Maybe... I am the fool

April 1, 2016 12:57 PM

Did a few of your usual webcomics seem to be ripping off each other today? Indeed, 'tis Fools of April day, and it was planned. An imgur gallery of many involved in the plot.
posted by numaner (35 comments total)

....I don't get it.
posted by I-baLL at 1:05 PM on April 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

The cabal, it's for real!
posted by tommasz at 1:06 PM on April 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

Hello?
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:09 PM on April 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Maybe...I am the fool.
posted by nubs at 1:12 PM on April 1, 2016 [7 favorites]

If I could give one gift to all of mankind, myself included, it would for all of us to simultaneously think "maybe I am the fool," and seriously consider that possibility, with recognition of its infinite possible contexts.
posted by JHarris at 1:22 PM on April 1, 2016 [15 favorites]

This is extremely unoriginal.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:25 PM on April 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am unreasonably annoyed at the one that made the Gremlins joke.
posted by Etrigan at 1:25 PM on April 1, 2016

I didn't know The Pigeon Gazette existed. Thank you.
posted by Anonymous at 1:25 PM on April 1, 2016

The Pigeon Gazette one was my favourite.
posted by YAMWAK at 1:30 PM on April 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

Previously (sorta): a little girl was riding her bike in the middle of the street
posted by eckeric at 1:35 PM on April 1, 2016

I liked the Calvin and Hobbes invasion of Bloom County, but I suppose that's something else.
posted by Grangousier at 1:38 PM on April 1, 2016 [9 favorites]

is it part of the joke that everything is either stick figures or looks like Adventure Time or is that just how webcomics are these days
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:42 PM on April 1, 2016 [4 favorites]

I kinda like this one.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:45 PM on April 1, 2016 [6 favorites]

Another two: MercWorks and Safely Endangered.
posted by bjrn at 1:59 PM on April 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think my favorite thing about all this is that a super secret facebook group of webcomic artists exist and I want to be a fly on that wall like you wouldn't believe.
posted by numaner at 2:01 PM on April 1, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm glad none of these had the | || || |_ pattern (except possibly the one Halloween Jack linked).
posted by infinitewindow at 2:26 PM on April 1, 2016

I like this way more than I should.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 2:40 PM on April 1, 2016

web "comics" suck. now get off my lawn.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 2:47 PM on April 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

the | || || |_ pattern

the what now?
posted by eykal at 2:49 PM on April 1, 2016

No Oglaf?
posted by benzenedream at 2:49 PM on April 1, 2016 [5 favorites]

Oglaf only runs on Sunday
posted by radiosilents at 3:12 PM on April 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

I too am hoping for Oglaf! That was totally my first thought.

Could wind up with some seriously Rule 34 Crossover type activities!!
posted by Philby at 3:20 PM on April 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

xkcd usually has an april fools joke but it's still running wednesday's comic today

which obviously might be the joke but i'm suspicious
posted by macrael at 3:31 PM on April 1, 2016

XKCD has this note:
The xkcd April 1st comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties.
Please stand by!
posted by Bee'sWing at 3:49 PM on April 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

I hadn't seen this, but like Grangousier I caught the Calvin & Hobbes/Bloom County cross --- and that one is WAY better than this many comics/same joke.

(Don't miss the picture of 'Watterson'!)
posted by easily confused at 4:22 PM on April 1, 2016

Bee'sWing: I was wondering what that was about. Being as it is XKCD, I expected some elaborate secret joke, but I tried leaving the page up for a long time ("stand by") and searched for something unexpected to click or interact with. Nothing.
posted by 256 at 4:44 PM on April 1, 2016

Well, seeing this recreated on nearly half of all the webcomics that I follow via RSS that updated today made me think "Maybe *I* am the fool."

I appreciated the more extreme variations on the obvious theme, like at Two Guys and Guy where what happened was perfectly in character for Wayne's incompetence and Guy's tendency to explode at any provocation.

Among the unrelated April Fools pranks, the one from Questionable Content was frighteningly believable. (After all, Conde Nast bought Reddit, why wouldn't they acquire some webcomics?)

But my top grade goes to Mari Costa who does TWO fairly new fantasy comics: Peritale, about a novice fairy named Periwinkle and Roji, about a heroic knight who's a cat. So of course, today she announced that the two stories would swap protagonists.

(and still waiting for XKCD... maybe that IS the joke... and Randall Munroe is the real fool)
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:58 PM on April 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

If these are "your usual webcomics" I have been way out of the loop for longer than I thought.
posted by bleep at 6:42 PM on April 1, 2016

This will forever be worth it for introducing me to the most excellent "The Danemen" - which I have been laughing about for the past few hours.
posted by MysticMCJ at 7:29 PM on April 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

...or I am in the wrong loop... I must note that I group my comics RSS into "gag" and "story", and my bar for gag comics is low (especially if the comic itself appears in the feed and I don't have to click over to the site to see it), so these made for a semi-constant stream of the "extremely unoriginal" today. Zero of the story comics I follow used this gag (the most common April Fool was a sudden ridiculous plot twist marking "The End" which will be declared non-canon on Monday), but Dr. NcNinja, which is in the middle of what promises to be a real final story, did a simple but effective piece of foolishness, mixing the same art from the previous page with dialogue from an obviously appropriate source.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:32 PM on April 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

This was so great and the kind of April Fools joke I like - it's subtle and it's beautiful in its simplicity. And it makes fun of April Fools jokes. Nice work, everyone.
posted by crossoverman at 9:13 PM on April 1, 2016

(Don't miss the picture of 'Watterson'!)

Go Set a Spaceman?
posted by gauche at 3:46 AM on April 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

Exactly two comics on my Comic-Rocket reading list did this, resulting on me falling for the prank on a completely different, much more personal level than 'they're plagiarizing each other.'

(reads Berkeley Mews)

"Huh. Lame."

(reads Ubertool)

"Maybe... I am the fool."
posted by BiggerJ at 4:25 AM on April 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

BiggerJ that was also my reaction after seeing it on Berkeley Mews, Poorly Drawn Lines, and then Cyanide & Happiness. But from that article apparently most of them wanted to extend the joke and called plagiarism.
posted by numaner at 1:13 PM on April 3, 2016

The ones who played with the concept and made variations were most welcome, like 1111comics' version with a movie gremlin, bu this looks like the final word. For now.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:51 PM on April 3, 2016 [1 favorite]