Best April Fool's Jokes

Submitted by xtramelanin on April 1st, 2021 at 7:25 AM

Mates,

I am surprised I didn't check in here to see a post about "Juwan to Coach Washington Wizards" or "Harbaugh to Step Down, Les Miles to Take Over" or some such nonsense.  That said, there have been some great 'April Fools!' jokes and today would be the day to pull them.  So two questions for today:

1.  What do you remember as the best 'April Fool' joke you ever did/heard/suffered upon you?

2.  What would be the most outrageous U of M related 'April Fool' joke? 

For our April Fool up north, we went from things starting to green-up to a blanket of snow over everything this morning.  April Fool on us.

Have a great day,

XM

outsidethebox

April 1st, 2021 at 7:57 AM ^

The minute I started reading this I looked to see who authored it. Ha, you did not fool me, I was sure it was you!

Edit: You sure its not "Juwan to coach the Washington Generals"???

Booted Blue in PA

April 1st, 2021 at 8:12 AM ^

my only brother is 14 years older than I..... when I was 19 I called him at 1am to tell him i got picked up for minor in possession and I needed him to come pick me up at the police station.   He said, "fuck you, call mom and dad."

 

it didn't work as I intended.

St Joe Blues

April 1st, 2021 at 8:15 AM ^

My older girls (25 and 23) are huge Tigers fans. They share an MLB subscription to watch and listen to the Tigers from wherever they happen to be living. They've done this for years. I texted them this morning and said "Isn't this the most Detroit sports thing you've ever heard? Miguel Cabrera announced his retirement late last night on the eve of Opening Day." (not my idea - I stole it from a friend on FB) This is an ongoing situation since only one of them has answered so far. Got her hook, line and sinker. She texted me separately saying after the Michigan loss and Stafford trade (they idolize Kelly Stafford and have even communicated with her online) this was like a shot to the gut.

I thought about starting a thread claiming that Illinois had petitioned the NCAA for reinstatement to the NCAA Tournament and had won their case.

RGard

April 1st, 2021 at 8:19 AM ^

When I was in the UK one of the stores over there put an advertisement in the paper for their new 'rainbow' paint.  I remember looking at the picture of the rainbow paint being applied and thinking, "damn, I wonder how they do that?"

I looked for the pic and found this one.  Not the same as the original, but you get the idea:

 

RGard

April 1st, 2021 at 8:34 AM ^

Best one I ever did was when I was stationed at Ft. Meade, Maryland.  My co-worker was a serious military history bluff.  I suspect he could tell you how many cannon balls were fired by the US Navy in the Spanish American war.

He was arriving late on April 1st and I knew he didn't have a working radio in his car.  When he came in, I put my serious face on and asked, "Chuck, did you hear the news?"  He said no.  I went on saying, "The Red Chinese made an amphibious assault on Taiwan this morning.  They bombed our airbase there just before."  And the color drained from Chuck's face.

That would have been the end of it and I would have announced "April Fools", but Chuck said, "I knew this was coming.  I read in (some obscure military publication he named) that the Chinese were building ships to be used in an amphibious assault, but the journal didn't speculate as to what the target would be."

Then our boss (an LTC) who was listening started rattling off casualty figures he had "heard on the radio".  We let Chuck know it was an April Fools joke soon after that.

This was 1988. No internet available to quickly confirm or deny the news. 

goodfella96

April 1st, 2021 at 9:09 AM ^

The two I remember best were also from my time in the military. The first we told a young airman we needed an exhaust sample from our site truck. We handed him a jar and he put it as close to the tailpipe as possible to collect the exhaust. I then drove him down to the motor pool and dropped him off. He walked inside and tried to give them his exhaust sample but they were laughing too hard. Another one we did was our medical appointments used to be scheduled by the squadron so they would call the NCOIC and put it on the calendar for us. One April 1st morning an airman had a Pap smear appointment listed on the calendar. We had to let him off the hook before he called the clinic to ask what he needed to bring. 

Oregon Wolverine

April 1st, 2021 at 11:16 AM ^

Or bacon stretcher... tenderfoots always fell for that one.  
 

Loved doing that at Jamborees, experienced scouts would, w/a straight face, point to the troop over yonder and say “they borrowed ours,” and send them on the way.  

Tenderfoot might get bounced around the Jamboree for quite some time.  

mgoblue0970

April 1st, 2021 at 1:13 PM ^

When I was active duty... we faked a set of orders for an E-6 to PCS to Thule AB.

He took that shit seriously... got out of his lease in his apartment, put his car up for sale... we tried to let him off the hook and say it was a prank but he wouldn't let it go for a while.

The squadron commander had us all at attention and read us that riot act that will do it for practical jokes boys.

Vote_Crisler_1937

April 1st, 2021 at 8:51 AM ^

Sidd Finch, 1985.
 

I’m too young to know how that was perceived. Can anyone share what the public reaction to that was? I would think everyone would know it was a joke, but then, the way news is created and perceived today, I dunno. I could see people falling for it. Especially before the internet. 

Teeba

April 1st, 2021 at 9:28 AM ^

I was 14 years old when I read that. I wanted to believe it. I think it took some time for everyone to appreciate the joke. The magazine almost never arrived on the same day as the date printed on the cover. I probably read the article in late March, so I wasn’t looking out for April Fool’s jokes.

SI used to publish letters to the Editor about previous articles. But if I recall correctly, there was a 2 week lag between when an article was published and when the readers’ responses were published. The responses to that article ranged from “bravo, you got me,” to, “how dare you! I’m canceling my subscription!”

sleeper

April 1st, 2021 at 11:59 AM ^

I remembered reading how they hid April Fools in the article and googled and found this: 

The article was titled, “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch” with a sub-title of “He’s a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd’s deciding about yoga —and his future in baseball”

For the astute reader, the sub-title was the key to unraveling the mystery. The first letter of each word spelled out “H-A-P-P-Y A-P-R-I-L F-O-O-L-S D-A-Y”. Of course very few got this, which made the subsequent article even more intriguing.

Westside Wolverine

April 1st, 2021 at 9:06 AM ^

About 10 months into our marriage, my wife walked into our bedroom with a positive pregnancy test. I was in grad school at UM with a year remaining and in no position to help raise a child. We also had no health insurance (pre ACA) and very little income at the time. Needless to say, I was very concerned and quite dismayed. She was not happy with my reaction lol. Turns out she had a pregnant friend to generate the positive test.

uferfan

April 1st, 2021 at 9:07 AM ^

A bunch of friends and I borrowed a hi-lo from the lumber company across the street from our high school that one of our friends worked at and put the principal’s old Volkswagen Beetle on the school roof. He was always the first one there and the last to leave every day; so we timed it out after weeks of scouting so that we knew no one else would be around. Months of planning for a decent April Fools senior prank.

The Blue Collar

April 1st, 2021 at 9:20 AM ^

At about 11:59PM on March 31st, I was in our changing room getting ready for bed. My pregnant wife calls from the bedroom, "I think my water broke."

It being 2 weeks left to the due date and basically April fools day, I laughed at her. "Good try! You're not getting me!"

Anyway, today is my daughter's second birthday! 

ColeIsCorky

April 1st, 2021 at 9:57 AM ^

We had a bunch of men from our church get together at our house, and my wife replaced the middle of a bunch of mint oreos with mint toothpaste. It wasn't until almost all of them were gone before someone finally questioned them.