Who are the Fools here? "Many customers of Zecco Trading logged into their brokerage account yesterday to be greeted with a slightly higher buying power than before… on the order of 6 to 13 million dollars!" So what'd these customers do? They bought stocks. Oops. SEC may be getting involved. [more inside]
posted by waraw on Apr 5, 2009 - 41 comments

Random word stimulation is a technique for generating ideas by associations with random words. You'll find more about it at this site and the relevant Wikipedia article. (Previously)
posted by twoleftfeet on Apr 1, 2009 - 13 comments

April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 274 days remaining until the end of the year. April 1 is most notable in the Western world for being April Fools' Day. [more inside]
posted by jbickers on Mar 31, 2009 - 42 comments

AprilFoolsDayOnTheWeb brings you the most complete listing of April Fools' Day Jokes that Web Sites have run each year from 2004 all the way up to today. Also, the Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time. Meanwhile, Google seems to be up to its old tricks...
posted by Effigy2000 on Mar 31, 2008 - 41 comments

A glass bong filled with a corked '82 Petrus. Most exclusive restaurant in Chicago, or best April Fool's prank ever? I have reservations!
posted by timsteil on Mar 29, 2008 - 32 comments

"Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines." The free version offers 10x the speed of a normal DSL. Press release and FAQ (with features and prices).
posted by Memo on Mar 31, 2007 - 29 comments

In the study of mythology, folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, human hero or anthropomorphic animal who plays pranks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and norms of behaviour.

Tricksters come in all forms, from all cultures. Notable examples include Br'er Rabbit, Odysseus, Eshu, Raven, and Loki; most or all of whom you are likely familiar with.
posted by Eideteker on Apr 29, 2006 - 31 comments

Flickr Interestingness has gone to the cats. It's sort of a joke how many cat photos are "Interesting" on Flickr. It seems for April Fools Day, Flickr has gone to the cats.
posted by eperker on Apr 1, 2006 - 24 comments

Dating is a search problem. Solve it with Google Romance. When you think about it, love is just another search problem. And we’ve thought about it. A lot. Google Romance™ is our solution. You might want to start by browsing a few popular profiles, here, here, or here. Enjoy.
posted by nearo on Apr 1, 2006 - 28 comments

Public Service Announcements from the staff of NBC's "The Office."
posted by ColdChef on Mar 31, 2006 - 41 comments

The Endless Wait Is Over! After 15 years, Guns N’ Roses will finally release its nearly mythical album, Chinese Democracy. Chuck Klosterman has the exclusive first review of the new record, which features a 14 minute "rap-rock anthem" called "Pound You (Good)," several songs that "make thinly veiled references to the architect who designed Rose's backyard topiary garden," and attacks on the media, including "the editors of Vanity Fair, MTV personality Sway, numerous teenage bloggers, and the city hall reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer (who, curiously, has never written about pop music)." Rock on, Axl Rose. Rock on.
posted by pardonyou? on Mar 31, 2006 - 39 comments

The Scotsman's contribution to April Fool's yesterday was a satirical bit on Political Correctness: "European bureaucrats will push forward legislation today to force the Scottish Executive to change place-names that offend or discriminate on the grounds of race and gender. The commissioners in Brussels have demanded 'race and gender-sensitive' names found for towns such as Motherwell, Blackburn, Helensburgh, Fort William, Campbeltown, Peterhead, Lewis and Fraserburgh be changed."
posted by jenleigh on Apr 2, 2005 - 16 comments

Jonathan Swift and April Fool's. In March of 1708 Swift published a pamphlet (under the name Isaac Bickerstaff) predicting the death of a popular astrological charlatan (John Partridge) who had predicted the demise of the COE. On March 29th, Swift published an account of the fulfillment of the prophecy and of the man's death, convincing people, despite Partridge's protestations, that the man claiming to be Partridge was an imposter. The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers.
Ben Franklin used a similar prank when he started Poor Richard's.
HP Lovecraft used the name Isaac Bikerstaff Jr., in 1914, when attacking "a quack named Hartmann, a devotee of the pseudo-science of Astrology."
posted by OmieWise on Apr 1, 2005 - 7 comments

Today by far is my favorite holiday. It's the one day that webmasters get to be creative and do things that normally wouldn't fit with their sites general themes. For example, Google attempts a high tech way of quenching peoples thirsts, Wikipedia sells out to Britannica, a RFC is written on Morality, and much much more!
posted by Urgo on Mar 31, 2005 - 44 comments

I mean, who wants to transform themselves into an alien, you know? Joshua does. With disturbing results.

