Six Sneaky Online April Fools' Jokes

Gullible types should be wary today: April Fools jokes are clogging the Internet, with Google, Vanity Fair, and even Hulu trying to pull one over on their users.

Per usual, Gmail leads the pack with its cheeky "Gmail Motion" upgrade. The sell: Without body language, email loses its interactivity and sense of humanity. Using Wii-like technology, Gmail motion lets users control their messages sans pesky keyboards and mouses.

Need to open a message? Mime the act of opening an envelope. Want to send your note off to a friend? Lick the pretend stamp and place it on the air envelope

An even nerdier, under-the-radar joke awaits those who type "Helvetica" into Google's search tab (just try it).

Hulu.com downgraded its site to look like a 1990s geocities site. TV choices: The X-Files, News Radio, and Sliders.

FunnyorDie.com devoted its entire site to Rebecca Black, the teen whose music video "Friday" went viral just for being annoying.

Over at Vanity Fair, writers cleverly proclaimed that princess-to-be Kate Middleton has some Kennedy DNA. The article starts out as eyebrow-raising, then quickly regresses into prankster territory:

"Though Kate was educated in England, and, briefly, Jordan, she speaks with a hard Boston accent—her A's so broad that even a Sox fan would blush. As Katie Nicholl reported in the May 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, 'there was talk, among some of Kate's friends, that she had had elocution lessons.'"

In a play on the day's pranks, American Apparel launched a sale that sounds suspicious but is actually legitimate: Dubbed the "100% Off Sale," the site is giving away tons of merchandise.

Simply select at least $60 worth of merchandise, then enter the code "April1st" at checkout. Any items included in the sale will be deducted from the total.

View the original article here

2011 April Fools' Day Jokes from Across the Globe

April 1 is otherwise known as April Fools' Day. It is a holiday in which people play practical jokes on each other. People will see untrue headlines in the newspaper, celebrities will issue false statements via Twitter, and other practical jokes and gags will take place. There are three notable April Fools' Day jokes this year. They are from Nick Cannon, Richard Branson, and The Guardian.

Nick Cannon Pulls Prank on Listeners

According to Contact Music, " Nick Cannon has confirmed he pulled a spectacular April Fools' Day joke on his fans by running out on his radio show and claiming his wife Mariah Carey had gone into labor. The rapper/actor rushed out of work at New York-based radio station 92.3 Now on Friday morning after suggesting he had received a frantic phone call from his partner, who is pregnant with twins."

The media love a good celebrity baby story and Mariah Carey is having twins, so there is no shortage of curiosity surrounding her bundles of joy. The practical joke seemed very believable because Carey had been having contractions a few days before and her due date is very soon. The joke was very effective because his listeners had no reason not to believe Cannon, which is what made it a truly great joke.

Richard Branson Plays Trick on the Media

Branson is a billionaire who is known for his unique personality and the fact that he owns Virgin Atlantic. He decided to play a very interesting trick on the media. According to Yahoo News, "Branson was arguably the day's most outlandish prankster with an interplanetary deal. A statement from his Virgin Group said he planned to bulk up Pluto's planetary mass in order to have it reinstated as a planet after its ignominious downgrade to dwarf planet in 2006."

Most people know that Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006 and many were actually mad about it because they had always thought of it as the smallest planet in our solar system. The joke to launch a campaign to get it back to its planetary status is one of the most unique April Fools' Day jokes ever and shows just how creative and innovative Branson really is.

The Guardian Pulls Prank on Viewers

The royal wedding of Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton will take place in a matter of weeks. Many people have become obsessed with the wedding. The Guardian decided to pull a hilarious April Fools' prank this year. According to MSNBC, "a Breaking News headline at 10:11 a.m. declared the royal wedding was off, but four minutes later a 'Correction' informed readers that it was on." Many hearts across England and the rest of the world probably stopped for a few seconds because the collapse of the royal wedding would shock and dismay many people.

The joke targeted viewers but the correction was issued quickly enough so that no harm was done. The joke was not as believable as others, but it was funny, especially for those who were gullible enough to believe it for four minutes.

