Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

How stupid are these people?

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

White supremacy is terrorism.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

In my day, never was longer.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tracking the April Fools Pranks

Reader Interactions

69Comments

  3. 3.

    r€nato

    @Fr33d0m:

    NERD!

    …can someone please explain how multiple exclamation points leads to one of those ‘can’t find an image’ icons?

  5. 5.

    The Other Steve

    Ted Stevens is gonna be pissed when he finds out AG Eric Holder is the grand master April Fools prankster.

  10. 10.

    The Other Steve

    They blew off Lenin’s butt in St. Petersburg. Not sure if this was April Fools joke or not, as the BBC reported it.

  13. 13.

    sgwhiteinfla

    Library Grape

    Dang it I was about to say the same thing. Congressman Ryan was on Morning Joe to promote their "budget" and man was he big on bloviation and short on specifics. But then he slipped up and said they are calling for a spending freeze in their "budget". This made Mika all excited as she has no clue about economics, but unfortunately for Ryan Tweety was on at the same time and at first he wasn’t going ot say anything but Mika thought a spending freeze was such a great idea that she was all like "Chris isn’t that WONDERFUL?" To which Tweety replied "Nope, sounds like Hoover to me." and then he proceeded to say Ryan and nem are trying to lead us into a Depression. That part was AWESOME.

    As soon as the clip is up I am posting it.

  14. 14.

    Apsaras

    Cartoon Network usually does something pretty fun. A few years ago they dubbed fart noises over some of their shows, and years ago they’d just run the same Screwy Squirrel cartoon for 24 hours straight. This year, I heard Adult Swim played "The Room", a two and a half hour so-bad-it’s-hilarious film. I’ve heard great things, so I set the DVR to record.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    The Guardian has gone to a pure Twitter-based distribution system. They’ve also rewritten stories from their archives:

    Major stories already completed include "1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!"; "OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more"; and "JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?"

    -dms

  16. 16.

    zmulls

    This is always the best day to listen to "All Things Considered"

    Many years ago, on our way to a seder, my mother and I heard a report that to save money, the United States had sold Arizona to Canada. Bruce Babbitt, former Arizona Governor and now Governeur-General of the Arizona Province, was interviewed. We were taken in for a few minutes before we remembered what day it was.

    A couple years ago, there was a report from the Smithsonian, where a project was underway to preserve current music recordings, which were recorded on deteriorating digital media, onto 78 rpm shellac, which had a significantly longer life. Hearing Britney Spears on a scratchy shellac 78 rpm was wonderful.

  18. 18.

    The Other Steve

    I was thinking of maybe buying a Mac. Should I go for the 17" MacBook Pro, or a Mac Pro desktop with a 24" cinema display?

    Which one would be better for playing Tetris?

  22. 22.

    Tom

    Is HotAir putting a photo of Palin on all their posts in honor of April Fool’s Day?

    If so, I have to give them credit for that one.

  24. 24.

    Marked Hoosier

    Did you hear that the DOJ is going to let Ted "Hulk Tie" Stevens off the hook of his conviction? Ho ho ho, that is a funny one right there!

    Wait, what?

  26. 26.

    jerry 101

    Penguins is from last year.

    The economist joke made me smile a bit.

    The "CADIE" blog/late-90’s geocities webpage is fairly funny. Kind of a Skynet with the mind of a rapidly aging tweenybopper girl.

    Check out this story – those french museum curators pulled a fast one for the holiday: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7975877.stm

    The biggest april fools joke of all is the International Olympic Committee visiting Chicago. If they believe Daley can competently organize an Olympiad on time and without spending 400% of the budget, then they are fools.

  27. 27.

    Library Grape

    @sgwhiteinfla: Dear god, more spending freeze insanity? I have been thinking of writing a blog post with a comprehensive list of things that, if you advocate for them, you should automatically lose all credibility in thinking society. Here’s some off the top of my head:

    — The world is only 6,000 years old.
    — Evolution is wrong.
    — Man lived among dinosaurs.
    — The thing to do in a serious recession is FREEZE SPENDING.
    — Man is not responsible for global warming and we should do nothing to address it (get some shade!)

