It’s Like Open Mic Only Different
Here’s how it works.
It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME.
The rules are simple — be nice.
There are always first timers and new things to talk about. It’s sort of half “Cheers” part “Friends” and part video game. You don’t know how much fun it is until you try it.
Who’s Fooling Who?
It’s the one day of the year that you can’t be sure what’s true. People get a chance to tell the most outrageous tales of events, how things work, and personal experiences.
- What April Fools’ stories do you know?
- Have you been caught by an April Fools’ trick? What’s the story on that?
- Are you planning an April Fools’ joke yourself?
- Have you ever pulled off an April Fools stunt? What was it? How much planning did it take? Whom did you catch?
And, whatever else comes up, including THE EVER POPULAR, Basil the code-writing donkey . . . and flamenco dancing (because we always get off topic, anyway.)
Oh, and bring example links.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
image: sxc.hu
Related article
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?
First! Woo-hoo!
Hey Sheila!
Great to see you! How’s the Round Rock maven?
Hi Liz…Glad to join you!
Hey Liz,
Hey Sheila,
My best 4/1 prank was…
Remember the old ’60’s VW Bugs?
A bunch of us picked one up (a friend’s) and put on the porch of his house. 🙂
It was funny until his parents came out!
Hi Barbara!
Welcome and glad to have you!!
Heya Joe!
That’s funny! What’d the parents do?
Nice to be here.
Liz,
I was thinking up ways I could use my login powers to play an April Fool prank on you, but then I remembered I’m too lazy to do all that thinking. Hehehe.
Hi everybody. 🙂
That’s pretty much all I got, but it has lasted well over 35 years as the best 4/1 prank in the neighborhood
Last year on April Fools, I Tweeted I wanted to move to a big city. Several very kind people started offering helpful resources. Ooops! 😀
Other than kidney stones and now shingles, I’m freakin’ great!
Daughter says that all those years of bragging on my iron constitution are now coming back to bite me.
That said, did an intro to social media workshop for biz/nonprofits today with Connie Reece and Michele Schwartz that was, I think, well-received and included a rep from my fave Lammes Candies. 🙂
It wasn’t on April Fool’s Day, but Orson Wells’ 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds was totally in the spirit.
My 13-year old son and I were talking about how we could scale that broadcast up using the internet and bloggers from around the world.
My favorite was when The Penny Press in Peoria — home of the Great Yellow Tractor — ran a 4/1 story that Caterpillar had done research that validated a decision to paint all of their tractors hot pink.
Liz, whaddya think?
In those days, they just yelled a bit (after laughing) and made us put the car back by the curb. 🙂
Hey Amy!
I’d love any April Fools joke you played. Too bad you’re so lazy. 🙂
Geez, Sheila. Shingles, too??
Bet it did Joe!
Bet they’re still talking about it.
Anyone remember this one? 1985, Mets picked up pitcher Sidd Finch, could throw 168, a miracle I tell you! All a hoax. Poor Mets fans, a glimmer of hope dashed.
Sheila,
You and Connie are tearing up the world. No joke!!
Sparky,
I like the way you’re training you’re son early. heh heh 🙂
Becky,
Regarding Sheila’s Shingles … she’s an overachiever.
Yeah, the whole Job-like experience is getting to be a MAJOR drag….
I am totally boring on April Fool’s; have never been into it at all.
I’m just here ’cause I like Liz and the company!
PS Becky,
Are you moving to Chicago this year? Heh heh 🙂
Hi Liz! Hi Everyone!
I’m no good at thinking these things up but fall for every single one of them. There’s a quilt/fabric shop somewhere inthe US that every year comes up with a great fake product that people actually try to buy.
Hey Barbara,
Messing with the Mets fans was dangerous — even for the bravest April Fools’ joker.
Hey Sheila, I’m sitting outside your door with night vision goggles and am going to Tweet your every move!
