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April Fools' Day: Difference between revisions
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In the 1990s and early 2000s, a common April Fools' Day Joke on [[Web Comics]] was for two different webcomic authors to each do the other's strip. By far the most popular joke on the Internet seems to be a claim by the owner that the website is shutting down. A common joke specific to fansites is to suddenly denounce what the fansite stood for and revamp it to focus on a different franchise, most commonly one that bears similarities to the original, or even a competing one. Another joke specific to gaming sites with free content is the introduction of a "[[Bribing Your Way to Victory|premium]]" version of the site, where it's said one gets exclusive content if one pays for it; generally, the site makes "preview content" available, with most of the "premium perks" turning out to be silly (or duplicates of free services by other sites devoted to the game).
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. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_Aleutian_Islands_earthquake And god help you if a natural disaster happens and people think the blaring sirens are a prank.]
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* ''[[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
* 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.
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** 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 (Animation)|/mlp/]] board to stem the sheer number of pony threads on /co/, it was immediately assumed by the majority of the users that the staff were up to their old tricks with an early April Fools prank. It got so accepted as fact that [[Word of God|moot had to top the board with a sticky thread specifically debunking the rumor]], not that that stopped anyone from still claiming it to be true up until April Fools Day itself.
* [[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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*** Neoboard filters were added-- for instance, "3.14" would be changed to "numbers", "snot" would be filtered into "faerie dust", and [[Take That/Other|"slime" would be changed into]] "''[[Twilight (Literature)|Twilight]]''"
*** They also snuck one into their [[Face Book]] page, with some concept art-- of the "[[Squick|Meat Faerie]]".
* In one of the most cruel examples imaginable [[Rule
* [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 [[Wario Land (Video Game)|Wario Land]]'' was the only game listed, and in all 100 spots too, no exceptions. Reading the commentaries, they seem to claim that there are many versions of ''Virtual Boy Wario Land'', even versions for different consoles, all with the same title. Some of the comments were ripped directly from the prior Top 100 lists Syd had made. There were even surprise comments from [[Labyrinth (Film)|Jareth The Goblin King]] and [[Avril Lavigne]].
* On podcast ''[[All Movie Talk]]'', in the intro portion for the last Tuesday before April Fools' Day:
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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 (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'') became overrun by Pinkie Pies during April Fools' 2012.
* Equestria Daily, a popular blog/news-site for the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' fandom, converted the website from Generation 4 (Friendship Is Magic) to Generations 1-3.5 (the original My Little Pony to the [[Tastes Like Diabetes]], oddly-bulbous-bodied characters from the series immediately before [[Fi M]].)
* The B-movie review site [http://www.stomptokyo.com Stomp Tokyo] reviewed nonexistent movies on 1 April. The first of these was ''[http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/dellon-godhead.html The Dellon Godhead]'', a ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' / ''[[The Avengers (TV)|The New Avengers]]'' crossover, supposedly including [[Brian Blessed]] as a football-obsessed Blackbeard.
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* [[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|Munchkins]], and [[Power Creep, Power Seep]] in general. Most amusingly, the Rifter 9 1/2 was made primarily as an April Fool's Joke on The Rifter's editor, who had heard nothing about it until the first copies arrived at the warehouse.
== Toys ==
[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 (Animation)|Derpy Hooves]]...
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** 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 ''[[Ever Quest]]'' into a ''[[War Craft]]'' style RTS, Blizzard announced that they were releasing "[[WoW]]: Heroes of Azeroth", an RTS prequal to World of Warcraft. It was literally Warcraft III, and also served to poke fun at [[WoW]] players who were [[Adaptation Displacement|unaware of the previous games and lore]]. There was also the announcement of the "Tauren [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Moorines]]" for [[Starcraft II (Video Game)|Starcraft II]].
** 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.
** 2010: Blizzard announced a new character rating for ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' called the [[Fun With Acronyms|Equipment Potency EquivalencE Number]] a vertical bar on your character that [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|grows]] as their gear improves (a [[Take That]] at players who rely too much on gear ratings to determine their worth), and the Battle.net Neural Interface which [[And I Must Scream|permanently]] immerses the player in full VR and [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|hopefully doesn't cause any permanent brain damage]]. And the WoW Armory character feeds had all boss kills changed to "<Player> Cheesed Boss" and all loot changed to "<Player> [[Ninja Looting|Ninjaed]] [Item]". Blizzard also introduced the new Battle.net matchmaker, a dating site where players would find romance in the form of "Someone to pwn noobs with." They also announced ''[[Diablo]] III'' blankets and pillows and a Deckard Cain GPS voice pack to go with it.
