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5->''"APRIL FOOL, n.: The March fool with another month added to his folly."''
6-->-- '''Creator/AmbroseBierce''', ''Literature/TheDevilsDictionary''
7
8A long time ago, April 1st was the start of the new year, and after it was officially changed to January 1st, people who still celebrated at the old date were dubbed "April Fools". Or possibly the term originally referred to people who prematurely celebrated the start of summer (which was traditionally May Day, May 1, in many ancient cultures), only to be met with lingering snowfall; the exact origin is unclear. Regardless of where the term originated, it has since become something much sillier.
9
10April 1 is known as April Fools' Day, where almost every single person in the world becomes TheFool. A time to trick {{Muggles}} that the joke is real, and a time to pull pranks and tricks. You will then reveal the trick with the line "April Fools!"
11
12Many works of the media include April Fools' Day jokes: usually articles presented as news or truth that go beyond the limits of sense, contain blatant inaccuracies, would be completely outrageous, etc. They usually assume ViewersAreGeniuses and that no one would be stupid enough to take it seriously, [[PoesLaw but of course that's not always true]]. People are often taken in, get outraged, get laughed at, get made to feel stupid. A good time is had by all.
13
14In the 1990s and early 2000s, a common April Fools' Day Joke on {{Webcomics}} was for two different webcomic authors to each do the other's strip. By far the most popular joke on the Internet seems to be a claim by the owner that the website is shutting down. A common joke specific to fansites is to suddenly denounce what the fansite stood for and revamp it to focus on a different franchise, most commonly one that bears similarities to the original, or even a competing one. Another joke specific to gaming sites with free content is the introduction of a "[[BribingYourWayToVictory premium]]" version of the site, where it's said one gets exclusive content if one pays for it; generally, the site makes "preview content" available, with most of the "premium perks" turning out to be silly (or duplicates of free services by other sites devoted to the game).
15
16Subversions of April Fools' Day are to have something improbable published on that day be actually true (either on that day or on a later date, or when a prank goes [[DudeNotFunny just a little too far]]).
17
18In any case, woe betide someone who dies (or worse, is ''born'') on April Fools' Day. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_Aleutian_Islands_earthquake And God help you if a natural disaster happens and people think the blaring sirens are a prank.]]
19
20!!See AprilFoolsPlot for in-universe fictional examples.
21----
22!!Real example subpages
23[[index]]
24* AprilFoolsDay/AdultSwim
25* AprilFoolsDay/FanWorks
26* AprilFoolsDay/LiveActionTV
27* AprilFoolsDay/VideoGames
28* AprilFoolsDay/WebOriginal
29[[/index]]
30
31!!Other real examples:
32[[foldercontrol]]
33
34[[folder:Advertising]]
35* The mouthwash company Scope used the couple of days leading to April 1st, 2013 to advertise a bacon-flavored mouthwash. Consumer reactions were overwhelmingly positive, and there were plenty of people [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130406053358/http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=12dc81a5-15ad-4ef6-8b8e-3c7014fb5983 ticked off to find out it was all a joke]].
36* On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell took out newspaper ads in several cities announcing that they had purchased sponsorship rights to the Liberty Bell, and it would subsequently be renamed the "Taco Liberty Bell." After millions of angry phone calls to both Taco Bell and the US government, then-White House Press Secretary Mike [=McCurry=] sarcastically quipped that Ford had also acquired sponsorship of the Lincoln Memorial and would be renaming it the "Ford-Lincoln-Mercury Memorial."
37[[/folder]]
38
39[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
40* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' usually has an event on the author's blog where one of the characters takes over the site for the day.
41* In 2003, mahq.net made an April Fools' Day [[http://www.mahq.net/rants/prank.htm prank announcement]] of a ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' sequel, which some websites in Japan apparently thought was a genuine one. And when ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' was released, the uncanny similarities [[HilariousInHindsight just made it funnier.]]
42** In addition April 1st is the site's anniversary, meaning they generally don't do April Fools' Day jokes. That, and it's admittedly [[ToughActToFollow kind of hard to top]] Grandiose Gundam.
43* In 2010, promotion for the upcoming ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' movie was changed so that [[http://community.livejournal.com/gintama/898276.html Shinpachi appeared to be the main focus]]. Worth it for Gintoki's expression in the cutaway panel alone.
44** For April Fools Day 2014, the fan site [[http://toonamifaithful.com/ ToonamiFaithful.com]] uploaded an [[http://toonamifaithful.com/exclusive-dragonball-z-is-returning-to-toonami/ article]] claiming that ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', one of Toonami's biggest {{Killer App}}s during its Cartoon Network years, would be returning uncut and in 16:9 HD... and would be taking up ''the entire lineup'', pushing every show currently airing off the block. The article, which was written to be as conspicuous as possible, even included fake quotes from Creator/{{FUNimation}} and Williams Street. The reaction was mixed, from those who took the joke in good spirits, to those who were pissed that it was just a joke, and to those who were convinced that it was actually true (to the point where some people on Twitter asked Jason [=DeMarco=] for confirmation). The joke itself was made ominously prophetic, however, when it was announced shortly after that Toonami would be airing the ''Cooler's Revenge'' movie, and ''even more so'' when, on that same night the movie aired, it was announced that the 2009 recut ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'' would eventually be coming to Toonami.
45* In 2012, Crunchyroll announced a new streaming app for Platform/GameBoy. The ''original'' [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-756509/april-fools-crunchyroll-app-for-gameboy Game Boy.]]
46* In 2015, [[https://twitter.com/teruya13/status/582920743693905920 someone created a PV]] for a nonexistent spinoff of ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' starring Accelerator's GenderFlip counterpart Yuriko Suzushina, who doesn't actually exist in-universe and is just an imaginary character.
47* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'':
48** In 2017, Creator/{{Toei|Company}} released information saying that the next storyline would be the "Society Survival Saga", which cast the ''Dragon Ball'' characters as white-collar office workers trying to survive during an economic recession. This was accompanied by artwork depicting Team Universe 7 from the Universe Survival Saga (the '''actual''' next storyline) [[BadassInANiceSuit wearing nice business suits]].