Q: And his ears?
A: I cut them off. It was not hard.

posted by kirkaracha on Aug 3, 2004 - 27 comments

Regularly-updated listing of today's April Fools jokes on the web. Add 'em if you've got 'em.
posted by Fourmyle on Apr 1, 2004 - 16 comments

Top 100 April Fools Hoaxes of all time. Also, April Fools on the Net - a history of newsgroup April Fools posts.
posted by badstone on Apr 1, 2004 - 3 comments

Pictures of the tin-foil apartment - a New Year's Eve prank taken to the nth degree...
posted by skechada on Jan 14, 2004 - 27 comments

Anybody know the origin of April Fool's day? We already have a post about the greatest hoaxes of all time, but doesn't anybody know WHY we hoax and trick? I won't tell you why here....but I find it funny, what with the current jingoism and all, that it comes from France...after you digest that first link, read more at urbanlegends.com.
posted by taumeson on Apr 1, 2003 - 8 comments

The End of Free has an ad on it now. [actual april fools sightings inside]
posted by mathowie on Apr 1, 2003 - 39 comments

As a brief distraction from all the death and destruction, let's head over to the museum of hoaxes, where we'll find the top 100 April Fool's day pranks of all time. Good luck with your own respective hoaxing.
posted by jonz on Mar 31, 2003 - 5 comments

Remember everyone tomorrow, April 1st, is Make Fun of Dick and Lynne Cheney day, (because Neal Pollack said so). If you run any kind of website or publication and have the power to mock, belittle or poke fun at the second family, it's your patriotic duty to do so.
posted by alan on Mar 31, 2003 - 18 comments

Lady Liberty no longer wanted? Thanks to a backlash against the French for their refusal to back the US, one group wants to return the Statue of Liberty to France. Is it real or is it a joke?
posted by girlhacker on Mar 19, 2003 - 17 comments

Bill Gates fooled by Quebec radio station. He may be the world's richest man, but that didn't prevent Bill Gates from falling for an April Fool's Day joke by two Quebec radio comics pretending to be Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
posted by ncurley on Apr 4, 2002 - 7 comments

MIT webpage modified for April Fool's Day. We've seen the Google Pigeon page, and EBay, and even our beloved Mefi (can I say that I actually like this look better?). Have we got a thread which is collecting web page AFD jokes? I didn't see one. If not, perhaps this could serve as a start?
posted by jokeefe on Apr 1, 2002 - 10 comments

According to this editorial, April Fools hoaxes violate a fundamental trust between readers and the media and undermine the mission they're supposed to serve. Though opinion polls have never put "The Media" high on anyone's list of favorite organizations, I probably have to disagree in that April Fools hoaxes actually do more to help the media by revealing their sense of humor and giving them a touch of the everyman.
posted by tiny pea on Apr 1, 2002 - 30 comments

On Martha Stewart Living this morning, Martha showed how to make the perfect glass of water, how to peel a grape, and how to add a decorative touch to cereal boxes. I was almost sucked in. Nice work Martha, who knew she could laugh at herself? What other April Fool's Day pranks and pages have you found?
posted by jasonshellen on Apr 1, 2002 - 17 comments

april fools from ebay i hadn't realized it was april fools until the nice people at ebay reminded me.
posted by ggggarret on Apr 1, 2002 - 6 comments

Metafilter taken over by kuo5hin? April fool, everyone.
posted by Cobbler on Apr 1, 2002 - 22 comments

PrayStation . Year Zero "For those who don't know. Every year for the past 4 years April fools day has always been when I tear down my current website - and replace it with praystation year 0 - my very first posting to the domain. Enjoy it or hate it." Don't miss this link. It's only up for one day only.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Mar 31, 2002 - 0 comments

You've got Blogs! AOL buys into homegrown media. April Fools Day starts with a bang in the UK. Determined to get linked by many a weblog, they put out a story about AOL purchasing popular weblogs. In related news, MetaFilter was said to be signing a merger agreement with Kuro5hin to pool content between the two sites.
posted by wackybrit on Mar 31, 2002 - 14 comments

Are You Ready For April Fool's Day? Better read the Museum of Hoaxes's March Newsletter to find out. Certain pranks are already in progress, while other recent hoaxes - of which at least one was seriously discussed here on MetaFilter - remain fresh in our minds. Real aficionados and sleuths, of course, will head straight for the hoax websites pages, where some seem too good - or too awful - not to be true. In Southern Europe, April Fool's Day is known as Liars' Day and everyone is entitled - nay, compelled! - to invent at least one big whopper. Any ideas?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Mar 30, 2002 - 35 comments

Government GPS surveillance through your digital camera. A DOJ project to go after pedophiles and obscenity-mongers by regulating digital still and motion cameras is slated to be introduced in Congress:

A DOJ project code-named "Indecent Images" plans to implant technologies developed to automatically recognize hard-core Internet sex images into the next generation of cameras. An II-compliant camera will refuse to take illegal photographs or videos, and could even quietly tip off law enforcement to illicit behavior. . .