Sources:

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/cannon-confirms-carey-labour-was-april-fools-joke_1210735

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110401/od_nm/us_aprilfools_royals_odd_1

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42376385/ns/today-today_people/

View the original article here

April Fools’ roundup: Our favorite jokes of 2011

 

From AOL's Huffington Post paywall to Virgin Galactic's purchase of Pluto, we've got all the best April Fools' 2011 jokes we could find. This year's winner: Google with its Autocompleter ad and Gmail Motion Beta. Fun stuff ahead!

It’s that day of the year again. Everybody on the Internet is writing fake stories to try and trick the innocents who don’t remember that it’s April Fool’s day. Some jokes are hilarious, some are bad, and some are almost believable. We here at Digital Trends are immune to humor, but we realize you might enjoy it, so here are a few of the better ones we’ve seen today.

Our own Andrew Couts reported this earlier, but Google is launching a new service that uses your computer’s Webcam like an Xbox Kinect. Instead of using the ancient, outdated keyboard and mouse to write emails, Google has invented an entire language of complex, full-body motions (think full-body sign language) that can replace typing completely. Sound awesome? It is.

 

Support for spreadsheets, powerpoints, and other Google Docs are coming soon. We’re guessing the spreadsheet app comes with colored shirts.

 

Earlier today, Livedrive issued a press release detailing its new plans to back up all 20 petabytes of data it stores onto barcodes printed on sheets of paper. The new program makes it the largest user of paper in the United Kingdom as it prints more than 2 billion sheets of paper. I spoke with Andrew Michael of Livedrive and he tells me that users need not fear about floods or sorting issues. All paper is stored in water-proof containers and is hand sorted, by robots.

 

PC Magazine has seen the writing on the wall. PCs are out, tablets are in. And so PC Mag will now become “Post PC” Mag. Pretty smart, really, but it’s only a stopgap until we figure out what will take over for PCs. Is it tablets? Crazy laser retina displays? We just don’t know yet.

PostPCMag.com will also have social media functions: “You can take a picture of your tablet or other Post-PC device, name it, buy apps for it, make friends with other post-PC devices, and even buy outfits for it. I know the last idea sounds silly, but have you ever seen an iPad 2 in a suit? Neither have I, but the Post PC world demands it.”

 

I feel bad for the Wolfram guys. They really want to be funny and this joke is harmless. Sadly, it’s more adorable than it is funny. This joke is a riff off of Funny or Die’s April Fool’s joke last year where Justin Bieber bought the site and made it Bieber or Die. Funny or Die was taken over by a new girl named Rebecca Black, another overnight sensation.

As I searched up April Fool’s on BieberBeta I learned that it is the 91st day of the year, Susan Boyle was born this day 50 years ago, and tonight we’ll see a waning crescent moon.

 

DealPinch.com launched a Groupon clone called Deals 4 Hipsters today. The top deal is for “a pair of lenseless frames guaranteed to make you more attractive to the opposite sex embuing the wearer with incredible hipster credibility.” And they’re only $19. Deals 4 Hipsters says that the glasses will look “amazing with your thrift store inspired fashions, crushingly tight jeans, and circa 1960 jagger haircut. What a deal.

 

YouTube went back in time today, showing us what some popular videos would have been like a hundred years ago, had the Internet existed. With a click of a button, any video on the site can be given an old timey look.

Trackback URL: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/april-fools-roundup-our-favorite-jokes-of-2011/trackback/

View the original article here

April Fools' jokes poke fun at royal wedding

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain's royal wedding is off! Oh no it's not, it's an April Fools' joke.

The big royal occasion later this month was the top target for traditional April 1 pranks in the press on Friday, including bride-to-be Kate Middleton shopping for baby clothes and the left-leaning Guardian joining the pro-monarchy bandwagon.

Beyond the royal nuptials, British tycoon Richard Branson has snapped up Pluto in a bid to reinstate it as a planet while his Virgin Atlantic airline will encourage first class travelers to grow their own vegetables on long-haul flights.

And the Daily Telegraph reported a "secret memo" about Labor Party plans to hold royal wedding-style street parties to mark the upcoming marriage of its leader Ed Miliband on May 27.

