# April Fools pranks - the good, the bad, and the ugly **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 1, 2025, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449 "2025-04-01T09:38:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/21 "2025-04-02T11:59:52Z")
Minecraft released their annual April fools day update yesterday. Apparently, they wrote some kind of rogue-like. I saw a few YouTubers having fun with it. Last year’s “poisonous potato” update was very entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/22 "2025-04-02T13:00:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > A lot of notices out there that Disney bought Troma. I’ve never even _heard_ of Troma before; therefore, even if I had seen the notice I don’t know that I would have known it was a prank. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/23 "2025-04-02T13:48:09Z")
My kids and I have a long tradition of doing April Fool’s jokes on my mother. As she’s in the States and we were living in Taiwan, mostly it involved seeing how much she would believe outlandish tales. Obviously, after the first several she would have her guard up. In order to get her to believe things, we would start feeding her misinformation months in advance. The best one had the kids getting accepted into the Finnish Academy for Proliferation of Curling when they were 12 and 10. They were to live in a remote dorm with children from a dozen countries through university and then would come back to Taiwan as ambassadors of the sport. It took about six months of making up various details about getting into curling, the training, coaches, tournaments and all. Finally on April 1st the kids called her and told her they had been accepted, and they would be leaving the next day. Grandma was not happy we were making this choice, but was not saying anything. Finally we let her know it was all a prank. No Finland, no curling, nothing. After she recovered, she thought it was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/24 "2025-04-02T15:07:37Z")
In the UK, there’s a famous one the BBC did on its viewers in the 1950s - [The spaghetti harvest in Italy:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU) Shows the state our culinary knowledge at the time. No jokes at the back. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/25 "2025-04-02T15:12:48Z")
I had my fourth grade math students yesterday, so I introduced them to two ideas: 7x13=28, and 0=1. > **[Abbott & Costello 7x13=28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_xLOMdGWsU%2F)** > **[One Equals Zero! – Math Fun Facts](https://math.hmc.edu/funfacts/one-equals-zero/)** I told them that if their parents allowed them zero desserts, they could mathematically prove they were allowed a dessert. Yesterday evening I got a text from a teacher with a kid in my group, telling me that the child had successfully conned her parents, using algebra, into giving her dessert. One of my proudest teaching moments. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/26 "2025-04-02T15:24:48Z")
Yesterday I was following a discussion about Robert Heinlein’s _Revolt in 2100_ / _If This Goes On…_ and the subject of his famously never-written story “The Stone Pillow” came up. When I researched the latter there were multiple cites to a review of “Robert Heinlein’s ‘The Stone Pillow’”, which led to a site reviewing a novel with a completely different plot than the one I was familiar with. The date of the page was 2009, but I didn’t notice the month and day. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/27 "2025-04-02T15:46:53Z")
I administer a website for my gaming group. Yesterday I got two concerned emails saying that there was something wrong, as when they tried to access the site, they ended up at the website of a South Pacific resort with the same name. I’ve been pulling this same April 1st trick for almost a decade now, and always catch at least one person who doesn’t remember the last time! Tradition! ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/28 "2025-04-02T18:01:54Z")
I won’t say I came close to falling for it but I didn’t immediately recognize the headline announcing Berkshire buying Tesla was a fib. However, on consideration, no way Warren Buffett touches that smoking heap with a ten foot pole. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/29 "2025-04-02T18:55:58Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Shows the state our culinary knowledge at the time. No jokes at the back. Geography’s still a bit off. The spaghetti harvest was in Switzerland, not Italy. The one I liked from this year is that Denmark bought Trump. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/30 "2025-04-02T22:20:47Z")
Yesterday’s NYT crossword was a cute and sly prank. Not to give away too much: The puzzle started with several answers filled in, in a handwriting style and in a faded color. The prefilled answers were obvious and absolutely correct, but when doing the crossing down clues you’ll find they don’t fit. The answers they gave you look like they were written in pencil and then erased. One clue was _\_\_\_\_\_ power_, and the answer given was _horse_. However, the answer that fit was _solar_. Fun! ---