49** 2018 had two: News saying that ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'' (which didn't have an official name at the time) was going to be a crossover with ''Anime/PrettyCure'', and the official series website getting transformed into the official [[BreakoutCharacter Android 17]] Website.
50* In 2017, Okawa Bkub's manga ''Manga/HoshiiroGirldrop'' was announced to have an anime adaptation coming later that year. Only for the official website days later to reveal Popuko tearing through the protagonist's face to reveal that ''Manga/PopTeamEpic'' would be getting the anime instead.
51* Numerous anime and manga franchises do April Fools' Day jokes. Anime News Network compiles a list every year (e.g. [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2014-04-01/anime-does-april-fool-day-part-1 2014]], [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-03-31/the-joke-on-you-anime-does-april-fool-day-part-1/.86578 2015]], [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2016-03-31/anime-manga-game-industry-celebrates-april-fool-day-2016/.100503 2016]], [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2017-03-31/anime-manga-game-industry-celebrates-april-fool-day-2017-part-i/.114178 2017]], [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2018-04-01/anime-manga-game-industry-celebrates-april-fool-day-2018-part-i/.129806 2018]], [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-03-31/anime-manga-game-industry-celebrates-april-fool-day-2019-part-i/.145231 2019]]).
52* Beginning in 2018, the official ''Anime/PrettyCure'' website will change the main page so that the show is now centered around whoever that year's mascot is. The ninth episode of ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'' aired on April Fool's Day, and had Hugtan do the PreviouslyOn segment.
53** The year ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' was airing, the website instead did a "spot the mistakes" game, likely a reference to one of the kinds of games that is shown at the end of each show.
54* In 2019, all the manga on the [[Creator/{{Cygames}} Cycomi]] website had header images taken from ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga''.
55* In 2020, ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'' took over the Weekly Shonen Jump website, and the mangaka also drew a parody chapter of ''Manga/DeathNote''.
56* In 2021, Harper Anime Reviews talked about a familiar yet [[https://harperanimereviews.com/a-forgotten-masterpiece-keit-ai-spoiler-review/ forgotten masterpiece]] known as ''WebOriginal/KeitAi'', referencing the [[{{Vaporware}} anime]] as something [[Literature/{{Toradora}} Toradora-like]].
57* In 2017, a "live-action ''Anime/LoveLiveSunshine'' movie" was annouced by the show's official staff. The preview video for said movie turned out to be [[spoiler: a video done entirely with puppets]].
58* It's become something of a RunningGag for anime blogs to make April Fools' Day announcements of an AnimatedAdaptation of [=ShindoL=]'s ''Manga/{{Metamorphosis}}'', a notoriously nasty and very NotSafeForWork {{deconstruction}} of schoolgirl-focused {{hentai}} manga. These fake announcements [[HilariousInHindsight inadvertently gained additional credence]] after the similarly rapey ''Anime/RedoOfHealer'' actually did get a quasi-mainstream anime release: it's now common for these fake articles to say the anime is being produced by the same studio.
59[[/folder]]
60
61[[folder:Comic Books]]
62* In 2005, ''Magazine/{{Wizard}}'' magazine announced that Creator/GeoffJohns was working on a Creator/VertigoComics version of ''Comicbook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'', in which the Crew was disbanded, Little Cheese was murdered by one of his teammates, and a new character called the Bald Eagle had to bring them all back together. Then Johns topped this by actually writing it into an issue of ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' the following year.
63** In later years ''Wizard'' had fake April Fools reports that Creator/PaulDini and Alex Ross were producing a graphic novel starring Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins from ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'', that Steve Niles, creator of ''ComicBook/ThirtyDaysOfNight'', was producing a horror comic staring cereal mascots [[Advertising/MonsterCereals Franken Berry, Boo Berry and Count Chocula]], and that Geoff Johns and Creator/RichardDonner were writing a comic-exclusive sequel to Donner's film ''Film/TheGoonies'' called ''Goonies 2: The Search for Sloth.''
64* In 2009, the big news on the comics blogsphere was Johns again, now working on ''[[http://onceuponageek.com/2009/04/01/geoff-johns-and-ethan-van-sciver-talk-vibe-rebirth Vibe: Rebirth]]'' with Ethan Van Scriver. At last, one of the most iconic characters in the DC stable is brought back to glory!
65** For those who don't follow DC, Johns has done both ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'' and ''ComicBook/TheFlashRebirth''. ComicBook/{{Vibe}}, a [[TotallyRadical painfully-eighties]] inner-city kid with the meta-human ability to produce sonic waves, often through breaking dance, was a, uh, "less prominent character". Of course, Johns did eventually rework Vibe for the ''ComicBook/New52''.
66* In 2010 TopShelfProductions released a cover for ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/04/01/top-shelf-announces-league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen-1988/ 1988]], featuring among others [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture Doc Brown]] and [[Series/TheATeam Sergeant Bosco "B.A." Baracus]].
67* In 2008, the official Franchise/{{Transformers}} Fanclub showed what they claimed to be a three-page preview of the upcoming [=BotCon=] comic, featuring a MirrorUniverse story where the Autobots were evil and the Decepticons were good...and then it became so popular that they {{Defictionalized}} it and it became ''ComicBook/TransformersShatteredGlass''.
68[[/folder]]
69
70[[folder:Comic Strips]]
71* In 1997, several comic artists swapped strips, producing such oddities as a ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' comic in the style of ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus'' (which ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' author Scott Adams described as one of the signs of the Apocalypse), and ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} migrating to ''ComicStrip/Blondie1930'' while the new paintjob at his house dries (and he gets to eat a DagwoodSandwich while there).
72** Kevin Fagan was unable to find another cartoonist to trade ''Drabble'' with, so he [[StylisticSuck drew it with his left hand]].
73* In 2005, several comics including ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'', and ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'', did identical comics where one character plays with a Ouija Board and uses it as an excuse to hit another, eliciting the response "Somehow I imagined the afterlife to be a more peaceful place."