APRIL FOOL!!!
🙂
Sheila,
Just don’t let your husband get the best of you tomorrow. 🙂
Mary, it’s fun to have a day where you get to be gullible on purpose, eh?
Sheila — My sympathies. I got chicken pox as an adult and then shingles two years later. I’m not sure whose idea of a joke that was, but I wasn’t liking it. Are you better now?
Liz — I have never been good at pranks. I am better at knock knock jokes. 🙂
Hi Mary,
I’m planning on caution on Twitter tomorrow for that very reason. I always forget it’s April 1 every year.
Well I think we should just end every tweet with the hashtag #gullible tomorrow!
One year the news team in Peoria went on field trip to check the spaghetti crop. They reported it was failing. They showed limp noodles on little bean plants and looking sad on plates.
Good evening!
Pssst…tomorrow is Chris Brogan’s birthday (no foolin’)
Geeks.com (seller of outstanding new and used computers and electronics) sends out a regular newsletter, and each April Fool’s they come up with an elaborate hoax product that looks very real (photo, specs, shipping weight etc) then if you try to order it they say “April Fool’s!”
I like that, Sparky …
Gullible on Purpose 🙂
Ah, I thought I’d saved one from a few years ago – I’m surprised the link still works – here ya go:
http://www.geeks.com/pix/2006/GEEKTHING.html?cm_mmc=geekmail-_-daily_html-_31mar06_GEEKTHING-_-viewasweb
Hey Marti!
Did your kids every get you on April Fools?
Oh! I guess I do have an April Fool’s story. I went into labor on Mar 31. By 10:30-11:00pm the doctor said that they were going to do a C-section, and asked if we wanted to wait until after midnight so it wasn’t an April Fools baby! We thought that was a good idea and another hour wasn’t going to kill anyone. Daughter is thrilled to have an April 2nd birthday.
Marti, I hate to say this, but tomorrow just kicks off Birthday Week for Chris Brogan. The actual birthday is April 8. He had to write an explanation on his blog of why he posts it as April 1.
Hi everyone. The first job I applied for turned out to be an April Fools joke. Any wonder I opted for self-employment!
Mary,
You’re a good mom! April 2 is a better birthday, by far.
Liz, that should be the new tag line for my biz. 🙂
Mary, I’m totally on board with that hash tag idea. #gullible
Marti_L: Hmmm… no foolin’? #gullible
Becky,
Why’d he have to post about it? 🙂
Ouch. That’s not a nice April Fools joke (fake job posting).
Hey Glenda!
I hate the April Fools things that mess with people’s serious intentions. They’re not funny. They’re mean.
I once gave my husband a fake lotto ticket..he was so excited..I felt so bad…
Hi Liz! I usually got them! LOL
I pulled all kinds of pranks on them, like waking them up early to go to school, and yelling “We missed the bus – hurry!” Once they were up I’d say, “April Fool!”
One year I used makeup and painted fake “measles” on my face and told them they would have to drive me to the doctor (they were in elementary school, didn’t know how to drive).
I sound like a horrible mother, don’t I? *grin*
Hi, Everyone. Sorry, no April fool’s stories that are fit for such an august gathering… 😉
Liz and Mary, the whole town was taken in. Big newspaper that a movie was going to be shot in town, opportunities for locals. Not!
Liz, maybe he didn’t *have* to, but he did. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/my-only-april-fools-joke/
Oh, thank you Becky! {smacks forehead) Duh on me, I hadn’t had a chance to read him today. Birthday week – even better!
Great to see you sugar!
Sounds like you were/are a fun mom, Marti! I’m very boring. Thank goodness my daughter has a fun-loving father 🙂
Hey Marti,
I should have know it would have been you. Bet you have a whole book of stories.
Hey Steve!
C’mon In!!