In terms of journalistic resources, few put in as much effort as the Guardian, traditionally a bastion of royal-bashing republicanism.

"In something of an about turn, the Guardian today pledges its 'full throated support' for the monarchy," it said in its online edition, which features a comprehensive live blog poking fun at rival newspapers and broadcasters.

It includes a photograph of Prince William's best man and brother Prince Harry holding "what appears to be a draft of his best man's speech" which refers to an incident involving a goat and royal pal Guy Pelly at the exclusive Bouji's nightclub.

A Breaking News headline at 10:11 a.m. declared the royal wedding was off, but four minutes later a "Correction" informed readers that it was on.

Most readers were in on the joke, but those in two minds might refer to the blog heading in Latin: "Sis tranquillus est iocum." Fret not, it's a joke.

The Daily Mail has a Middleton look-a-like studying infants' clothes a month before she gets married. The photographer was "Will Sandkate."

PULLING YOUR LEG?

On a half-page advertisement in the Guardian, BMW refers all queries regarding its special Royal Edition M3 Coupe to pauline.yorlegg@bmw.co.uk.

An emailed request for comment from Reuters elicited the following response from the BMW team:

"Thank you for your interest in the BMW M3 Royal Edition. We would be delighted to send you more details about the model if it weren't for the fact that it was an April Fool's joke."

Branson was arguably the day's most outlandish prankster with an interplanetary deal.

A statement from his Virgin Group said he planned to bulk up Pluto's planetary mass in order to have it reinstated as a planet after its ignominious downgrade to dwarf planet in 2006.

The mission was to "set an example for struggling entrepreneurs facing setbacks."

Low cost airline Ryanair promised to introduce "child free" flights from October in what most people assumed was a joke.

However, the idea of a peaceful journey clearly appealed to some online commentators reacting to the "story." "All airlines should offer child-free flights. If you have ever flown for six hours with some brat kicking the back of your seat the whole way, then you would agree," wrote "PM62" on USA Today's website.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

View the original article here

Our Choice: The Funniest April Fools Jokes

In Gmail, you no longer have to use obsolete technology such as a mouse and a keyboard to write, compose, or reply to emails: you can do all of those simply by moving your body.

Of course, even the smile of Google's Paul McDonald as he utters the announcement of the "feature" gives away that it's really an April Fools' joke, but it's hilarious nevertheless. Check out the desperate-looking presenter as he twists his body trying to compose and send an email without ever touching a keyboard in the video below.

Like every year, Google doesn't stop at one April Fools' trick; almost every one of its teams has the liberty to create their own elaborate joke, and some of them are funny as hell. In the video below, Google posts an ad for a job of "autocompleter." What, you didn't think those suggestions that appear on Google Search as you type were automatic, did you?

By the way, while we're on the subject of Google, try searching for "comic sans" or "helvetica". You'll find (almost) exactly what you're looking for.

YouTube, on the other hand, has decided to show us the top viral videos of 1911.

LinkedIn has an elaborate and fun joke this year. Log into the site, then click on Contacts - Add Connections and choose "People You May Know." You'll find out that the list is far more interesting than usual, featuring such celebrities as Robin Hood and Albert Einstein!

The Pirate Bay, on the other hand, claims it has bid for eBay on eBay and won! Well, we've seen weirder auctions on the site...

ThinkGeek has a great one this year, noticed by our reader Thomas Bollinger: It's selling an Apple Store Playset. Now you too can have a miniature Apple Store in your living room, and if you're a true fan, you'll definitely want to extend it with the optional Line Pack.

What are your favorite April Fools' jokes this year? Please, share them in the comments!

View the original article here

10 hilarious April Fool's jokes

Ah, April Fool's Day — a holiday that delights in chicanery that would be deemed inappropriate any other time. Looking for the perfect prank?

Check out these 10 ideas from aprilfoolzone.com that will certainly rile your victims. Take it easy, though. It's just a prank — make sure no one gets hurt.

That said, let's get to the specifics.

View the original article here

Surf the jokes: Check out today's online April Fools' Day tricks

View the original article here

Pregnant Kate? April Fools’ jokes hit royal wedding

LONDON?— Britain's royal wedding is off! Oh no it's not, it's an April Fools' joke.