74* A ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' comic strip from 1979 had Linus announcing that [[VaguenessIsComing "he" was coming]]. The Easter Beagle? No, not the Easter Beagle. The Great Pumpkin? No, not him either. So who's coming, then? It's...[[spoiler:the April Fool!]][[note]]Charlie Brown: Why can't I have a normal dog like everyone else?[[/note]]
75** It also did many other strips before and after this one, although not all of them were April Fool's Day gags. Some just simply talked about it, including one strip where Charlie Brown tries and fails to do one, and then laments how no one falls for his April Fool's Day jokes.
76* In 2012, a number of guest artists took over work on ''ComicStrip/CulDeSac'' while Richard Thompson was trying to manage his Parkinson's disease. On April 1st, Stephen Pastis did a guest strip, which he used to make an extra ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' strip about [[SelfDeprecation how much he sucks at replicating Thompson's iconic art style]].
77-->'''Pig:''' I don't think he'll ask you for any more favors, Steph.
78[[/folder]]
79
80[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
81* In 2013, Creator/{{Pixar}} launched a website to promote ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'' that resembled the website of real colleges. On April 1st of that year, the site appeared to have been hijacked and vandalized by rival college Fear Tech.
82[[/folder]]
83
84[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
85* Creator/TheCriterionCollection
86** In 2011, they announced that after years of releasing prestigious films on [=DVDs=], [[http://www.chud.com/45898/were-getting-criterioned/ the next release would be the notorious]] BMovie ''Film/{{CHUD}}''.
87** In 2012, they announced the same thing would be done for ''Film/KindergartenCop''.
88* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}''
89** In 2016, Toho announced a crossover movie between Godzilla and ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''... which turned out to be a promotional stunt for ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' (which makes sense, considering [[Creator/HideakiAnno who's directing that movie]]).
90** In 2022, Toho produced a fake trailer for ''Godzilla vs. the Tigers'', pitting the King of the Monsters against the Hanshin Tigers baseball team and a HumongousMecha version of their mascot To-Lucky.
91* In 2018, ''Film/Shazam2019'' director Creator/DavidFSandberg posted [[http://twitter.com/ponysmasher/status/980454648501829632 what appeared to be a trailer for the film on his Twitter timeline]]. It eventually turned out to be [[RealTrailerFakeMovie a gag trailer for "Shazam!: The Rise of Ponysmasher"]].
92* Some versions of the theatrical run of ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022'' has the movie being sped up quickly after the Paramount bumper, then Sonic thanking the audience for watching, hoping they enjoyed it as much as he did before laughing and declaring “April Fools!” and playing the film in “human speed”.
93* On April 1 2023, the producers of ''[[Film/M3GAN M3GAN]]'' released a spoof trailer for an ''Series/EmilyInParis'' crossover sequel.
94[[/folder]]
95
96[[folder:Literature]]
97* In 2012, weeks after the final book for ''Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi'' was released, Suvudu published [[http://star-wars.suvudu.com/2012/04/post-star-wars-fate-of-the-jedi-news-and-exclusive-epilogue-by-timothy-zahn.html a fake epilogue by Timothy Zahn]], claiming [[spoiler:it was Luke's clone who survived the events of ''The Last Command'', not the real Luke]]. Also, there's a revelation that [[spoiler:Grand Admiral Thawn's master plan was to collect a complete set of clones, and almost all of the characters may or may not be clones]], marking the launch of an unending ''Star Wars'' series called [[spoiler:''Star Wars: The Clone Wars 2'']].
98* ''Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark'' was first published on April 1, 1876.
99[[/folder]]
100
101[[folder:Music]]
102* In April Fools Day 2015, Music/{{Brentalfloss}} released the song everyone has been requesting for over 7 years... the overworld theme of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' with lyrics. There's just one catch though... the lyrics he sings are in Japanese. (''Accurate'' Japanese, mind you, Brent had a translator working on it.) Like Brent himself said, BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor.
103* On April 1st, 2013, Music/TheDoubleclicks released ''[[https://thedoubleclicks.bandcamp.com/album/meowsic-to-your-ears Meowsic To Your Ears]]'', an EP of previously released original songs rearranged to feature the "cat keyboard" playing the main melody, and declared this to be their "new sound" . The cat keyboard in question is a toy keyboard shaped like a stylized cat face with piano keys for teeth, and naturally one of its instrument settings is a synthesized cat's meow - it's been used for videos on the band's youtube channel before, mainly for jokey {{cover song}}s.
104* The day after April Fools Day 2015, Music/{{Eminem}} [[http://genius.com/Genius-eminem-gets-verified-on-genius-lyrics added annotated selections to his full catalog on Rap Genius as well as music from other rappers]]. And you know what the funniest part of the joke is? It wasn't a joke at all.
105* In 2019, Buster Bros from ''Music/HypnosisMic'' performed a rap remix of of the ''Anime/KingOfPrism'' version of "EZ DO DANCE".
106* In 2007, Music/AlanisMorissette covered the Music/BlackEyedPeas' infamous "My Humps", seemingly as an April Fools joke.
107* Music/NineInchNails:
108** On April 1st, 2009, the band announced the release of a new album: ''[[https://www.nin.wiki/Strobe_Light Strobe Light]]'', produced by Timbaland and featuring artists like Music/JustinTimberlake and [[Music/TheBlackEyedPeas Fergie]], with such tracks as 'Pussygrinder' and 'Clap Trap Crack Slap'. For extra silliness, the cover showed Trent Reznor wearing shutter shades. Clicking the 'download' link on the official NIN website would lead to a fake blue screen of death.
109** On April 1st 2019, a fan made a {{defictionalization}} [[https://archive.org/details/StrobeLight of the album for its 10th anniversary]], consisting of strange NIN mashups.
110* List of ''Music/SiIvaGunner'' examples:
111** In 2016, [=SiIvaGunner=] released "April Fools Remixes" of the entire soundtrack for ''VideoGame/TheFlintstonesTheRescueOfDinoAndHoppy'', with additional "remixes" for a few songs from ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'', ''VideoGame/SutteHakkun'', and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''. The gag behind all these "remixes" that they are actually unedited rips, with the non-''[[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Flintstones]]'' rips already sounding like the theme from the cartoon. He later tweeted that he's quit making remixes, but [[AmbiguousSyntax worded vaguely so that people thought he meant he's quitting the channel]]. The joke album "[=GilvaSunner=]'s Highest Quality Video Game Rips" was also released, but the original release was intentionally bloated with 245 uncompressed FLAC copies of "Grand Dad Metropolis" (244 of which being the original unedited song from ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes''), 245 identical pictures of Creator/KevinSpacey, and an image of the "Official [=GilvaSunner=] Seal of Quality" with a filepath so long that it's impossible to delete if the downloader isn't careful upon extracting the .ZIP archive the album was contained in. An actual high quality rip of "Final Destination" from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' was released through the channel of the real [=GilvaSunner=].
