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posted by on Saturday April 01 2017, @08:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the strange-days dept.

If you haven't noticed already, today is April 1st, otherwise known as April Fool's Day.

Writers are a creative lot and very occasionally use this day as an excuse to let their creative juices flow — as they are often granted some discretion by those who watch over their work.

In years past, I've had times where I decided I'd just give up on surfing the web at all, given the plethora of nonsense that got posted. "Sure, it might have seemed funny when you wrote it, but it sure didn't do much of anything for me." I know I am not the only one who has felt this way. Once in a while, though, I do stumble upon a real gem that makes me bust out laughing.

Given all the noise of the half-baked stories out there, the well-crafted prank stories can be hard to find. Let's use this story to post links to the best April Fool's Stories. Funny stories are, of course, desired. So too are bizarre, but genuine, stories. Bring it on!


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  • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Saturday April 01 2017, @08:42AM

    by FakeBeldin (3360) on Saturday April 01 2017, @08:42AM (#487532) Journal

    One of the oldest and most beaten-to-death April Fool's jokes has got to be "your shoelace is untied".
    One day, I managed to put a spin on it that had me laughing out loud for a solid 10 minutes though :)

    One April Fool's day, during my student years, I was at the study association. This club had a bar in its main room, and a small room housing a few computers for working on association-related tasks, door between the two. The bar was on the opposite corner of the main room from the door to the computer room. From the room, you could see the bar and the couches in front of it, but not much more. The bar was used weekly for a social evening, but there were also snacks and non-alcoholic drinks there that you could grab at any point in the day.

    I was working at one of the computers, when a friend walked in behind the bar to grab a coke or somesuch. This was a reasonably normal bar: floor to chest-height. I called out to my friend (of whom I could see the top 3rd at best), from behind my computer, and said "Hey! Your shoelace is untied."
    The reply: "oh thanks", and he looked down and bend over to correct his shoes at that point.

    Just to be clear: there was a couch, a coffee table, and a 1.4m high non-transparent bar between his shoes and my eyes.

    I recall that everyone in the room lost it at that point :)

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by bradley13 on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:05AM (2 children)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:05AM (#487538) Homepage Journal

    That's easy: the BBC penguins [youtube.com] are the best I've ever seen.

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:29AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:29AM (#487543)

      spaghetti? [youtube.com]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:46AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:46AM (#487550)
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:53AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:53AM (#487553)

      Vortex, you just lost my business. I will be taking all the scopes off my guns and selling them. All you are is a bunch of trolls.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @10:21AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @10:21AM (#487564)

      I'm not clicking on random YT links, but I have to admit that that "app=desktop" at the end of the link is funny.

  • (Score: 2) by inertnet on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:49AM (1 child)

    by inertnet (4071) on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:49AM (#487551) Journal

    Back when about half the country still had only a black and white television, our national broadcaster announced that on March 31 at midnight, they would start an exiting broadcasting experiment which would allow colors to be shown on black and white television sets. A lot of people stayed up late to watch it, thinking their old tv would suddenly start showing colors.

    Still one of the best April fools ever for me, even now after about 45 years the memory still makes me chuckle.

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday April 01 2017, @10:51AM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday April 01 2017, @10:51AM (#487572) Journal

      But you could show colours on a B/W television set. All you needed was a brush and some paint … :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday April 01 2017, @10:25AM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 01 2017, @10:25AM (#487565) Journal

    1. Site green but favicon still red
    2. Bob Dylan story published on the re#ash nexus
    3. aristarchus posted a true "Insightful" comment [soylentnews.org] today. Moot but insightful.

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    (apologies, but I couldn't resist the temptation)

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:22AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:22AM (#487575) Journal

      The favicon has looked black and green for me for at least a couple of days now.

      And here it is, from the page source: https://soylentnews.org/favicon-vt100-32x32.png [soylentnews.org]

      Looks like each theme is capable of having its own favicon. I use the superior VT100 theme so I don't get a red favicon anymore. Except that VT100 has been temporarily replaced by this bright hell for... reasons.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by oaklandwatch on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:01PM (1 child)

      by oaklandwatch (5011) on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:01PM (#487653)

      Ironically, that green site is now orange today. :)

      • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:04PM

        by Justin Case (4239) on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:04PM (#487656) Journal

        It's a conspiracy, engineered by Trump and the Russians, with the secret cooperation of Clinton and Obama.