** 2011: Blizzard announces Crabby, an expy of [[Stop Helping Me|Microsoft's Clippy]], to assist on the forums and in-game for ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. For ''[[Starcraft II (Video Game)|Starcraft II]],'' [http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/console/ Blizzard makes a return to consoles,] with peculiar motion-sensor tech. In addition to this, there are spoof patch notes for [http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2325614706 SC2] and [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2325684862 WoW], which serve as playful [[Take That|take thats]] to player complaints concerning both game balance ("Fixed a bug where Terran players were able to lose a game.") and aesthetic concerns (Every class with fire-based abilities gets green fire - except Warlocks).
** 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 (Video Game)|lots of unlockable hats]]; [http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/zergotchi/ Plastic toys] to replace the authenticator, called [[Tamagotchi|Zergotchi]], who grow and require periodic feeding to continue supplying authentication codes; A line of [http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/news/?d=2012-4#312334 teen-oriented literature] set in Blizzard universes and [[Take That|inspired]] by [[The Twilight Saga]], [[The Hunger Games]], et cetera; It's noteworthy that for the past several months they had been accused of dumbing down WoW with concepts from [[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]] and [[Farmville]]. Also, Crabby returned with randomly generated hats.
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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.
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* ''[[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
* ''[[Little Big Planet]]'' ([[PS 3]]-only) had free "Hessian Sackboy Fragrances" [[DLC]] for a limited time (one week from from April 1, 2010). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTcl6qjGGTI They're simply extra hand animations.]
* ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' [[Crossover|versus]] ''[[Arcana Heart (Video Game)|Arcana Heart]]''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UueBeEaS-fQ This was found on Arcsys's website].
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* In 2009, the author of ''[[Goblins]]'' claimed that the author of ''[[Least I Could Do]]'' had [http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20090326 used one of his characters] without permission and that he was suing.
* In 2008, ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' replaced the [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=385 latest page] (at the time) with [[media:gc-aprilfools-385.jpg|this.]]
* ''[[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]].
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* In ''[[Impure Blood]]'', [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, ''[[
* ''[[Far Out There]]'' pulled the fake "ending" gag in [http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1067764/page-wait-what/ 2009] and again in [http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1071310/page-oh-not-again/ 2010].
** 2011's [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 [http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1461524/page-nes/ 2012].
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* 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 (Animation)|Friendship is Magic]]'') and ''[[Jem]]'' [[The Merch|merchandise]], came out with [http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/04/new-welovefine-product-hoof-hands.html My Little Pony hoof-hands] and [http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/04/01/welovefine-introduces-my-little-pony-hooves-and-hologram-proje/ Jem and the Holograms projecting earrings] in 2012. Trying to add either of them to your cart rewarded you with a 15% off code that lasted until Monday April 2nd 11:59pm.
* [[Adult Swim]]. 2012. While it began with the introduction to [[The Room (Film)|The Room]] (which had been their joke in previous years), it quickly went in a different direction, bringing back [[Toonami]]<ref>Canceled in September 2008</ref> for what was thought to be one night only. But then [[Adult Swim]] asked the fans what they thought on [[Twitter]]... They wanted their [[Toonami]]. As of May 26, 2012, they're getting it.
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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 ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Animation)|Aqua Teen Hunger Force]] [[The Movie|Colon Movie Film For Theaters]] before'' its actual theatrical premiere date - in a small, 1 x 1 inch corner of the screen; in 2008 it was a whole night of "stealth premieres" and in 2009 it was the cable premiere of ''[[The Room]]''. In 2010 and 2011, they aired ''The Room'' '''again'''. In 2012, they opted for a one-day revival of [[Toonami]], which began with a [[Fake
** 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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* 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 [[
** 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]]
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== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Demashita Power Puff Girls Z]]'': The announcement that there was going to be a [[Magical Girl]] anime [[Spin
** 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.
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** The same happened with the [http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/interactive/a5bf/ Personal Soundtrack t-shirt], which was an April Fools' Day joke that was so popular they ended up actually making one.
** Same with their ever popular [http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/hats-ties/9352/ 8-bit tie.]
* Following a shift in power at [[CBS]] and complaints over his appearing to be overly power-hungry, sportscaster [[Captain Obvious|Brent Musburger]] ended up getting fired on [[April Fools' Day]] 1990, with his calling the NCAA Basketball Championship game serving as his lame duck assignment prior to joining [[ABC]] Sports.
* The death of comedian Mitch Hedberg was questioned because it was announced on his website on April Fool's Day.
* Steve Jackson Games had an announcement about the long-desired ''Ogre'' update on April Fools Day 2012. But it wasn't a joke, the wargame ''is'' being republished. (The Kickstarter campaign was fully funded ''before the formal announcement''.)
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== 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 (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' toys. It has to be seen to be believed.
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[[Category:Osu]]
[[Category:April Fools Day]]
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