112** In 2017, the channel mimicked the upload schedule of the real [=GilvaSunner=] and released the entire soundtrack of "Zero Grand Prix" (the accompanying album wasn't released until the following day). In addition, a collaboration with Creator/ChrisNiosi was released in the form of a "[[VideoGame/TheIdolmaster Agent Yoru o Yuku]]" rip.
113** In 2018, a supposed ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' album called "A High Quality Journey Through the Undergrand" was released, but the download links are fake, with the FLAC download being their earlier Music/Maroon5 parody album, and the [=MP3=] download being just copies of "We Like Digging?", the debut album of Kara's Flowers (the original incarnation of Maroon 5). The accompanying video was designed to look like an announcement video for the album, but it was actually a lore video in which WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget returns and takes over the channel again. Then an unexpected new face shows up on the channel -- WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic, who complains that Gadget is wasting his potential as a channel host by fixating on a single joke, and vows to steal the channel for himself. The following week after the video's release, he manages to do just that.
114** In 2019, an "Afro Mix" of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys''[='=]s "Circus" (itself a RunningGag on the channel) was uploaded, only to be just a reupload of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyC9T6tqkx4 afro - circus]]" from Music/VvvvvaVvvvvvr (a mashup of ''WesternAnimation/Madagascar3EuropesMostWanted'''s "Afro Circus" scene and SensoryAbuse edit of Edy Lemond's "Madagascar" by {{YouTube Poop}}er Study Giss. They also streamed a [=SiIvaDirect=] episode containing info relating to the upcoming ''King For Another Day'' tournament and other tidbits; [[SubvertedTrope this was all completely sincere]], with the exception of what appeared to be a Music/{{Weezer}} tribute/parody album called ''The Blue Album'' being announced at the end - it turned out to be a compilation of [[OverlyLongGag Blue Ball Rips]]. Following the Direct, a four-minute recap video in the style of News Wave ([[ParodyAssistance with Spawn Wave himself]]) was posted, ending with a fake-out reveal that Spawn Wave himself was joining the ''King For Another Day'' tournament.
115** 2020 was dedicated to rips inspired by April Fools Day games and announcements. A "quarantine edition" of [=SiIvaDirect=] was also streamed, announcing Cloud from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' to be a "DLC" addition for the ''King For Another Day'' tournament, which had already ended. However, the music uploaded for him was actually just the music used for his appearances in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate''.[[note]]Specifically, "Let the Battles Begin!", "Fight On!", and the ''Smash Bros.'' version of "Fanfare", [[RecycledSoundtrack all unaltered from the original game]].[[/note]] The "Direct" was padded out to exactly [[ArcNumber seven]] minutes by repeating Adam Levine's reveal trailer from the tournament, only to slowly zoom in on a freeze frame of him while jazz music played.
116** 2021: The previous day was devoted to Mario-related rips, as a nod to the fact that several Nintendo-related things (mostly related to [[MilestoneCelebration the 35th anniversary of]] ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''), such as ''Super Mario 3D All-Stars'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros35'', would be discontinued on March 31. On April 1, more Mario-related rips were uploaded, but with the word "Mario" removed from their titles and thumbnails, and many previously-uploaded Mario rips (i.e. ''well over 1700 rips'') were privated in keeping with the joke. This channel-wide RetGone lasted until the late evening of April 3, and into the next day, when new rips featuring Mario were uploaded, and all the other Mario-related rips were unprivated.
117** 2022: Since April 1st doubles as Creator/LoganPaul's birthday, a Logan takeover was initiated for the day, complete with him replacing the Lighthouse in the channel banner.
118** 2023 was essentially devoted to "Beta Mix" rips of previous videos - not just previous rips, mind you, but videos from the entire history of [=SiIvaGunner=], including album announcements, lore videos, material from the ''King for A Day'' and ''King for Another Day'' tournaments, and songs from the SGFR remix projects. In some cases, the rips already had a designated mix name but the "(Beta Mix)" was added as an additional mix name, resulting in such DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment-laden rip names as "Underground (Beta Mix) (Beta Mix) - VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2", "Play a Mini-Game! (Unused Version) (Beta Mix) - VideoGame/MarioParty1" and "Konga Conga Kappa (King Conga) (Alpha Mix) (Beta Mix) - VideoGame/CryptOfTheNecroDancer". "Christmas Spirit [FILE-07] (Beta Mix) - Haltmann's Archives" in particular reveals that in an alternate universe, in place of Christmas Spirit, Haltmann Works found something called "Fool's Spirit", which is powerful enough to warp space and time, and may even open rifts to other universes. However, their attempts to generate more Fool's Spirit failed, so it was put into permanent storage. The lore video concludes with some Fool's Spirit seeping into the room holding the laptop where high quality rips are produced, giving context to the uploads. There's also a stealth release of a new ''VideoGame/FallGuys''-themed joke album called "Mediatonic's Highest Quality Video Game Rips Volume WOO".
119* Music/{{Tsukiuta}}'s April Fools jokes always involve April [[MoeAnthropomorphism representative]] Arata in his superhero alter-ego, Heartbreak Red.
120[[/folder]]
121
122[[folder:Pinball]]
123* In 2022, Creator/{{Stern}} Pinball [[https://twitter.com/sternpinballinc/status/1509893477261262851 announced]] a pinball machine based on ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' (limited to just 264 units, in reference to the number of episodes in the series). Clicking the link to purchase it instead leads to a JustForFun/{{Rickroll}}.
