Woke up this morning with Triple J trying to tell me it was an hour earlier than it actually was, to the point that the Breakfast show didn’t start until 7am (instead of 6). This joke only lasted until I actually woke up — and it was pretty dumb I think, with no real elaboration or complication. They kept it going until at least after 9am as well … mostly I think they made it up at the last minute just to cover them all waking up late or something.
After that though, there’s been a lot more jokes since, mostly online of course. Here’s some of the best so far, and I’ll update this later today if I see anymore good ones:
Google launch GDay — The Internet titans do one every year, and this one has a particularly Australian flavour this time … “Google Australia has introduced a new feature, enabling you to search content on the internet before it is created … The core technology that powers gDay™ is MATE™ (Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation).” GDay MATE … get it?
TechCrunch to sue Facebook for $25 million — Michael Arrington is often accused of being a hothead, but this one is particularly funny if you follow the online industry. Combines Facebook bashing with Arrington’s actual ability to make fun of himself sometimes. “My own personal brand has risen over the years as well to the point where I believe I can say without hubris that I am a very important person.” And the end is the best part: “I am sad that this had to blow up to the point where we are publicly suing Facebook over the matter. We’ll be filing the lawsuit tomorrow along with a related civil case for assault and battery. In a round of negotiations with Facebook led by Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelley, things got out of hand. Kelley told me Facebook would “bury you and bury your crappy blog” if we filed the suit. he then threw his steaming hot triple soy latte espresso at me, which caused extensive second degree burns over the top half of my body.”Gold!
Whirlpool broadband site acquired by NineMSN — This one works on so many levels … again it’s a tech joke, but it plays wonderfully on the fears of some paranoid users, especially when it comes to moderation of big popular forums. On a personal level, I know Simon Wright, the founder of Whirlpool, and he actually worked at NineMSN until late last year (through HWW, a company I used to work for that got bought out by NineMSN). The last time I spoke to him, he told me how much he hated the place and was so glad to get out 🙂
YouTube “rickrolls” everything — On YouTube Australia today, everything on the front page of the site is linked to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” video, that wonderfully ghastly late ’80s pop tune. At least when you search or go to your own saved choices, it’s back to normal …
TechCrunch acquires Tiger Beat — CNET News.com would like us to believe that TechCrunch, the serious tech blog site, has acquired teen magazine Tiger Beat. Hmmm … try again next year guys. It’s actually funnier when someone like Mike Arrington spoofs himself.
Google launches paper plane — Another joke from Google, this time in the US, cleverly buried inside Google Docs, where you can select an option “New airplane” and it gives you the plans for a paper aeroplane you can make yourself. Odd choice, but still a fun one.
And a nice link from the BBC:
10 Stories that Could be April Fools … but aren’t — This is an amusing compilation of news from around the world on April first that sound bizarre and possibly fake, but are actually all true (well, except the very last one they say is fake). This is an amusing but also occasionally serious topic that also has an historical write-up on Wikipedia.