April fools on the Web

[VirusType2]

OK enough is enough. As if there isn't enough bogus information on the internet, we have a special day to flood the net with false information.

I am reminded of a tragic occurrence of people taking their own lives for fear of the Apocalypse during a fictional radio show shortly after the advent of the radio. People thought the radio show - which featured fake news announcing the Apocalypse by way of alien attack on Earth - was real and were so terrified that they took their own lives.


The great thing about the net is the unlimited amount of information available. However, imagine if your local Television news station decided to broadcast believable false information for that day. News like "Insert Your Country's Name Here is under attack!", or "Nuclear Attack Imminent!"

I don't like April Fools! I'm going to see if I can find out who created this ridiculous "holiday".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_fool
Here

You can find information about

1 Origin
2 Hoaxes
3 Well-known hoaxes
3.1 By radio stations
3.2 By television stations
3.3 Lists of April Fool hoaxes
4 Other prank days in the world
5 Quotes about April Fool's Day
6 Nuisance caused to third parties by April Fool's Day
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Reading some of the famous pranks there is amusing.

 

[DeusExMachina]

It was a broadcast of "War of the Worlds." I don't think anyone killed themselves though, just a massive exodus out of New Jersey.

 

[VirusType2]

It was a broadcast of "War of the Worlds." I don't think anyone killed themselves though, just a massive exodus out of New Jersey.

Yea thats right. The original War of the Worlds.. what year was that? 1956-ish? (EDIT: 1938) Yea my facts are a little off because I'm telling the story from how I understood it as someone was talking about it. (hear-say)

EDIT: OK here's more information on WotW

The film was released in 1953.
The radio broadcast of The War Of The Worlds, in 1938:

here's all the information you could possibly want to read about the chaos that was unleashed from this radio broadcast
http://members.aol.com/Jeff1070/wotw.html


Anyway here is something interesting - well, depending on your opinion of interesting.

April Fool is the codename for a spy and double agent who played a key role in the downfall of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

According to General Tommy Franks, the commander of the U.S. military in the 2003 Iraq war, April Fool, an American officer, was approached by an Iraqi intelligence agent working undercover as a diplomat. April Fool then sold to the Iraqi false "top secret" invasion plans provided by Franks' team. This decoy deception successfully misled the Iraqi military into deploying major forces in Northern and Western Iraq in anticipation of attacks via Turkey or Jordan, which never took place. This greatly reduced the defensive capacity in the rest of Iraq and significantly facilitated the actual attacks via Kuwait and the Persian Gulf in the southeast. Inadequately defended, Baghdad fell to the invaders within a few weeks and Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed.

 

[SimonomiS]

Didn't Halflife2.net used to do Aprils Fools?

Doesn't look like there is one this year.

 

[Kamikazie]

Yea thats right. The original War of the Worlds.. what year was that? 1956-ish?

1938

source

my English teacher had a copy of it and let us listen to it, the broadcast could have scared this generation if we werent so hard-headed

 

[VirusType2]

Didn't Halflife2.net used to do Aprils Fools?

Doesn't look like there is one this year.

Used to, but since there was so much spam surfacing they had to disallow any April fools jokes. Anyone submitting an April fools joke will be subject to corporal punishment with extreme prejudice. (beaten to death)

my English teacher had a copy of it and let us listen to it, the broadcast could have scared this generation if we weren't so hard-headed

I believe it. Just the way they used to talk back then on the radio scares me already. So completely serious you know?

 

[Murray_H]

Didn't Halflife2.net used to do Aprils Fools?

Doesn't look like there is one this year.

There was a newspost about gold membership and contributing money to the forums, but that went about 10 minutes after it got put up.

 

[Murray_H]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4867512.stm

 

[Asknoone]

Didn't Halflife2.net used to do Aprils Fools?

Doesn't look like there is one this year.

There was one. But the administration decided hl2.net will not participate in anything that contains humour. So it was deleted.

 

[15357]

There was one. But the administration decided hl2.net will not participate in anything that contains humour. So it was deleted.

man, the administration in this site suc-

I mean, is awesome. *warily looks around for signs of banstick*

 

[Raeven0]

PSA: April Fool's jokes are never funny.

No, really. I said NEVER. They're so annoying that I'll have to avoid most forums and IRC channels today just so I won't be surrounded by stupid.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

It was a broadcast of "War of the Worlds." I don't think anyone killed themselves though, just a massive exodus out of New Jersey.

Believe it people were jumping out of fricking buildings.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Believe it people were jumping out of fricking buildings.

Seriously? . I thought people just packed up and tried to drive as far West as possible.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

A lot of people did, but there were people in other places that heard it who started killing themselves.

 

[SimonomiS]

Have you any sources about that?

I mean I hear it all the time, but I've never found any details, just "supposedly people jumped off buildings when they heard it" or a similar statement.

Wikipedia (I refer to it far too often) has this:

Contemporary accounts spawned urban legends, many of which persist and have come to be accepted through repetition as fact: Several people reportedly rushed to the "scene" of the events in New Jersey to see if they could catch a glimpse of the unfolding events, including a few astronomers from Princeton University who went looking for the "meteorite" that had supposedly fallen near their school. Some people, who had brought firearms, reportedly mistook a local farmer's water tower for an alien spaceship and shot at it.

But no mention of suicides.

 

[Glirk Dient]

Blizzard FTW

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/townhall/wisps.html
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warlock&t=961304&p=1&tmp=1#post961304
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofstarcraft/news.html?sid=6146918
http://www.blizzard.com/press/060401.shtml

 

[madog]

April Fools Day is not really funny at all. It is just a day where you have an excuse to piss people off, which is kind of funny I guess.

 

[SimonomiS]

Blizzard FTW

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/townhall/wisps.html
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warlock&t=961304&p=1&tmp=1#post961304
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofstarcraft/news.html?sid=6146918
http://www.blizzard.com/press/060401.shtml

Woah the reactions of some of the people on that board...

 

[The Mullinator]

April fools is sometimes a little humorous. Blizzard really does make good April fools jokes.

Also this one from Gamespot is kind of funny:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146958.html

It's not making fun of Nintendo but the generic fanboy and industry analysts.

 

[VirusType2]

Have you any sources about that?

I mean I hear it all the time, but I've never found any details, just "supposedly people jumped off buildings when they heard it" or a similar statement.

Post Number 1 fellas you must haven't noticed:

more information on War of the Worlds:

The film was released in 1953.
The radio broadcast of The War Of The Worlds, in 1938:

here's all the information you could possibly want to read about the chaos that was unleashed from this radio broadcast. Did anyone really kill dem selv?
Find out! :imu:
http://members.aol.com/Jeff1070/wotw.html

(click link there is too much information to paste here)

 

[OvA]

Sven Coop had the best so far. Btetter than last years IMO
http://www.svencoop.com/main/
http://vikingassault.50webs.com/

 

[SimonomiS]

Post Number 1 fellas you must haven't noticed:


(click link there is too much information to paste here)

Ah, missed that link. And it was the third post in this thread.

During the months that followed, these stories were shown to have little if any substance, yet today the myth of War of the Worlds stampedes and suicides persists as part of American folklore

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Have you any sources about that?

I mean I hear it all the time, but I've never found any details, just "supposedly people jumped off buildings when they heard it" or a similar statement.

Wikipedia (I refer to it far too often) has this:



But no mention of suicides.

I really need to stop listening to my grandfather.

 

[Jintor]

I liked the www.uncyclopedia.org April Fools joke. Mind you it was about as funny as the rest of their jokes (i.e. pretty funny).