Dog saved from floating home 3 weeks after tsunami A dog that survived in a house swept away to sea three weeks ago by the devastating Japan tsunami was saved on Friday by a coast guard rescue team flying over an island of debris.

Woman can’t close her eyes after plastic surgery Prince William admits pre-wedding jitters Ssssearch is over: Missing Bronx Zoo cobra found Lohan hits the street, face down, outside bar

The big royal occasion later this month was the top target for traditional April 1 pranks in the press on Friday, including bride-to-be Kate Middleton shopping for baby clothes and the left-leaning Guardian joining the pro-monarchy bandwagon.

And the Daily Telegraph reported a "secret memo" about Labor Party plans to hold royal wedding-style street parties to mark the upcoming marriage of its leader Ed Miliband on May 27.

Hot potatoes? British spuds get the royal wedding treatment

In terms of journalistic resources, few put in as much effort as the Guardian, traditionally a bastion of royal-bashing republicanism.

"In something of an about turn, the Guardian today pledges its 'full throated support' for the monarchy," it said in its online edition, which features a comprehensive live blog poking fun at rival newspapers and broadcasters.

Slideshow: Wacky royal wedding memorabilia (on this page)

It includes a photograph of Prince William's best man and brother Prince Harry holding "what appears to be a draft of his best man's speech" which refers to an incident involving a goat and royal pal Guy Pelly at the exclusive Bouji's nightclub.

A Breaking News headline at 10:11 a.m. declared the royal wedding was off, but four minutes later a "Correction" informed readers that it was on.

Most readers were in on the joke, but those in two minds might refer to the blog heading in Latin: "Sis tranquillus est iocum." Fret not, it's a joke.

More on April Fool's Day:
SPOILER ALERT! All the April Fools news on the Internets
Video: Ann finds 'Bronx Zoo cobra' in chip can

The Daily Mail has a Middleton look-a-like studying infants' clothes a month before she gets married. The photographer was "Will Sandkate."

On a half-page advertisement in the Guardian, BMW refers all queries regarding its special Royal Edition M3 Coupe to pauline.yorlegg@bmw.co.uk.

Block party? Legoland imagines the royal wedding

An emailed request for comment from Reuters elicited the following response from the BMW team:

"Thank you for your interest in the BMW M3 Royal Edition. We would be delighted to send you more details about the model if it weren't for the fact that it was an April Fool's joke."

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

View the original article here

April Fools' Day: The Science Behind Practical Jokes

Apr 1, 2011, 06:58 by David Hope

On April Fools' Day, practical jokes are not a guaranteed way to generate laughter, a U.S. professor who studies the complexities of humor says.

Cindy Gendrich of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who teaches the seminar, "Why Do People Laugh?" explores the psychological, physical and social benefits of laughter.

"Lots of theorists have observed that compassion is the enemy of humor -- from the Greeks to Henri Bergson. April Fools' Day jokes fall into the same category as watching an episode of the TV show 'Wipeout,'" Gendrich says in a statement. "Most of us stop laughing if someone gets hurt. The question my students grapple with is how we are sometimes able to turn our compassion buttons to 'mute.'"

The class studies what make someone or something an acceptable target for laughter.

"We may laugh more at April Fools' jokes if they seem somehow justified, but being the 'fool' is not always funny," Gendrich says. "Laughter has a lot to do with human relationships. We laugh to put people at ease, to show approval, to flirt, to contribute to the energy of an event or a moment, to tell people we are not dangerous, to show we 'get it'. We often laugh out of nervousness."

Source: UPI

View the original article here

The Best April Fools' Jokes of 2011

Another April 1, another day of pranks. From emptying and filling up a jelly donut with ketchup to Google's annual web jokes, the first is always a fun day.

10 Inches of Snow in Northeast

In the northeast, the biggest April Fools' joke played on us would be the "huge" snowstorm expected. Since the weekend, meteorologists on all the local channels warned residents of the impending 10 inches of white fluffy material coming our way. When I awoke this morning, all I saw on the ground was wet grass from the previous day's rain. Thanks a lot, Dr. Mel.