**Author:** ![Kelby2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ebca7d/32.png) [@Kelby2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelby2)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/31 "2025-04-02T22:42:01Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > On April 1, 1980, the Grateful Dead opened a show with each musician playing the wrong instrument: guitarist Bob Weir on keyboards, guitarist Jerry Garcia and keyboardist Brett Mydland on drums, bassist Phil Lesh on lead guitar, drummer Micky Hart on bass, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann on rhythm guitar. The song was terrible but amusing. They then switched to their normal instruments and played the same song again. > > [https://www.jambase.com/article/grateful-dead-april-fools-day-1980-instrument-switch](https://www.jambase.com/article/grateful-dead-april-fools-day-1980-instrument-switch) Could anyone tell? (sorry, I’ll see myself out) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2025, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/32 "2025-04-02T22:42:11Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Minecraft released their annual April fools day update yesterday. Apparently, they wrote some kind of rogue-like. I saw a few YouTubers having fun with it. Last year’s “poisonous potato” update was very entertaining. I mentioned this in a Game Room thread, but I’ve been playing a game called Satisfactory, which is a mining/crafting/automation/factory building sort of game. I was playing it last night and it froze/crashed shortly after I started, so I reloaded and continued playing. But I was seeing all kinds of weird stuff, like giant-sized versions of normally dog-sized creatures, or dog-sized versions of normally giant-sized creatures, and some had on helmets like what your player character wears. I wondered if it had anything to do with my game crash and thought maybe I was going to have to scrap my game and start a new one… then today at work I realized “Oh crap! Yesterday was April 1st! I’ve been pranked!” ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/33 "2025-04-03T00:09:43Z")
> **[Air Transat renames Atlantic Ocean to “Canadien Ocean”](https://www.paxnews.com/news/airline/air-transat-renames-atlantic-ocean-canadien-ocean)** > > Air Transat is officially changing the name of the Atlantic Ocean to the “Canadien Ocean,” according to an April 1 press release. The new name is featured in on board announcements across Air Transat's network. To rally nationwide support, the... ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/34 "2025-04-03T02:11:28Z")
> **[International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to rename Canada geese...](https://albertapolitics.ca/2025/04/international-commission-on-zoological-nomenclature-to-rename-canada-geese-american-geese/)** > > The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature will rename Canada geese as American geese with the publication of the next edition of its widely respected list of scientific animal names.  The fourth edition of the International Code of... > [@](#): > > Speaking of which, unlike U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America, which was immediately obeyed by the spineless jellyfish (_Aurelia aurita_) at Google, the change in the name of the familiar species is not expected to be as controversial in Canada as the effort to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico is south of the Rio Grande. > > “Face it, they’re nasty birds,” said Charlie Angus, newly appointed by Prime Minister Mark Carney as Canada’s Ambassador to Washington. “They make a lot of noise, a really unpleasant honking sound. They’re mean as snakes, you can’t trust them not to turn around and attack you. And they shit all over everything!” ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/35 "2025-04-03T07:17:26Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > The one I liked from this year is that Denmark bought Trump. Reality not far behind: > **[Denmark’s Maersk buys Panama Canal railway](https://www.ft.com/content/cb460c62-b587-4900-a0c5-722f6c2548d4)** > > Deal loosens US control of train link at a time when Trump is seeking to ‘take back’ trade waterway ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449/36 "2025-04-03T07:49:10Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > A lot of notices out there that Disney bought Troma. > [@Spiderman](#): > > I’ve never even _heard_ of Troma before; therefore, even if I had seen the notice I don’t know that I would have known it was a prank. I mean, Death Row Records was owned by Hasbro from 2019 to 2021, so stranger things have happened. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-pranks-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/1016449.md?page=1)