs, what they got were the kind of credits you see at the end of movies - a scrolling list of bad puns on names of famous actors.
* ''All Things Considered'', the evening news program of [[National Public Radio]], does an annual April Fools news story, delivered in their usual deadpan style. Among others was a report on the dangers of exploding maple trees in Vermont one year, and then another was a reading outraged "listener mail" concerning Whale Farming (as in, raising whales in massive tanks in the Midwest) which was a long series of [[Completely Missing the Point]] gags.
* 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.
==
=== 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.
===
* 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.
===
* [[Google]]'s Gmail service was announced on April 1, 2004 with storage limits that (at the time) sounded absurdly infeasible; it was, of course, no joke. Since then, Gmail has run an April Fools' joke every year, including such "new features" as a free email printing service (subsidized by giant red context-sensitive ads on the back of the emails) and a feature allowing the user to send an email to days earlier.
** And in 2007, a Google NY employee had to continuously state that despite the date, it wasn't a joke, that his [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/snakes-in-plain-old-office-building.html 3 foot python really was loose in the building].
* Popular gaming site The GIA<ref>'''G'''aming '''I'''ntelligence '''A'''gency</ref> suddenly announced its dissolution on April 1, 2002. Readers were confused for ''months'' before finding out that, yes, it really was closing down, and many were angry that they would pick April 1 of all days to make the announcement. The GIA was later retooled into the ill-fated GameForms.com, which didn't last very long and has now been replaced by a poker site.
* ''[[Naruto the Abridged Comedy Spoof Series Show]]'' was meant to be one of these, but it ended up as a side project of LittleKuriboh's. It currently has 5 episodes.
** That was 2009's [[April Fools]] joke. In 2008, he made a fake ending to the series and "moved on" to Zork and Pals. Then in 2010, he created "a [[Yu-Gi-Oh!
* 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 ===
* The official ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' website pulls off some sort of elaborate joke every year on April 1st, but occasionally hides some truth in it as well. Perhaps the best trick they pulled was on April 1st, 2004, when they announced ''Unhinged'', a sequel to the popular ''Magic'' joke set ''Unglued''. A few days later, it was revealed that the announcement was '''true'''.
** Aaah, but when else to unveil new Unglued cards but that most auspicious of days?
** 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 ===
* ''[[Def Jam Series|Def Jam Vendetta]]'' had an initial release date of April 1, 2003. Hardly anybody took seriously the idea of a [[Licensed Game]] where rappers beat the stuffing out of one another. The game actually met the April 1 release date, and it sold like hotcakes, inspiring a pair of sequels.
* As with several earlier examples, [[Square Enix|the merger of Squaresoft and Enix]] was initially thought to be an April Fools' Day prank because it was announced on April 1.
** Speaking of Square, ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''. [[Mickey Mouse]] and ''[[Final Fantasy VII|Cloud Strife]]'' in the same game? Shyeah, ''right''...
* ''[[
** Valve have also made multiple ''[[
** 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 (
* 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 (
* ''[[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 [[
* ''[[
* 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.
===
* [[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 [[
* 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
* "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
* 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 ''
== Fictional Examples ==
===
* [[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
* An arc in ''[[
** a phone call between Konata and Kagami has [[Brilliant but Lazy|Konata]] claiming to have finished her homework by herself, shocking Kagami... until Konata revealed that it was an April Fools' Day lie.
** After the call, Kuroi-sensei called Konata, tricking her into thinking she'd saved over game data:
{{quote|
Konata: WHAT?!
Ms. Kuroi: Fooled ya, fooled ya, today is April Fools!
Konata: She must be so bored calling up this late. }}
** Then Konata told Kuroi that Miyuki had used [[Sensei-chan|her]] as an example of why being a teacher must be an easy job.
** Meanwhile, when asked, [[Cloudcuckoolander|Tsukasa]] tries her hand at a ''recursive'' April Fool's lie, confusing Kagami a bit:
{{quote|
=== 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.
===
* 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 Movie]]s ''[[April Fool's Day|April Fools Day]]'' and ''[[Slaughter High]]'', plus the lesser known ones ''April Fools'' and ''Killer Party''.
=== Literature ===
* In ''[[Duumvirate|Billy and Howard]]'', the twins play jokes on each other. [[Hilarity Ensues]], for certain values of hilarity.
* In ''[[The Confidence Man]]'', it is April Fools' Day when a mysterious man sneaks onto a steamboat and tests each passenger's confidence through moral questioning while [[Con Man|conning them out of their money one by one.]]
* According to [[Word of God]], [[Harry Potter (
=== 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.
{{quote|'''Lister''': A hundred and eighty billion pounds? You're kidding!
'''Holly''': ''(suddenly wearing Groucho glasses)'' April fool.
'''
'''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
=== Western Animation ===
* [[Nicktoons]]:
** ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'' had an episode about April Fools' Day with Eliza and Tyler pulling pranks at each other.
** Ditto ''[[
** Add ''[[
*** ''[[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]].
{{quote|
* The ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode "April in Quahog", when the newcasters tell the city that Earth is going to be destroyed by a black hole within a day.
{{quote|
'''Diane Simmons:''' And with only eighty-seven suicides and widespread looting, we think this was a pretty successful practical joke!
'''Brian Griffin:''' ''You DICKS!'' }}
** The episode also contained a real-life April Fools' Day prank, as it was announced that [[American Dad
* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''' [[Alternative Calendar]], the holiday is Lucius Fools Day, where Lucius pulls mean-spirited pranks on everyone (as opposed to his usual [[Kick the Dog]] mentality).
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Dude, Not Funny]]
[[Category:Holiday Tropes]]
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