AOL Journals: Magic Smoke

Friday, March 31, 2006
6:39:00 PM EST
Hearing Space, Neighbourhood Now, right off the bat, let me just say that I don't have any April Fool's hoaxes on tap for you this year. (April Fools Day being tomorrow, Saturday, in case you weren't aware. Boy, would you have looked silly.)

As far as I know, AOL doesn't really go in for April Fools Day jokes anymore. This is ever since we got burned a bit after April Fools Day, 1996, when we ran a promo on the Welcome Screen which said the government was covering up the existence of life on Jupiter. As usual, some people didn't get the joke, and I think we swore we'd never do it again -- at least, not in News.

(In one of those lemonade-from-lemons moments, some of our folks said, well, this shows how important AOL and the Internet have become for providing news and information to people.)

Anyway, that stunt comes in at Number 66 on the online Museum of Hoaxes's Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes.

News.com also has a story today about April Fools Day on the Web, which chronicles more tomfoolery on the Web this time of year.

Also, good year-round for the debunking of hoaxes, chain letters and urban legends is the ever-useful Snopes.com.

So, with all this in hand, I'm sure you won't be taken in by "Internet Spring Cleaning", or the equally implausible "Daylight Savings Time", which supposedly goes into effect on Sunday.

Thanks -- Joe

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This entry has 6 comments: (Add your own)

• #6 Comment from njmom72 
  4/1/06 2:32 PM | Permalink

  Hey Joe, where's April's picture from the Hello Kitty calendar? You know we're all dying to see it! :-)
  
  ~ Susan
  http://journals.aol.com/njmom72/TheStrawberryPatch
• #5 Comment from hadonfield78 
  4/1/06 7:26 AM | Permalink

  So what your saying is, that story about Life on Jupiter doesnt exist ???
  Oh Great........  Thanks alot.................
  Ive been trying to communicate with them telepathically since that story came out.
  Thanks alot..........  GEEZ.................
• #4 Comment from mavarin 
  3/31/06 10:34 PM | Permalink

  As an Arizonan, I already know Daylight Savings Time doesn't exist. - K.
• #3 Comment from rotweilersorbust 
  3/31/06 9:44 PM | Permalink

   I don't really go into April Fools day, but I will for the one my best friend pulled on me at school.  I was really into Honey Bees, she said Mr.So&So was playing the vidieo in his night classes, so I go running in and he looks at me like I'm crasy, plus I had been trying to get into one of his clsses.  He asked" What was I doing here"? I said I came to see video of Honey Bees, again he looked at me like I was crazy and said this is my "Marketing Class". I profusly apoligzed/  She was waiting outside Laughing her butt out. She did several more that day to me and in the circumstances we were in we needed the laughs.
• #2 Comment from adam 
  3/31/06 8:49 PM | Permalink

  Well, according to the folks over at Slashdot it has started already - apparently April Fools Day follows UTC and not local time zones.  So I suspect this post is the prank and that Joe is attempting to fool everyone into thinking he's not going to fool anyone, or something......
  
  Adam
  
  http://journals.aol.com/adam/TestingTesting

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