Hulu

The Internet makes for easy practical jokes. This popular website, which shows your favorite shows, has "The X-Files" on the front page like we're back in the '90s.

Groupon Buys April Fools' Day

This hoax had the Internet coupon site claim that it purchased the trademark for the holiday. The site even went as far as serving YouTube cease and desist orders. This is pretty far out there, but people still fell for it.

Google

As always, Google was a big player in the practical jokes game.

Comic Sans, known worldwide as one of the worst fonts in the world, has taken over the website. When you search Helvetica, everything appears in comic sans. If you search for Comic Sans, you'll get everything in comic sans. Thanks a lot, Google.

Another gag the site pulled involved Gmail Motion. Using your webcam and Gmail account, you are supposed to be able to use your body to perform various tasks. However, this doesn't exist -- "At least not yet."

Harry Potter - The TV show?

IGN pulled one of the best pranks on this day. They claimed to have a trailer for the Harry Potter TV show, which surely made all fans who were hoping for more movies very excited. Sorry guys, it isn't happening.

ThinkGeek

This might be one of the coolest pranks. ThinkGeek "released" the Playmobil Apple Store Playset, which actually looks like it would be fun. On the box, you can see Steve Jobs in his traditional black t-shirt and blue jeans.

Also from ThinkGeek are the Angry Birds Pork Rinds and Minecraft USB Desktop Nether Portal games.

Pirate Bay

Apparently, as of the morning of April 1, Pirate Bay owns eBay. EBay listed itself on eBay and The Pirate Bay company has won the auction.

"We saw that eBay was up for sale on their site and since we have a long going law suit against them for abuse of our trademark name 'pirat(ebay),' we wanted to be pragmatic and use our immense profits to buy them," The Pirate Bay said in a statement.

View the original article here

Why that April Fools' Day joke is funny

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., April 1 (UPI) -- Practical jokes are not a guaranteed way to generate laughter on April Fools' Day, a U.S. professor who studies the complexities of humor says.

Cindy Gendrich of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who teaches the seminar, "Why Do People Laugh?" explores the psychological, physical and social benefits of laughter.

"Lots of theorists have observed that compassion is the enemy of humor -- from the Greeks to Henri Bergson. April Fools' Day jokes fall into the same category as watching an episode of the TV show 'Wipeout,'" Gendrich says in a statement. "Most of us stop laughing if someone gets hurt. The question my students grapple with is how we are sometimes able to turn our compassion buttons to 'mute.'"

The class studies what make someone or something an acceptable target for laughter.

"We may laugh more at April Fools' jokes if they seem somehow justified, but being the 'fool' is not always funny," Gendrich says. "Laughter has a lot to do with human relationships. We laugh to put people at ease, to show approval, to flirt, to contribute to the energy of an event or a moment, to tell people we are not dangerous, to show we 'get it'. We often laugh out of nervousness."

View the original article here

Britons face royal jokes on April Fools' Day

LONDON (AFP) – Britons faced a right royal slew of April Fool's jokes Friday, with a leftwing daily pretending to endorse the monarchy and a fake poll saying parents were renaming their children William and Kate.

Just weeks before the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, Britons were also asked to believe the opposition Labour Party was holding its own street parties to mark the impending nuptials of leader Ed Miliband.

With the news dominated by the royal wedding, British newspapers and pollsters took the opportunity to poke some light-hearted fun at the mounting enthusiasm.

The left-leaning Guardian newspaper caught readers off-guard with an editorial saying it had dropped its traditional hostility to the royals.

Under the headline "The magic of the monarchy", the Guardian said it was "shaking off years of mean-spirited republicanism to acknowledge and celebrate the pivotal role played by the royal family in British national life."

"Few things, after all, are as likely to lift the spirits of Britain's embattled public sector workers or benefit claimants than the sight of Kate Middleton's sure-to-be spectacular wedding dress," it said.

Comments later in the piece about starting a 24-hour wedding blog and "recalling correspondents from some less newsworthy parts of the globe, such as north Africa" gave the game away.

