Unintended comedy?

April 1, 2003 12:58 AM

The End of Free has an ad on it now. [actual april fools sightings inside]
posted by mathowie (39 comments total)

Some good ones:

The perl guys at CPAN have renamed themselves Matt's Script Archive

The Google Weblog is now the Overture Weblog

Joi Ito meets the Pope

[via a little waxy]
posted by mathowie at 1:01 AM on April 1, 2003

And, for the record, your co-conspirator in Australia spilled some beans.
posted by wendell at 1:12 AM on April 1, 2003

Also, Chris Pirillo proves unequivocably, that TechTV ruins your vision (at least with IE6).
posted by wendell at 1:21 AM on April 1, 2003

Googlifilter - fantastic job!
posted by twistedonion at 1:32 AM on April 1, 2003

Holy Smokes! This is great! Can we keep it?
posted by hama7 at 1:45 AM on April 1, 2003

Metafiiiiiiiiiiilter
posted by antimarx at 2:07 AM on April 1, 2003

I can't understant why t.d.n. wouln't bless us with another April Prank this year. Mmmh.

Great work on the templates, Matt! =)
posted by XiBe at 2:17 AM on April 1, 2003

For once "I'm feeling lucky" went somewhere interesting.
posted by jeblis at 2:46 AM on April 1, 2003

fookin brill. still startled. googlification has blew me away. top marks. surreal.
posted by Kino at 2:53 AM on April 1, 2003

Thinkgeek has some fine new products available.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 4:40 AM on April 1, 2003

So there really is a cabal? That was a great prank. Truly great.
posted by iconomy at 4:53 AM on April 1, 2003

10 out of 10!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 5:05 AM on April 1, 2003

I surrender!
posted by brand-gnu at 5:22 AM on April 1, 2003

this is fantastic!
posted by mrplab at 5:26 AM on April 1, 2003

Everyone, stop! It turns out that April Fool's Day is actually french! Please join me in observing April Freedom day instead.
posted by BigPicnic at 5:40 AM on April 1, 2003

Other big news is that the American public are more inteligent than the American Government (even Uncle Cletus and his dancing pigs) and think this whole Anti-French thing is getting bloody old and stupid.

And if you want to be picky, the French try to pin paper fish to people, so using black cable ties to tie everyone's phone cords short is still allowed

[/tartrazine fuelled rant]
posted by twine42 at 6:13 AM on April 1, 2003

Cape Town to be flooded in 30 years.

Our papers always pull some prank.
posted by PenDevil at 6:57 AM on April 1, 2003

BigPicnic, thanks for that link! I don't know how historically accurate that really is, but it's good for a giggle. Poisson d’Avril!
posted by iconomy at 7:07 AM on April 1, 2003

For some reason the word Metafiiiiiiilter fills me with glee!

Thanks Matt!
posted by JoanArkham at 7:18 AM on April 1, 2003

Not to leave out my fellow comic geeks, check out Elfquest.
posted by DBAPaul at 7:25 AM on April 1, 2003

Ahhhh, happiness... the sideblog is still in the original metafilter colors. So soothing a site as I watch co-workers tie each other's shoes together and gleefully fill umbrellas with confetti from the paper shredder.
posted by jlynford2 at 7:56 AM on April 1, 2003

something awful is quite silly today....
posted by ph00dz at 8:16 AM on April 1, 2003

If April Fool's day came from France, shouldn't we start calling them Foolish Fries?

sorry, I'm off to go get coffee now. in my uncaffeinated state it was funny...
posted by verso at 8:21 AM on April 1, 2003

matt, you've made my morning!
posted by photoslob at 8:21 AM on April 1, 2003

very nice.
posted by jann at 8:41 AM on April 1, 2003

Flutterby is fantastic today.
posted by mathowie at 9:16 AM on April 1, 2003

Even the Astronomy Photo Of The Day site has gotten into the act.
posted by mathowie at 9:17 AM on April 1, 2003

April Fools R Us keeps a list of historic pranks and seasonal foolery. (via presurfer)
Matt, thanks for making the day festive here!
posted by madamjujujive at 9:32 AM on April 1, 2003

I suspect, overall, that this is another one (but I just can't be sure): The so-called Arseblogger says he got a cease and desist letter from Google, saying that he's violating their "Blogger" trademark.

(The guy's playing it straight in his comments section, and the language of the letter quoted does match that of at least one previous such request -- but who knows if Google's corporate counsel really would use identical language in the two cases. (Also, there's no permanent archive for this entry yet, but it should end up here.))
posted by mattpfeff at 9:46 AM on April 1, 2003

The Top 100 April Fool's Pranks of all time (via k5)

my personal favorite is #8.

#16 talks about the very first internet-based prank, and thanks to google groups, here it is.
posted by mathowie at 9:53 AM on April 1, 2003

Metafiiiiiiilter! It sounds like something one says while wearing tights and a cape...

Faster than a usenet flamewar, Able to leap grammatical problems with a single bound, it's a blog, it's a community...it's Metafiiiiiiilter!

I love it. Like some of the others, it fills me with joy.
posted by dejah420 at 11:13 AM on April 1, 2003

This is the greatest thing I have ever seen!
posted by hammurderer at 11:39 AM on April 1, 2003

Woohoo!!!

MetaGoogle rocks!
posted by me3dia at 11:44 AM on April 1, 2003

The Top 100 April Fool's Pranks of all time (via k5)

posted by mathowie at 9:53 AM PST on April 1


I've been waiting thirty-five web-years to say this:
DOUBLE POST, MATHOWIE!

(Don't ask me where MY April Fools contribution is... I had a seriously bad-taste warblogger parody in the works, even bought a domain name just for the occasion, but the real world interfered big time, and, boy, does my life suck.)
posted by wendell at 11:50 AM on April 1, 2003

something awful is quite silly today....

Of course, it's not the first time (and not nearly as good as their "Page is Too Stupid" fake.)

Metoogafille is still my favorite of the day. Nice job, Matt.
posted by Inkslinger at 12:00 PM on April 1, 2003

And mad props to the annual April Foolish page at BradLands BardLands BrandLands BradyLands!

(As usual, the Bradys omitted any mention of The Black Sheep of the Family.
posted by wendell at 12:11 PM on April 1, 2003

Heh. Check out this new reality series:

From the Toronto Star
Get out of Jail!

Inmate wins freedom in new public television reality show
Public TV networks enter fray, seek ratings Concept outrages victim support
and legal groups
posted by ColdChef at 2:13 PM on April 1, 2003

NPR wasn't sure if they'd be able to squeeze one in this year, with all the big news going on, but they did.
posted by pmurray63 at 6:52 PM on April 1, 2003

OMG! I heard that report on NPR and thought to myself, "Why, that seems odd." But never for a second did I think I was being duped. Even when they were talking about the importance of chronicling Eminem for the ages. Even when they said that it would take until 2089 to log all the audio.

Brava, NPR. You gots me.
posted by ColdChef at 7:25 PM on April 1, 2003