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Podcasts]]
127* In 2019, PodCast/GilmoreBallZ released an episode titled Code Gleeass, where they watch the first episodes of Series/{{Glee}} and Anime/CodeGeass . In the end they conclude that the two shows are incompatible, and go back to recapping Series/GilmoreGirls and Anime/DragonBallZ like normal.
128* In 2019 Podcast/KingdomSmarts suddenly became episode 076 of ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters King of Smarters]]'', and Shannon talked Jake through the beginning of ''The King of Fighters '96''.
129[[/folder]]
130
131[[folder:Print Media]]
132* ''Discover'' magazine has published a number of notorious articles featuring absurd scientific discoveries, such as a macroscopic subatomic particle improbably named the "bigon".
133** The most infamous of these articles is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotheaded_Naked_Ice_Borer Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer]], a fictional Arctic animal created for the holiday in 1995. The critter was briefly picked up as an actual news item by at least one other source, and there are anecdotes of inquiries by zookeepers looking for a specimen! Discover claims it has received more mail about this one article than any other it has ever published.
134** Another dealt with a native culture that had [[BambooTechnology created primitive "computers"]] by tying multiple knots in ropes using a system they had devised. A little common sense applied showed that this was not only silly, but a {{pun}} - they were ''[[DontExplainTheJoke knot computers]]''.
135*** For further humour, this was at one time seriously proposed (fringe) explanation for the quipu.
136* ''Magazine/SportsIllustrated'' ran a story in its April 1, 1985 issue called "[[http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/15/curious-case-sidd-finch The Curious Case of Sidd Finch]]". The article, written by George Plimpton, ostensibly profiled a phenomenal and unknown New York Mets pitching prospect. Mr. Finch (it was claimed) grew up in an English orphanage, went to Harvard, studied yoga in Tibet, played the French horn, and could throw a baseball up to 168 MPH. The magazine even teased readers with a FunWithAcronyms subhead to the piece:
137--> "'''H'''e's '''a''' '''p'''itcher, '''p'''art '''y'''ogi '''a'''nd '''p'''art '''r'''ecluse. '''I'''mpressively '''l'''iberalted '''f'''rom '''o'''ur '''o'''pulent '''l'''ifestyle, '''S'''idd's '''d'''eciding '''a'''bout '''y'''oga�and his future in baseball."
138** The bogus story was nonetheless taken at face value by numerous Met fans, sports reporters, and rival general managers.''SI'' continued the gag the following week with an article announcing Finch's "retirement" from baseball, then finally let the cat out of the bag in the April 15 issue.
139* ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' has had several, including a claim that the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E5TheDaemons "The Daemons"]] was meant to be six episodes long, not five, and that the sixth episode had been discovered (much later, fan historians such as TatWood were still having to explain that this wasn't true).
140* ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' does this a lot:
141** 1997 ran phony newspaper clippings, one of them saying that the Headless Snowman from ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' was getting his own game instead of Luigi.
142** 1999 had an article featuring Pikachu from Franchise/{{Pokemon}} as a [=Y2K=] expert. However, his advice was completely useless since all he ever spoke was the iconic PokemonSpeak. The authors eventually turn to Bill Gates himself...who unfortunately also speaks in Pokémon Speak.
143** 2001 discussed "Warp Pipe Technology", a fake {{Defictionalization}} of the warp pipes of ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros.'' fame. At least two readers were fooled and wrote in to ask about the technology; their response:
144--->How can we put this gently? The test subject, Dr. Dru Wiliamskini, has a new nickname: "Steaming Puddle of Goo." Better luck next year!
145** There was also the infamous Zelda April Fool's joke, showing fake screenshots of Link holding the Triforce. This only further fueled rumors of secret ways to get the Triforce, even after Creator/{{Nintendo}} repeatedly explained it wasn't possible.
146* ''[=GamePro=]'' had an annual April feature called "[=LamePro=]", which mostly featured crude reimaginings of the hot games of the day, along with some mashups like "Series/{{Barney and|Friends}} [[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead Butthead]]" and "Franchise/StreetFighter [[Film/TheLittleRascals Alfalfa]]".
147** Lamepro had a review of the ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' console game, and exclusive screenshots of a black screen - and the multiplayer mode (a black screen divided into four black screens.)[[note]]The joke, in case you don't get it? A first-person-perspective videogame starring a ''blind'' superhero.[[/note]]
148* ''Magazine/ElectronicGamingMonthly'' was so good at this, they ended up creating [[UrbanLegendOfZelda Urban Legends Of Zelda]] out of most of them. They are described in detail in the aforementioned article, but for the sake of summarization:
149** 1991: [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon Belmont]] in ''[[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheArcadeGame Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game]]''.
150** 1992: Sheng Long in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' (Lead to the creation of Akuma, and later, [[VideoGame/StreetFighterIV Gouken]]).
151** 1993: Four fake games for the Platform/AtariJaguar.
152** 1994: ''[[RougeAnglesOfSatin Streeets]] [[VideoGame/StreetsOfRage of Rage 3]]'' ([[{{Defictionalization}} allegedly]])
153** 1995: Creator/{{Nintendo}} publishing a ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' game. (This became HilariousInHindsight when Nintendo was handed the Japanese publishing rights for ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames''.)
154** 1997: Sheng Long in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII''.
155** 1998: [[DummiedOut "All Bonds" cheat]] in ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 GoldenEye 007]]''.
156** 1999: The [[XtremeKoolLetterz GameShortz]], which was just boxer shorts with Platform/PlayStation controllers attached.
157** 2000: The return of the Platform/{{Intellivision}}.
158** 2001: Creator/{{Sega}} selling Sega Neptunes.
159** 2002: Sonic and Tails in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' (this became HilariousInHindsight when Sonic made it into ''Brawl'').
160** 2003: ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive: Extreme Beach Volleyball'' nude code (the {{Fanservice}}-heavy series has since become famous for making this a reality by hacking the game files).
161** 2004: ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' getting a MascotRacer spinoff.
162** 2005: ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' getting a ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' makeover as a PreOrderBonus for the latter.
163** 2006: The [[HilariousInHindsight iGame]].
164** 2007: ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mushroom]] Franchise/KingdomHearts''.