    Will probably have more over my my blog later.

    It all reminds me of my favorite John Cole quote eva!

    “I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.”

  30. 30.

    hotdamn

    Last April Fools my friends wife made him a ham and cheese sandwich to take to work. She left the cheese in the cellophane.

  34. 34.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @Apsaras: Cartoon Network usually does something pretty fun. A few years ago they dubbed fart noises over some of their shows…

    And damn me, I laughed myself sick over it. I still have the DVR recordings somewhere.

  35. 35.

    Cris

    I’m with Fwiffo and cleek — I rarely find April Fool stuff very enjoyable.

    HOWEVER: I still have to give credit to NPR’s Performance Today for totally roping me in several years ago. They did an April 1 piece where they explained that Yo-Yo Ma was giving up the cello and would begin playing the accordion. They played it with a proverbial straight face, including a brief snippet of a lovely French accordion piece.

    I not only believed it, I believed it for months. Later that summer they played a cello piece by Ma, and I thought, "didn’t he switch instruments?"

  37. 37.

    Cyrus

    @shortstop:
    LOL. From one of Tapper’s e-mails:

    Yes have checked. No sign of it on Italian wires and Reuters links doesn’t work. Never heard of international standard Rompi Testiculo!

    Now, I don’t speak Italian, but I still think the name should have been a tip-off… "Crushed testicles" or something like that?

  38. 38.

    Brian J

    A few different ones:

    1. Mankiw and Steve Levitt are joining the Obama administration.
    2. Mankiw’s blog is now being used to support Harvard’s expansion because of dropping university endowment.
    3. The Guardian is switching to an all-Twitter format.
    4. My sister-in-law had her next baby today. I was thinking of calling my mom up at work to mess with her and claiming that they pulled two babies out instead of one, and still might, but I am not sure.

  40. 40.

    Brian J

    @zmulls:

    My oldest brother is mentally retarded, but only mildly so. He has the mindset of a child in a lot of ways, but he’s a big sports guy and can hold a conversation involving pretty much anything involving any teams. I’m not a sports guy, but I follow some of it every now and then. A few years ago, I heard a report on the radio that the Yankees were officially being moved to New Jersey. Even in our big Mets-loving household, this would be big news, so I went home and told him what I heard and what he thought. He responded by telling me I was fucking nuts and shouldn’t believe such crap.

    :]

  41. 41.

    Calouste

    Of course one of the most elaborate hoaxes of the day is John Cole pretending he is leaving Pajamas media network. He has been setting that one up for about two months now.

    Don’t worry, the not Joe the not Plumber ads will be back tomorrow.

  42. 42.

    Mike from DC

    personal favorite NPR bit was one of their announcers claimed that the program was sponsored by Soylent Green. The announcer (calmly) intoned "Soylent Green is people."

  43. 43.

    AhabTDefenestrator

    I’m with the Haters on this one, but I try not to shit on anyone’s parade over it. However, that does mean that on the rare occasion that someone gets one over on me, it is a work of art.

  44. 44.

    MikeJ

    Et tu, New York Times?

    Is that a joke? I ate coffee braised goat at Lola just last week.

  45. 45.

    crack

    I just heard Cutler, Bowlen, and McDaniels just held a news conference and announced it was all a joke.

  47. 47.

    Persia

    I’m still waiting for the ‘final’ Republican budget, dammit!

    Woot.com is offering a special bag o’crap hand-delivered by the CEO.

  48. 48.

    valdivia

    I am sure they will tell us the DOW is up because the reps released the budget? in 1, 2, 3….

  49. 49.

    ** Atanarjuat **

    I’ve found the political debates on Balloon-Juice very enlightening and intellectually compelling. Without question, many of the insightful observations made here by the regulars have caused me to re-think my conservative beliefs and principles.

    After much introspection, I’ve changed my party affiliation today to Democrat, and proudly so.

    Thank you, everyone, for helping guide me on to a more progressive and just path.