Meanwhile a "survey" by pollsters ComRes said that 68 percent of people aged 16-18 had applied to St Andrews University in Scotland, where William and Kate met, "to try to find a spouse."

It also said five percent of parents had renamed their children William or Kate, while 55 percent of single women confessed to having Googled "Prince Harry marital status" to check whether William's younger brother was married.

It said the poll was commissioned by "lifestyle think-tank Folio Parl" -- an anagram of April Fool.

Budget airline easyJet joined the fun, reporting that it had discovered the newlyweds would be spending the first days of their honeymoon in Scotland, after a "Mr and Mrs Wales" bought two flights to Edinburgh.

William's official title is Prince William of Wales.

In non-royal April Fool's jokes, the right-wing Daily Telegraph said it had seen a secret Labour party memo featuring a ten-point plan to celebrate the May 27 wedding of Ed Miliband.

"As you will now all be aware, Britain will be celebrating an event even more important than the Royal wedding in London on April 29, namely, the civil ceremony uniting Ed and Justine, on May 27," said the joke email by one Flora Lopi -- another anagram of April Fool.

The Independent broadsheet reported that Portugal football star Cristiano Ronaldo was to join Spain to help ease his nation's debt crisis and Britain was to begin taxing fresh air.

It said Real Madrid winger Ronaldo had agreed to "act like a patriot" and defect to the Spanish national team, netting his debt-ravaged country 160 million euros (227 million dollars).

Mirror reporter "Flora Olip" revealed that the British government was to introduce a "gasp" bill to raise taxes from fresh air.

And the Daily Express said that a British company had developed a modified Zimmer walking frame which incorporated a skateboard for pensioners who wanted something "a little more speedy".

View the original article here

April Fool's jokes range from hilarious to disastrous

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Internet business networking service LinkedIn allowed users to connect with Ernest Hemingway. Coupon hawker Living Social offered salami-based spa treatment. Photography giant Eastman Kodak offered pain-free permanent photo tattoos.

Has the world gone mad?

No. It was just another April Fool's Day, the international day of tomfoolery when pranks, hoaxes, and practical jokes remind us not to take ourselves too seriously.

And April 1, 2011 fit the bill with a wide range of good humor-and a few mishaps.

First the humor.

Search engine giant Google, whose April 1 antics have been widely noted for a decade, opened things up with an absurd and hilarious "motion-controlled" e-mail system that allows users to write emails using elaborate gestures rather than antiquated keyboards and mice.

Google-owned YouTube offered its round-up of viral videos from 1911 and The Huffington Post put up a mock pay wall-solely for New York Times employees (who did the same in real life on Monday).

Animal Planet sent out a joke press release announcing a deal for the famous escaped Bronx Zoo cobra, which one news outlet reported as fact. If it manages to escape again, the New York Hilton offered the highly venomous Egyptian cobra its "Penthouse ssssuite," via Twitter.

Even earnest Whole Foods was in on the April Fool's action, featuring "Insects Raised With Compassion," "Save Money with Refurbished Spices," and a new option to "have your whole paycheck automatically converted to a Whole Foods Market gift card." (Clearly, Whole Foods has heard that some of its customers refer to it as "Whole Paycheck.")

But April Fools day isn't all fun and games: sometimes people get fired, or hurt, for their pranks.

A filming of an improvisational joke by the comedy group Improv Everywhere made headlines when a troupe member dressed as "Stars Wars" character Jar Jar Binks boarded a New York City subway car and was accosted by burly train riders for invading their space.

The Troupe's founder, Charlie Todd, appeared at the end of the video telling viewers the skit did not go as planned. Claims have been made that at least one of the assailants was an actor in an affiliated comedy troupe. Hmmmm, a prank within a prank.

In another gag gone awry, a columnist from a suburban newspaper of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote an online blog jokingly asserting he'd been fired for juxtaposing Christian extremist militias with radical Islamic terrorist groups. In the column he asked readers to e-mail him -- after which they would promptly receive the auto-reply: APRIL FOOLS.

Mayhem ensued.

He received a bevy of emails, phone calls, text messages, and online posts, including one from his worried mother begging: "is it true?"

(Editing by Greg McCune)

View the original article here