165** 2008: ''{{VideoGame/Lego|AdaptationGame}} Franchise/{{Halo}}''. (Incidentally, [[http://www.megabrands.com/en/kids/halowars/ there are]] ''Halo'' [[MisaimedMerchandising Mega Bloks]].)
166** 2010: ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty:'' set in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution.
167* ''Game Informer'' has a section in every April issue called "Game Infarcer", complete with a faux cover and mini-articles poking fun at various aspects of the gaming world. In each May issue, GI publishes a few choice letters from people who believed the jokes to be real, despite the fact that every Game Infarcer page has "PARODY" in capital letters at the bottom. Interestingly enough, in 2010, most of the objections were not to the articles, but fake Editor-in-Chief Darth Clark's declaration that his game reviews had surpassed actual games as an art form.
168* In 2008, ''Hot Rod'' [[https://www.motortrend.com/features/hrdp-0804-amc-concept-cars/ published an article]] proclaiming the revival of American Motors (bought by Chrysler in 1987). The article contained detailed information and drawings of forthcoming models including the AMX, Matador, Ambassador, Pacer, and Gremlin. It was later revealed to be an April Fools' Day joke.
169* ''Road & Track'' usually prints a review of something other than a car, but a mode of transportation none the less.
170* In their April 2012 issue, ''Car and Driver'' listed 25 cars that would be released within the next few years. Most of them were real, except for [[http://www.caranddriver.com/features/2015-chrysler-td-by-maserati-future-cars the Chrysler TD By Maserati]].
171* ''Magazine/MacAddict'' (now ''Mac|Life''), upon its first April Fools' Day in 1997, ran a lot of jokes. Among them were a letter from the editor explaining that the magazine would be shifting its focus to Windows, and an ''Onion''-esque fake news section.
172* The April 1988 issue of ''Your Sinclair'' included a glowing review of a fictional lawn-mowing SimulationGame. ''Advanced Lawnmowing Simulator'' was inevitably [[{{Defictionalization}} defictionalized]].
173** The 1980s Sinclair Spectrum home computer came in two models: one with 16K of RAM and a more expensive version with a whopping 48K. One issue of the Sinclair magazine claimed that the interiors of both types were identical, but the extra memory on the cheaper model was blocked off. It printed a very lengthy machine code program which it claimed would unlock the upper 32K of RAM giving 16K owners full access. When the program was run it printed APRIL FOOL! on the screen.
174* ''The One Magazine'''s April 1990 issue contained a [[http://amiga.lychesis.net/knowledge/CyberAssault556.html preview]] of a supposed upcoming game, ''Cyber Assault 556'', a highly complex WideOpenSandbox space sim game (complete with fake screenshots).
175* The Polish gaming magazine ''Reset'' had a different kind of joke in every April issue (except for April 1997, because that was their first issue.)
176** In 1998, the entire magazine layout was turned 90 degrees, and there was a enthusiastic review of a fictional game ''666'', a supposedly highly complex WideOpenSandbox game produced by the Polish company [[SdrawkcabAlias Teser Interactive]]. There was also a humorous hardware review of a drinking glass, and a spurious article about Bill Gates converting to Buddhism.
177** In the 2000 issue the order of sections was reversed from the usual, so the magazine started with comics and off-topic articles and ended with reviews and previews. The same issue also contained a review of "House Renovation 2000", supposedly a NintendoHard strategy game where the player must hire highly lazy and recalcitrant worker units to renovate his house.
178* The Polish gaming magazine ''CD-Action'' pulled off subtle jokes sometimes. For instance, in the April 1999 issue, they claimed that in ''Franchise/TombRaider 4'' Lara Croft would have a second pair of breasts added to her back, and that Creator/IDSoftware was preparing to release ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} 2000'' that would run on the Unreal engine.
179* Going back to earlier days of video gaming, the March/April 1984 issue of Atari Age magazine had a portion called Not The Atari Age, with a fake cover, improbable news articles (like ''Ion Defender'', a game designed to be unplayable and which literally cheats if you get any good at it at all, and a game called ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother]]'' that just watches you), and impractical items for sale (like a one-million-dollar gem-encrusted joystick, or a Trak-Cube controller that doesn't move)
180* An April edition of ''Magazine/RedDwarf Smegazine'' claimed that the next season would be entirely animated. The article ended by acknowledging the whole thing was ridiculous and outright saying that surely nobody was going to believe it. In the next issue's letters page...
181* In April 1993, ''Marvel Age'' #124 had a one-page teaser for an upcoming Franchise/MarvelUniverse team called "The X-cellent Misfits" (with the word "Misfits" cobbled together with letters from other Marvel book logos), consisting of Frog-Man (a low-tier villain from ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}''), Razorback (a FadSuper trucker in a warthog costume with an electrified mane), 3-D Man (another fad superhero based on 3-D glasses), and ComicBook/SquirrelGirl (who, at the time, was considered a OneShotCharacter with no real future). Accompanying the announcement is a footnote reading, "APRIL FOOLS!" Below the joke promo is a calendar for April featuring various Marvel characters reacting to the "announcement" in disbelief.
182* On April 1, 2019 the ''Los Angeles Times'' printed a piece called "For cramped New York, an expanding dining scene." The entire article was an elaborate {{Troll}}, a legitimate story about eating in New York, but written in the condescending, DamnedByFaintPraise style that ''The New York Times'' often uses in lifestyle articles about anyplace outside Lower Manhattan, and ''especially'' in articles about Los Angeles. The detail went all the way down to the NYT's love of glib regional stereotypes and treating commonplace items like exotic artifacts.
183-->My first culinary encounter was with ''pizza'', a mysterious kind of baked tlayuda, covered in macerated tomatoes and milk coagulation, and occasionally smothered with a type of thinly sliced lap cheong called ''pepperoni''. The odd dish, sometimes referred to as a pie, washed ashore from Naples some years ago.
184[[/folder]]
185
186[[folder:Radio]]
187* On 3rd April 2020, ''Radio/TheNowShow'', which had recorded the previous two episodes in lockdown conditions due to coronovirus, opened with the cheers of an audience and the presenters saying how great it was to be back in the studio, despite the fact the lockdown was very much ongoing. Then the police supposedly arrived to arrest everyone, and they said "That's the April Fool's out of the way", and admitted they were indeed still recording separately at home.