Good to see ya, Liz. 😉
Hi Joe,
I assure you, my life (even with night vision goggles) won’t be that interesting. 🙂
Shingles are a newish development, finally getting to the doctor tomorrow (had to teach that workshop today instead, you know? Priorities!)
Greetings to everyone here!
Sheila, sorry to hear about the shingles.
Mary, you are a good mom (unlike me *grin*) to extend your labor just so your baby would have April 2 as their birthday!
Glenda,
That’s sort of a mean joke! I wonder if Faith will pull a prank on you tomorrow. 🙂
Hey Beth!
I can feel how awful you must have felt!
Hi Amy, Faith is just happy to play with paper and sleep on my clean clothes.
I’m trying to think of a good Twitter prank that wouldn’t hurt or scare anyone. Any ideas?
I’ve never really been into April Fools, but now the gears are cranking. What prank could I play on hubby?? Hmmm.
I started young. When I was only six or seven years old, I crept into my parents bedroom and moved their clock up an hour in the middle of the night *grin*
I remember the TV show “Roseanne” always had really elaborate April Fool’s Day episodes. Maybe I can find one on Hulu for inspiration – LOL
Marti, translate your Tweet to a different language. Tweetdeck has translate tools. 🙂
Glenda,
I think every day is Fool’s Day to pets and kids. I showed up to a meeting earlier with a hotwheel car and a cookie in my laptop bag. And when I got home, one of the rabbits had hopped up on my bed and eaten a hole in one of my blankets. It’s lovely to be loved, isn’t it? 😉
For the past few weeks, it seems that Tuesday nights are Girls night out.
I felt so left out that this past week I went to a secret hideaway and got a Sex Change.
You can still call me Jo but you have to drop the “e”
I was embarrassed until now to tell you all that I wanted so much to join the “girls club” but I had to spill the beans to all my girlfriends tonight.
Just found this – top 100 April Fools pranks http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/
My all-time favorite is the Guardian article loaded with typography puns (the island of San Seriffe). If you’re not a typographer/typesetter/designer it probably wouldn’t resonate as strongly but I find it not only hysterical, but extremely creative. Of course The Onion does that on a daily basis 😉
Oh Becky, you are a gal after my own heart! That’s a great idea! {{insert conspiratorial giggling}}
Amy, I just spit water on the monitor at your laptop bag comment!
{{wiping now}}
I once faked my engagement to finally put to rest work rumors that I was dating a friend at work. She got her sister’s engagement ring, and that morning just showed up at work wearing it. We said nothing. Folks noticed. She told them I proposed. I just ran with it. Only warned our client so that my boss wouldn’t get pissed. Great thing was – clients totally got in on the joke and had a blast with it.
We let it run all day. It was a rather large ad agency in Dallas so at 5p we sent an all agency email thanking everyone for making our April Fools day so much fun and reminding them not to believe everything they hear on the grapevine. You could hear laughter up and down the halls.
Funny thing — one of the folks that fell the hardest for the joke – she’s now my wife. Go figure.
@TomMartin
Sheila,
Look out! Marti and Becky are conspiring that could take down the Internet and every city on North America!
Rickrolling is kind of passe’ now. Is there a “new” version of Rickrolling? Can we invent one? *grin* Maybe we could send everyone here!!
I’m sure I will accidentally spill something on someone tomorrow. No need to plan ahead, I suppose. 🙂
Thanks Becky, guess I was had by Chris Brogan! duh. Even sent him a birthday card – just sent yesterday so being late will be good. I really wondered if his birthday on Facebook was for real. Now I feel stupid!
Now, that’s a great story, Tom!
re Twitter prank: You could tweet that your account is now being managed by an outside tweet service. For the rest of the day, begin every tweet with, “Mary would like to say that…”
Wait. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud.
Tom, that’s the kind of prank I like – fun and not hurtful to anyone. Bravo!
Josephina!
That explains a lot!! heh heh
Briliant story, Tom!!
That’s worth writing about!
