The Daily Need

Monkeying around

Fooled you: another year, another hoax

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April 1, 2011

Photo: Flickr/Joey Rozier

The day’s origins are contested, but the web remains a breeding ground for April Fools’ gags, be it Starbucks’ new Mobile Pour campaign with scooter-delivery services, Hulu’s back-in-time home page, or news like Virgin founder Richard Branson purchasing Pluto in order to restore its planetary status.

For better or for worse, putting up a prank on April 1 has become de rigueur for many brands and media outlets. This year, YouTube got into the game with its  Top 5 Viral Pictures of 1911 and the Guardian — its hoax history dating back to a feature on the imaginary island of San Serriffe in the pre-Internet days of 1977 — rolled out a live royal wedding blog, complete with leaked “transcript” of Prince Harry’s best man speech.

Google continued its annual ritual with Gmail Motion, which introduced revolutionary motion-activated e-mail capabilities, and Comic Sans for Everyone, declaring the often persecuted font a soon-to-be Internet standard (Google “Comic Sans” for yourself and see) .

Whether you were the perpetrator or the victim, what are some of your favorite April Fools’ jokes, online or off? Post your comments below.

Last modified: April 1, 2011 at 3:48 pm
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