    -A

  51. 51.

    Ash Can

    @** Atanarjuat **: Didn’t you get the memo? We’re all turning Republican here now. Fuck you, we got ours. And we’re appointing Sarah Palin our spiritual advisor. Also.

  52. 52.

    Fr33d0m

    r€nato,

    We prefer Geek to Nerd for some reason.

    The explanation marks are probably used as a special character by the script and you probably just stumbled into a flaw.

  53. 53.

    ** Atanarjuat **

    @Ash Can:

    You shouldn’t joke about such serious matters. I thought you’d be pleased with my conversion.

    -A

  56. 56.

    Blue Raven

    The classic:

    http://www.thinkgeek.com/

    The surprising and therefore even funnier:

    http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

    And the one I have no link for, the fake Reuters story posted to the BMW Motorcycle Owners club website claiming BMW had bought Harley-Davidson and were going to run it like they run Husqvarna.

    Oh, but I shouldn’t be speaking up here. I’ve returned to the bosom of Christ and am waiting for my new husband to pick me up so I can make up for lost time on giving birth to as many children as the good Lord sends me. The more time I sit at this keyboard is less time I have to make him food and allow him to spend himself inside me.

  57. 57.

    Captain Goto

    IMHO, the best one of all-time was the George Plimpton article in Sports Illustrated, about a Zen-Buddhist baseball phenom about to be signed by the Mets. Supposedly named "Sidd[hartha] Finch," he wore only one shoe, and could throw 150MPH fastballs.

    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

    Read the first letters of each word in the teaser paragraph.

    And I forgot this–Plimpton eventually turned the thing into a novel. I doubt it measured up to his other stuff.

  59. 59.

    Jeroen janssen

    @r€nato:

    can someone please explain how multiple exclamation points leads to one of those ‘can’t find an image’ icons?

    I think I can, but I have to try something out first:

    **does this work?**

  60. 60.

    Jeroen janssen

    Yes it did.. it seems you can also use Textile markup in the comments and in Textile you can show an image by doing: !path/to/image.gif!

    So when you type two exclamation points in a row Textile thinks your trying to show an image.

    EDIT: Sorry, that didn’t work at all… let me try to explain that again: in Textile you can define an image by typing the path to the image in between two exclamation points.

    But I tried it out and it doesn’t happen, so maybe I am wrong and you can forget everything I wrote before.

    Testing:

    !!

  61. 61.

    JenJen

    Even Michelle Malkin had a good one today… "I’m filling in for Rachel Maddow tonight."

    And that’s probably the first and last time this year Malkin will be funny.

  63. 63.

    Xanthippas

    Astronomy Picture of the Day, always worth a look, makes its contribution:
    Astronaut’s Head Upgraded During Spacewalk
    Actually, their funniest photo wasn’t posted on April 1st.

    Hilarity. Who says astronomers don’t have a sense of humor?

    Well actually, I don’t know if anyone says that.

  64. 64.

    Xanthippas

    Even Michelle Malkin had a good one today… "I’m filling in for Rachel Maddow tonight."
    And that’s probably the first and last time this year Malkin will be funny.

    I must say, pranks are better when they’re at least remotely believable.

  65. 65.

    NonWonderDog

    @Blue Raven:

    I think this one would sell.

    Also, Glenn Beck has gone entirely insane, screaming about how Obama and the G20 protesters and GM and AIG are leading us towards an imminent reprise of Nazi Germany. And Fascist Italy. And Marxism. And Socialism. And the imminent collapse of western civilization.

    Actually, I don’t think it’s an April Fools. Hmm…

  67. 67.

    NonWonderDog

    Is that why all-caps is so screwy?

    Hmm… EMRTW(Evil Monkeys Rule The World)

    Wow. Never knew that.

  68. 68.

    Chris Johnson

    If anyone can get a screenshot of the Balloon Juice ad section which has both the Ann Coulter ad and my parody of it, that would be most awesome :)

    I wonder if she’s going to sue me until candy comes out :D

    Dammit, I forgot to edit out her adam’s apple!

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