The II draft says that "any variant" of digital still or video camera must include a GPS device and a transmitter that is compatible with U.S. pager networks. When a child pornographer takes an illegal photo, the camera recognizes it and transmits an encrypted message containing the image, the date, and the location to the local police -- who would then raid the home and save the child from continued erotic exploitation.

They've got to be kidding. I'm not endorsing exploiting kids, natch, but I can't believe this this kind of surveillance is even being contemplated. . .

Then again, remembering Ashcroft's beady little eyes. . . (via J. Orlin Grabbe)
posted by aflakete on Apr 2, 2001 - 26 comments

Pith and Vinegar is a hosting company now?
posted by ronsens on Apr 1, 2001 - 10 comments

Happy April Fool's Day! I just stumbled across my first prank page of the season. How about you?
posted by jjg on Apr 1, 2001 - 28 comments

Crazy Guy! Seems the editor of Romanian Playboy didn't realize wife beating just... ain't... funny...
posted by owillis on Apr 23, 2000 - 0 comments

April 1 was two weeks ago, guys. [I can't believe they could be so stupid.]
posted by Steven Den Beste on Apr 14, 2000 - 9 comments

Speaking of offering people free stuff... OpecInfo.com, a fake site claiming to be "The Internet's Best Gas Resource," appears to have fallen victim to its own April Fools prank.
posted by philip on Apr 8, 2000 - 2 comments

U.S. population stands at 13,462 With the April 1 deadline for returning Census 2000 forms finally passed, the Bureau of the Census announced Monday that the U.S. population stands at 13,462.       "We at the Census Bureau are shocked by the incredible decrease in the population that apparently took place in the 10 years since the last Census in 1990," Census Bureau director Kenneth Prewitt said. "A 1999 projection estimated the U.S. population at 274 million and set the annual growth rate at .95 percent. Yet from this latest Census count, we find that this projection overestimates the population by a multiple of 20,000."
posted by cmeck33 on Apr 8, 2000 - 1 comment

Latest on the mcsweeneys.net takeover. If this is a prank, it's already getting old. I keep hoping for some big humor payoff, but I'm the MTV generation--speed things up! Darnit!
posted by mrmorgan on Apr 6, 2000 - 12 comments

Google Mentalplex Google's pretty funny... Let's see how long that light heartedness lasts after The Great Ass of Corporate Opression sits on them.
posted by Dean_Paxton on Apr 1, 2000 - 3 comments

Stanford University Planning IPO
I know this is starting to scrape the bottom of the April 1st barrel, but I WAS the first person to point out that the heading of the e-mail version of this writer's column is "D A N G I L L M O R O N T E C H N O L O G Y" (logical word breaks after DANG, ILL and MORON)
posted by wendell on Apr 1, 2000 - 3 comments

NPR announces merger with World Wrestling Confederation
At this moment on Weekend Morning Edition, Scott Simon is interviewing wrestlers named "Amazon Rainforest Crunch" and "NRA", and Nina Totenberg is talkin' trash. Diggin' it!
posted by wendell on Apr 1, 2000 - 0 comments

So far Rasterweb, Fairvue, and Riothero are onboard the Fooltrain. Post any more you see as a comment on this thread. Let's make it a dozen by the end of the day!
posted by mathowie on Apr 1, 2000 - 16 comments

5:15am April 1st 2000 in SF and still no April Fool's version of vivid's site. Could this really be the end of an era? Remember vBay (classic!) and v|net? I want some good parody, damnit! (Sorta like this, Matt -- well done.)
posted by sylloge on Apr 1, 2000 - 3 comments

I can't tell if this is an April Fool's parody of a certain someone or not, but have a great weekend! I'm still digging!
posted by mathowie on Mar 31, 2000 - 6 comments

This is one of the funniest office pranks I've seen in a while. A few months ago, I proposed filling a coworker's office with ballons, but the packing peanuts are much better (and funnier). [stolen from brig]
posted by mathowie on Mar 31, 2000 - 5 comments