188[[/folder]]
189
190[[folder:Roleplay]]
191* ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues'':
192** One of the gimmicks of the RP is numerous {{flashforward}}s to the future provided by the GM. For April Fools 2018, one of the players provide their own flashforward, where two of the characters successfully defeat the BigBad and then wonder what to do next. Once they realise that they're inside an April Fools joke, they bust out and resume the regular story.
193** For April Fools 2019 there's another player-supplied flashforward, this one seeming to take itself seriously right up until Ivy plays a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ certain song]] to comfort herself.
194* April Fool's events have occured numerous times in ''Roleplay/DestroyTheGodmodder'', oftentimes relating to the April Fool's jokes of a game's host forum. A list:
195** On April 1st, 2014, [=TT2000=] played an incredibly funny prank on the Godmodder, involving a year long quest for the ultimate practical joke that involved piranhas, sharks, piranha sharks, and anti-godmodding water. The entire quest turned out to be fabricated, and the Godmodder proceeded to go into an almost comatose rage, where the only thing he would say was "Heh."
196*** Two weeks later, during 4/13, the Godmodder turned into Psychopath Godmodder and created the fearsome Calamity. All because of a joke.
197** On the same day, the Minecraft Forum staff posted some new rules to the forum to make discussion more "serious." [=TwinBuilder=] pretended to shut down the second thread because it broke all of the new rules.
198** On April 1st, 2015, in accordance with Mojang's April Fool's prank of that year, the Love Update, [=TwinBuilder=] renamed the game "Love the Godmodder 2: Love Harder!" and removed all traces of combat, making the game an adventure of spreading love and happiness throughout the universe. The Godmodder proceeded to throw an unholy fit which crashed the game and caused it to restart at an earlier point in time. This earlier state was almost a year earlier. Thankfully, the game was restored, and the players got a super-powerful weapon out of it: the Disc of Mojang.
199[[/folder]]
200
201[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
202* ''TabletopGame/CardsAgainstHumanity'' have always done things that are rather off-the-wall on April Fools' Day.
203** In 2015, they advertised that what they were selling was bullshit. People ordered it, not realizing that what the developers said was NotHyperbole: they literally sent people [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the feces of a bull]].
204** In 2016, they raised over one hundred thousand American dollars to dig a really big hole. The more money they got, the more time they kept digging, and the more expensive time became to purchase. They didn't put anything in the hole, mind you. They just dug a hole. And once they were done, all they said was "[[https://twitter.com/CAH/status/802967148029153280 Hole got dug]]".
205** In 2017, CAH held a sale on their website for their newest expansion, which was released that same day. However, they also held a "99% Off Sale" for other things. These things included cars, round-trip vacations, and even cash, all at 1/100th their normal price (ex. a luxury vacation to the Bahamas that normally cost $7,500 would cost just $75, or you could buy a briefcase with ten thousand dollars in it for one hundred dollars). They even included a NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer in an FAQ that said "yes, we are really selling these things for these prices" in it. But there were two catches to the sale. Firstly, CAH only sold one of any of those items. Secondly, what they were selling would change every ten minutes, and could not be purchased by anyone else. Thus, it became an absolute mad scramble to see who could click the "Buy This!" button at exactly the right moment.
206* Creator/SandyPetersen holds Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaigns starting April first like [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petersengames/do-it-with-a-deep-one Deep One dating]] & a [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petersengames/hastur-rising/ Hastur Energy Drink]] with real prize for backing the campaigns being the miniatures for his ''TabletopGame/CthulhuWars'' that are offered a bonus rewards.
207* ''Magazine/{{Dragon}} Magazine'', the house organ for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', would usually dedicate their April issues to sillier fare. For example:
208** One issue had a series of mixed up spells like "Find Terrain" for which the "somatic" component is to fall forward, at which you have just "found the terrain".
209** Another issue had on its cover a chubby warrior holding flowers up to a beholder which had on makeup and flowers... [[StealthPun "Beauty is in the eye of the... Oh nevermind!"]]
210** Another time, they packaged the April Fools material in one section of the magazine, with a cover page that parodied the heroes-steal-giant-demon-statue-eyes cover of the 1E ''Player's Handbook''. Exact same scene, except the demonic statue and gem thieves are all teddy bears.
211** The April 1982 issue "Dragon's Bestiary" section included stats for WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, the Jolly Green Giant (as "valley giants"), [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Marvin the Martian, the Tazmanian Devil]], [[Film/TheBadNewsBears baseball bugbears]], and [[Series/LeaveItToBeaver a Theodore Cleaver-like werebeaver]].
212** Shortly after 3.5 introduced a Flaws mechanic, they did flaws for Commoners (the least powerful of the NPC classes); one of the flaws, called "You Got Chickens", had the character suffering a 50% chance of retrieving a chicken any time they tried to draw something from their pack. This was promptly exploited on the Character Optimization board.
213** The parody songs of "Bard on the Run".
214* Creator/WhiteWolf and its SpiritualSuccessor Onyx Path Publishing are in the habit of releasing a joke supplement on April Fools' Day.
215** They kicked off in 2008 with the release of an excerpt from a pitch for ''Shadows of Iceland''.
216** In 2009 they released the ''Scroll of Swallowed Darkness'', an incomplete, sex-themed supplement for ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''. In 2012, they released errata for it.
217** 2010 saw the release of ''Dudes of Legend'', a very NSFW Take That-filled [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness nWOD]] supplement with rules for, among other things, [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga using glitter to let vampires go out in the sun]], and gaining superpowers from homoeroticism.
218** For 2011, they released ''Paths of Storytelling: Vampire'', a {{Gamebook|s}}-style piece for ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade''.
219** In 2013, they released ''TabletopGame/{{Scion}}: Extras'', a collection of [[OddJobGods (perhaps justifiably) obscure Gods]] and their Scions.
220** 2014's release was a set of [=nWOD=] Overly Narrow Condition cards, for use when [=PCs=] ran into highly unlikely situations.