        I have proof!

  • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:05AM (3 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:05AM (#487574) Journal

    I fell for the Taco Liberty Bell. Wasn't until several hours later I realized it was April 1st, and that it must be a joke. Before I figured it out, I was feeling both indignant (hey, the Liberty Bell is not for sale!) and unsure why I should really care that much about an icon, and one that was bulky, antiquated, broken hardware at that.

    • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Saturday April 01 2017, @12:36PM

      by Justin Case (4239) on Saturday April 01 2017, @12:36PM (#487594) Journal

      I happened to be in a newsroom that day, waiting for my daughter's appearance on an unrelated topic. I saw the talking heads repeat the Taco Liberty Bell story at least three times (top and bottom of each hour) without questioning.

      Then...

      They still couldn't admit they had been fooled. No, it went something like this:

      Reports are now coming in from around the country that the Taco Liberty Bell story may be a mere publicity stunt by Taco Bell, possibly timed to coincide with April Fool's Day.

      Then the newsbabes broke into their feel-good talk-to-each-other mode for a "reaction". Because one uninformed idiot blathering to another uninformed idiot creates solid facts.

      Hundreds of newsrooms are going to be upset to have been taken advantage of like this. Most likely this stunt will backfire on them.

      Yeah, right. Because the goodwill of podunk newsrooms is the most important thing.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:53PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:53PM (#487731) Journal

      Make a run for the bathroom, taco beeeeuuueueeueueue

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @09:18AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @09:18AM (#487869)

      Recasting the bell would be best. Better removal of oxide crud and more-even cooling would probably help a great deal. We could also just weld it or even solder it.

      Put out a "whitepaper" extolling the virtues of your proposed solution, help a government employee put out a "call for proposals", submit a bid, win the contract, and fix the bell. We need to hurry because the bell gets more obsolete with each passing day.

  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 01 2017, @03:14PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday April 01 2017, @03:14PM (#487635) Homepage

    A buddy and I were playing Clash at Demonhead (no guide or internet back then) and we found the spot where you can get as much gold as you want by leaving the screen and returning. Well, after a very long (we thought) and tedious grind finally getting 99 gold, we left the game on and went to go get snacks.

    We heard his dad yelling from his room: " Oh no! Hey, come here! "

    We went in there to find his distraught dad standing next to the NES, on the floor, upside-down with the cartridge popped out, still powered-on with all the cabling still connected for effect so that the TV flickered. Then after a few seconds he said, "April Fools!" and laughed his ass off while my friend and I stewed with rage.

    All the time and effort to get all that gold...wasted. We never got the password before we left the game unattended.

  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 01 2017, @03:20PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday April 01 2017, @03:20PM (#487636) Homepage

    Under the right conditions, people can not realize that it is April Fools' Day. They can forget easily since it is an unremarkable holiday.

    One time I forgot, and received a call from my Mexican girlfriend who was sobbing into her phone. I asked her what was wrong and she told me she was HIV-positive. After a very uncomfortable minute or two she yelled "April Fool's!" and started laughing. Unlike in my previous post in this discussion, I did think her prank was funny because in situations like that, the relief augments the experience.

    What made the prank all the more believable was that my girlfriend was Mexican, and those Mexicans are involved with prostitution and sharing dirty needles. The prank may not have worked had she been a White girl.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @03:32PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @03:32PM (#487642)

    About 20 years ago I took a screenshot of the Ca Lottery webpage showing the winning numbers, changed the numbers to what was on the ticket my wife bought, printed it out and left it for my wife to find. After she went breathless I had to spill the beans. I didn't get any that night.

    • (Score: 2) by Justin Case on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:02PM

      by Justin Case (4239) on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:02PM (#487655) Journal

      You did it wrong.

      You show her winning all but one or two of the numbers. "Amazing, so close!" Consolation hug.

      Then... "but you can still get lucky."

  • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:53PM

    by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:53PM (#487672)

    After installing sound-dampening insulation made out of recycled cotton [youtube.com], some fans were concerned that it may be a fire hazard.

    Well, after only a few short weeks, the server room did indeed catch fire! [youtube.com]

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:58PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:58PM (#487753)
  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @01:50AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @01:50AM (#487779)

    Reeeeeeee [cbsnews.com]

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