Sparky, I LOVE that idea! Think what fun you could have with that. Late in the day you could argue with yourself. (that’s a whole ‘nother idea.)
Amy, a hotwheel and cookie – that’s cute!
Love the Guardian article, Mary.
Maybe Josephina will vacation on the Island of San Seriffe
Sparky and Becky and Marti … oh my!!
Nice to meet you, Jo!
LOL Sparky! Maybe we could spread a rumor that Twitter is going to start charging a thousand dollars a month. Watch the geek fur fly (I have a very dark side, don’t I? LOL)
@dreamswillcome offered this YouTube video from his college days …
http://tinyurl.com/6fr29v
ROTF Jo!
Glenda, it would have been cuter if the cookie hadn’t been half-eaten and smashed into my laptop. But I still thought it was sweet. 🙂
Sparky, I like that idea!
Maybe I’ll write all my tweets backwards tomorrow. See how many followers I can lose out of sheer frustration. Hehehe.
Hello all! Hello Liz…we met at the BOCN event in Boston…
I only know the old standby’s…the elastic band around the kitchen hand held hose (back when they sat at the corner of the sink, aimed innocently at the sink user)…or the plastic wrap across the toilet seat…nothing like humans moving VWs barehanded!
Backwards tweets – LOL! Or pig latin!
Now, Liz, I’m not going *near* that link! 😉
Amy, I like your teewt idea.
Hiya Piña!
Thanks for coming to see what we’re up to!
Amy and Marti_L,
I kinda dig the idea of losing twitter followers by frustrating them. Weed out the ones w/o a sense of humor?
Jo, where did you have that done? I feel like I’m missing out now.
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Aw Mary,
It’s not April 1 in Chicago … yet. 🙂
Glenda, I’m dyslexic enough that I can probably pull that one off without trying too hard. 😉
I think the best twitter prank I could play would be if I didn’t twitter for a whole day and let people think I died. But that would be mean, right? 🙂
Sparky,
If you follow Jo’s “footsteps” you might have to get your firepants altered. 🙂
Well, THAT didn’t work…
I tried using “Flip” to see if it would work on Twitter.
It Doesn’t! 🙁
Josephina is speaking in tongues again.
!funny so are guys You
Anyone with updates on possible Conficker threat? 60-Minutes had me rivited with the story.
Maybe a new Rickroll that would be good would be that neat song that was for a charity…oh what the heck was it…something about my name…(dang getting old and forgetting stuff stinks) Does anyone know what I’m talking about?
Liz, LOL Spunky Fireslacks?
#104 That has potential … 🙂
Barbara – Good article about the Conficker computer virus, set to launch tomorrow http://tinyurl.com/d3mees
It’s a ZD Net article, not any kind of joke
This has been fun – I must remember Tuesday nights – but now I must get some more work done before I can get to bed. And I’ve made a *BIG* sticky note and stuck it to my monitor to remind me that tomorrow is April Fools and to take everything I read with a shaker-full of salt! Hey! We can start a Jimmy-Roll! I even have a Margaritaville blender sitting on my kitchen counter. Ok. Now I’m ready. Let April Fools begin 🙂
See you all in twitterville!
(@fiberartisan)
Thanks Marty L…Going there now.
I say we all trade avatars and twitter names tomorrow and see who can guess who we are. Or see if anyone is even listening to any of us. Hehehe.
!gnol oot rof pu ti peek dluoc I tbuod I tub ,nuf hcum oot si sihT
Amy, perhaps we could switch avatars. Really mess with people.
Waddy ya think? Marti_L
Hey thanks Liz for hosting. Have to sign-off, but really glad I came!
Bye Mary.
You’re welcome, Barbara.
Amy, I love the way your mind works!
Jo, perhaps there’s a backwards typing app.
Maybe the Confliker virus is the ultimate geek 4/1 prank.
Everyone is trying everything they can think of to fix what ain’t broken.
