This is perhaps very subjective, after all, how exactly do you measure, “best”? Anyway, regardless of individual opinion, these are quite funny ..
All time Best Ever
Here, first are the best 10 ever, in that they fooled a lot of people at the time …
What about 2013?
So what have we got this year? Well, we have the usual collection of companies looking for free advertising … (but some are good enough to repeat anyway, so what the heck)…
Virgin have a new concept, a glass bottomed plane …
There is also a story on the Independent that “Freddie Mercury ‘smuggled Princess Diana into a gay club dressed as a man’” (which contains the memorable line: “She did look like a beautiful young man … “) – oh wait, that one appears to be true.
Some are just too obvious, for example Duncan Bannatyne (The guy who does Dragons Den in the UK) has announced on twitter that he is to become a pop star (Oh please, let there be somebody out there who believed this one) …
Twitter, Google and YouTube are in full swing
Twitter have announced that from today going forward, you have to pay $5 per month for vowels … but consonants will remain free on Twttr …
Google have announced Google Nose … (yes, echos of the old smell-a-vision TV prank) … and yes, it is there on their home page just below I’m Feeling lucky
… and of course, with the demise of Google Reader, we now have the news that YouTube will be shutting down, claiming that YouTube was simply a competition and they are now going to review all the material and announce the winner in 2023 … squeeee, the winner gets an MP3 player and $500. They clearly did a bit of work on this one, they have hilarious cameos from YouTube celebrities such as Antoine Dodson, David After Dentist, and Charlie and his brother (from the video “Charlie Bit My Finger” video)
In an attempt to make the YouTuble prank more believable, YouTube will add a live stream (starting at noon ET) of two faux presenters announcing “Best Video” nominees, which will run on the site for 12 hours. Although the stream will start out with the feel of an Emmys or Oscars presentation, you should expect it to get kooky and stranger as the day goes on.
April Fools’ Day is a big part of Google and YouTube’s culture. For example, they also have Gmail blue (yes, just making gmail the color blue), and also Google Treasure Maps. Looks that they have an internal competition among staff to see who can dream up the best prank. So why would they waste corporate $$ on stuff like this, well as I already pointed out … free advertising, but still as I also said, fun enough to play their game.
This one will fool most people … it is a clever interesting twist
The Metro has a list of the best pranks out there … except their list of pranks is in fact a fake list, and is itself a prank … now that is indeed inventive.
Yum Yum …
Fitelle have announced a new range of Bras that you can wear and then eat … and of course they are joking … but then again …
The UK media are in full swing of course …
Channel 4 has announced that Boris Johnson and David Miliband have entered into job swap agreement …
… and the Guardian has a new pair of glasses for you …
There is of course heaps more out there, the above is just a tiny selection, if you found any really good ones, then do drop a comment.
So what is and is not a prank?
OK, one more … perhaps, or perhaps not. Sometimes you just have to wonder, is this in fact real, or is it just another spoof … what do you think? The problem is that you can indeed see somebody out there thinking that this is a really good money-spinning idea … or perhaps for those that question the literary style and consider it all to be shit, then this just might be the best way to publish it.
Beyond all that, there is in fact a very important point here … it is quite easy to fool people, and many are successfully fooled by pranks on 1st April, but what about the rest of the year, have you been fooled by outrageous fraudsters out to defraud you?
I have, and so have many others … fake medicine: Homoeopathy, chiropractors claiming to cure none back related things such a bed wetting in kids, astrology, ghosts, lake monsters, aliens, gods, 9/11 conspiracy, climate change, evolution … sadly the list is endless.
Oh wait, those last two are actually true, we lnow that because there is evidence that verifies both, but then perhaps we should in fact keep them on the list because so many ignore the evidence and reject them as false.
Bottom line: Don’t just be skeptical today, be skeptical all the time.