April Fools' Day: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

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.

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* 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.

** This case is notable because fan reaction was so overwhelmingly positive and widespread that '''''[https://twitter.com/#!/adultswim/status/202866436597743616 Cartoon Network is reviving 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.]

* 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 (Comic Book)|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!

 

 

* 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...), [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment|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.

** 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.

 

== Magazines ==

** 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:

{{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.

* ''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:

** 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.

** 1999: The [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|GameShortz]], which was just boxer shorts with [[Play Station]] controllers attached.

** 2000: The return of the [[Intellivision]].

** 2003: ''[[Dead or Alive]]: Extreme Beach Volleyball'' nude code.

** 2004: ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' [[Wacky Racing|racing games]].

** 2006: The [[Hilarious in Hindsight|iGame]].

** 2008: ''[[Lego Adaptation Game]] [[Halo]]''. (Ironically, [http://www.megabrands.com/en/kids/halowars/ there are] ''Halo'' [[Misaimed Marketing|Mega Bloks]].)

** 2010: ''[[Call of Duty]]:'' set in [[The American Revolution]].

*** 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 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.

* 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...

* 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 [http://www.talesofmu.com/story/uncategorized/big-news update] in 2009, announcing production plans for a [[Sy Fy]] 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 [[Sy Fy]] channel" at the end, and were double-pranked to discover [[Sci Fi]]'s renaming on April 1st, though it was widely known earlier.

** 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.]]

* [[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.)

*** The Battledome: ''In 3D!'' [http://images.neopets.com/trousers/video/bd3d1.swf\] [http://images.neopets.com/trousers/video/bd3d2.swf\] [http://images.neopets.com/trousers/video/bd3d3.swf\]

*** The Prank Warehouse opened up, which allowed users to send various pranks (such as pies or slime) to their friends.

* 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.

* 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");

** Sam listed off the segments for the episode (which were, of course, totally false);

** and finally, they introduced themselves as each other.

* [[Game FAQs]] always gets in on the April Fools Day craze as well. In recent years it's been toned down, sometimes with the only gag being a silly Poll of the Day and maybe the creation of a few joke message boards. But in the past, they've done some huge things, including:

** Banning the latter "e"

* 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].

 

 

 

== Toys ==

 

 

** 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!]]

** 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.

** 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).

** 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 ''[[Starcraft]] II'', there was the announcement of Terratron, a [[Humongous Mecha]] [[Combining Mecha]] made out of Terran buildings. For ''[[Diablo]] III'', the Archivist was announced as a new class, basically having the character play a Deckard Cain-like old geezer whose dialogues are pretty much senile rantings. And on the UK ''World of Warcraft'' site, they announced a "Pimp My Mount" feature, which allows players to add ridiculous customizations to their mounts a la ''[[Pimp My Ride]]''. Additionally, every post made of the World of Warcraft forums that day was peppered with random roleplaying lines.

** 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 video is private now, it was a video showing gameplay of a "new character", Mickey Mouse.

** 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].

** 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 and Conquer]]: Red Alert 3'' has a freaking [http://www.commandandconquer.com/portal/site/redalert/article/detail;jsessionid=EEDACC217CE8713253CD4969EAAA0B8B.ea-e-h-p-del1-3?contentId=5dfe783be5260210VgnVCM100000100d2c0aRCRD Mammoth Tank] on 2009, which is essentially living mammoths outfitted for war. Though this didn't work terribly well, considering how silly the game already was (War bears, anyone?).

* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has done [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|Easter Eggs]] in real!Myst.

** Which became (more) [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] when [[Magical Girl|Platinum The Trinity]] was announced for ''[[Blaz Blue]]: Continuum Shift'' DLC.

** And when Arcsys announced they would port ''Arcana Heart 3'' to console.

* ''[[Runescape]]'' has done several. In 2004, they announced that a cowboy-like merchant named Diango was selling Horses, which players had wanted to see in the game for a while. He was selling Horses- toy horsies.

** 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.

** 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 [[Runescape]] theme park in England. It was an obvious joke, but some people thought it was real anyway until they revealed it was a joke the following day.

* 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]].

** [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'.

* [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?

* 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.

 

 

== Webcomics ==

** In 2008, they put up [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.

** In 2008, Biff's [[Unusual Eyebrows|face]] looks [http://www.thebookofbiff.com/fools.html normal].

** In 2009, [[The Speechless|Biff]] [http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009-April-Fools.html speaks]!

** In 2010, the front page was adorned with a [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, ''[[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 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.

* ''[[Nof NA|Nature of Nature's Art]]'' added a temporary panel one [[April Fools' Day]] where, after {{spoiler|Meander}} kills {{spoiler|Rule}}, the corpse gets back up and says, BOO.

** 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).

** Which is now [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] with the coming of [[Dumbing of Age]]...

** 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]. 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.

** 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 [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 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.

* 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, 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.

 

== Web Original ==

* 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 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| "They offered us just a shitton of cash,” said Graham Stark, President and co-founder of [[Loading Ready Run]] Megacorp Inc. “Like, you think you can imagine a shitton of cash, but you really, really can’t. We’re very excited to work with MauBau, the market leader of cat-focused entertainment content, to create great new entertainment properties. [[Sell Out|Also to get their money]]. Of which there is a shitton."}}

* 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.

{{quote| ''"This book is really long, and we are lazy. Sorry folks!"''}}

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** 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.

 

 

* 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.

** 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].

* 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 [[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]]

** [[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|Serenity]], with "Still Flying: [Troper's name]". [[media:april_fools_2011_serenity_5847.png|april_fools_2011_serenity_5847.png]]

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** 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.

 

 

== Film ==

 

 

* 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.

* 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.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** 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''.

* 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''...

* 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.

* ''[[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 [[Nation States]] would change its name to the World Assembly because of a complaint from the real UN about his use of the name and emblem. Turns out, the UN really did send him a letter, and the change was made to comply with it.

* 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.]

== 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.

* "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.

* [[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]]''.

** 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:

 

== Comic Books ==

 

 

== Film ==

 

 

* 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.]]

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

{{quote| '''Lister''': A hundred and eighty billion pounds? You're kidding!<br />

'''Holly''': ''(suddenly wearing Groucho glasses)'' April fool.<br />

== 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!"

 

 

* [[Nicktoons]]:

** ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'' had an episode about April Fools' Day with Eliza and Tyler pulling pranks at each other.

** Add ''[[Cat Dog]]'' ("Kooky Prank Day") and ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' ("Fool's Day Out") as well.

*** ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' had a semi-recurring character called The April Fool who is the personifacation of April Fools' Day (like The Easter Bunny or Baby New Year for Easter and New Years) and talks like a Jerry Seinfeld stand-up act ("[[Catch Phrase|What's up with that?]]").

'''Diane Simmons:''' And with only eighty-seven suicides and widespread looting, we think this was a pretty successful practical joke!<br />

'''Brian Griffin:''' ''You DICKS!'' }}

* 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).