They even have MSM’s attention!
Joe,
I know. that #110 thing is cool, but it’s work!
Jo, I agree, it’s be hard to keep up (see I deciphered it *grin*)
Glenda, if I tone down my cussing while I’m pretending to be you they might believe it. 😀
Ms Glenda, no, I did that myself.
There is an upside down “Flip” app, but it doesn’t work with live convos
wow Amy, we must have been typing the same thought at the same time. That’s scary! #109 & 111
Well, this has been a hoot! Thank you all for the grins and giggles! Watch yourselves tomorrow! Have fun but don’t be too #gullible *grin*
Peace and joy to all!
Glenda — See? We could totally do it! Also, Liz, please destroy the evidence. Hehehe.
Amy, let’s do it!
#110 Translation:
This is too much fun, but I doubt I could keep it up for too long!
Did anybody get it? 🙂
Time for me to go. Thanks for the fun Liz and everyone. I think I’ll whip out an #antifool hashtag for tomorrow, just to play it safe. 😉
#123
Amy no worries! No reads my blog … not even me. 🙂
Good night Marti and Amy!
Thanks for bringing your stories!
Jo, no need for the translation!
It’s been fun, everyone! Liz, thanks for hosting.
I hafta do some work now. Really. No foolin’.
Oh! If you want to trade avatars with me tomorrow, please DM me @sparkyfirepants
Nice, Amy. Awesome idea.
#130 SparkyLizPants heh heh
Thanks for being here!
Is it ethnically wrong to switch avatars without the swichee knowing? 🙂
Looks like tomorrow’s antics will give me a good excuse to close all windows on the laptop except for the one project I’m actually working on. 🙂
#132
I think you mean ethically wrong – don’t you?
Sheila, probably wise!
You go, Sheila!
Maybe you’ll find a window of napportunity.
Yeah, that, Liz! Altho, depending upon the avatar…
Yeah, Glenda!
I’m laughing at the idea. 😉
Me too, Liz. I’m here giggling at the idea.
Hi Liz, hi everyone! Should I say happy April Fool’s day? =) Heard about that virus that would be spread on April 1st? (._.)
And I got a link for you today: http://www.screensucked.com/2009/04/robert-pattinson-kristen-stewart-fired.html
😉
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lamron era srettiwT eht retfa 2-4 nO
rednet kool em sekam oJ gnikool esreveR
sredneg gnignahc nuf emos dah neve I
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sekoJ rof yad a si tsriF lirpA
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hi Meikah!
Glad to see you!! I heard about that virus. I’m hanging tight. Thanks for the link!!
!eoJ thgin dooG
llews ypeelS
Joe,
Bottom to top too … outstanding!!
😉
Hi Liz and All!
April Fools short story…I replaced the icing in Oreo cookies with mint toothpaste and left a tray full of delectable looking cookies…the faces on the takers…PRICELESS!
Happy Fools Day everyone!:~) lol!
So what’s the plan for April Fool’s Day? ~dance~
Not nice, Henie!
You’re the only one who enjoyed the joke. Ew!! 🙂
=) I used to pull tricks (like someone looking for him, someone borrowing his favorite book, etc.) on my father during April Fools but after a while, he can’t be fooled anymore!
Hi Meikah,
I was never any good at coming up with a winning idea. The ideas I thought of were always too stupid or too mean for me. 🙂
Joe, that was a brilliant closing poem!
That’s awesome, Joe. You rock. 🙂
Marti and Amy,
So glad you came back to see Joe’s awesome poem!
I always subscribe so I can see the poem. 🙂
Well, Liz, perhaps my father was just gullible when it comes to me. But he told me once, though, that I had the makings of a real prankster. =)
Meikah!,
I’ll have to keep my eyes out for you! heh heh 🙂
I always subscribe too 🙂
LOL. Liz! 🙂
I can’t wait to read Joe’s poem for April Fool’s though.