221** In 2015, they announced that, inspired by the popularity of the Kickstarter for historical [=nWOD=] supplement ''Dark Eras'', they'd be transplanting all TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness and TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness gamelines to the nineteenth century, at the height of Gothic literature's popularity, in order to add Historical Angst (TM) and gothness. As an indication of where this would be going, they released [=nWOD=] supplement ''Gothic Icons'', statting up characters from Gothic literature who represented {{goth}} archetypes.
222* Creator/PalladiumBooks has a combination fanzine/sourcebook for ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' and other Palladium titles called ''The Rifter''. They created an April Fool's Issue called ''The Rifter 9 1/2'', which was full of ridiculous characters, alternate rules, and other silly content. A RunningGag throughout the issue was that Palladium Books had been sold to the fictional Percy Ferkleberger, who began effecting massive changes in ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}''. The most notable example was the new rules for "Giga-Damage," which was a massive in-joke regarding the game's love of MoreDakka, the fact that ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' tends to attract {{Munchkin}}s, and PowerCreepPowerSeep in general. Most amusingly, the Rifter 9 1/2 was made primarily as an April Fool's Joke on The Rifter's editor, who had heard nothing about it until the first copies arrived at the warehouse.
223* Catalyst Games Labs, the current publishers of {{TabletopGame/BattleTech}} and TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}, celebrates April Fools' by releasing gag products which are nonetheless playable. Considering that they're also ''free'' products, it's a pretty good deal if you can take the joke.
224** The 2012 releases were Taiwan-themed scenario-packs. The TabletopGame/BattleTech releases included a "Third (Star) League Turning Points" scenario-pack (set two centuries beyond the current in-universe date, complete with units and weapons advanced beyond even Clan technology).
225** The 2013 ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' release is an 'Experimental Technical Readout'. It's titled ''XTRO:1945'', and details a range of units from ''World War 2'', complete with the gear they need to fight a [[HumongousMecha BattleMech]]. They ''are'' playable units, and incredibly deadly to each other. Against '''Mechs'' is another matter.
226* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': Kevin Tewart, a member of Upper Deck Entertainment, sent a letter claiming that the card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Card_Trooper Card Trooper]] had been misprinted, making its effect vastly different. The first letter of each line spelled out "APRIL FOOLS".
227* Over the years, Creator/GamesWorkshop made a few April Fools jokes. Including the announcements of a "How to throw Citadel dices" book and the 'Eavy Metal Spraygun (that allows you to give your figures a perfect paintjob like the ones from the 'Eavy Metal team just by placing the right colors inside and spraying them on the figure)
228** In 2016, they announced a paintbrush for left-handed and a ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' pop-up book.
229** In 2017, they announced Citadel-branded water for cleaning brushes.
230** In 2018, they announced that from now on they will cast all the miniatures in chocolate.
231* On April 1st 2021, the Twitter feeds of both [[https://twitter.com/EvilHatOfficial/status/1377650012562190337 Evil Hat Productions]] and [[https://twitter.com/GaySpaceshipGms/status/1377606686970634243 April Kit Walsh]] announced that ''TabletopGame/ThirstySwordLesbians'' was rebranding as ''[[HideYourLesbians Friendly Sword Pals]]''.
232[[/folder]]
233
234[[folder:Toys]]
235* [[http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page Bionicle Sector 01]], the ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' wiki, Lost quite a few of their images and pages a while ago, but managed to find some replacement images of the Toa Nuva, Mata Nui, and Makuta Teridax, thanks to a certain [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Derpy Hooves]]...
236* In 2015, Hasbro announced that the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' Fan Made Combiner poll they were doing at the time was closed and the whole thing was going to be replaced with a new figure of Reflector.
237[[/folder]]
238
239[[folder:Western Animation]]
240* Late in March 2015, the creator of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' linked to a Rainbow Monkey website that had a search bar. Various names from ''Kids Next Door'' could be entered into the search bar, which would return a single line answer. One term showed a countdown in strange alien numbers. Around the same time, a Galactic Kids Next Door video was uploaded on Platform/YouTube; this video was apparently supposed to be shown when the countdown ended, but it was leaked. Strange messages from the original ''Kids Next Door'' voice actors suggested that some kind of revival was in the works. Problem was, the countdown would end on April 1st. Fans waited with baited breath to see what would happen when the countdown ended... and while a new video was released, it ended with the message "As of right now, there are no plans for a Galactic Kids Next Door Series. But... there ''should be''". It appears that the whole thing was part April Fool's joke, part ViralMarketing pitch.
241* In 2019, the Twitter page for ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'' saw itself get taken over by the Wood Man.
242* Episode 17 of ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends'' was released on April Fools' Day. Absolutely nothing was strange about it. Well, besides the fact that every dialogue was spoken in Bulgarian. A subbed version was later released... in IntentionalEngrishForFunny.
243* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fandom:
244** In 2013, series writer Meghan [=McCarthy=] released [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/04/meghan-and-steffama-larsondrews-season.html a lot of false episode titles and synopses for season four.]]
245*** Notably some of these were actually correct (though with silly synopses). Since the existence of a fourth Pie sister was already confirmed, many fans correctly guessed that "Maude Pie" was a reference to her.
246** 2014 saw the release of two promos for nonexistent spinoffs:
247*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMglq5ZgYK4 My Biggest Pony]]: featuring a gigantic Bon Bon creating a ruckus in Ponyville.
248*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-DDF0q68kw Dragonfire]]: a SpaceOpera featuring a humanized Spike, on a spaceship named the Celestia.
249** 2015:
250*** Someone released a fake Discovery Family promo for a side series called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM2njsBekz4 Apple Bloomers]]", a MagicalGirl {{anime}} {{parody}} starring the Cutie Mark Crusaders. [[note]]A focused watcher may notice that it is scheduled for release Friday April 31st, but then you realize April doesn't even have 31 days.[[/note]]
251*** Also in 2015, Andrea Libman tweeted that the show has been merged with ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', with Creator/MichaelBay set to direct it. The image tweeted is of Pinkie Pie (one of the characters she voices) in an Optimus Prime costume.
252** 2016:
253*** The official Facebook page announced that the show was going to be replaced with "My Little Dragon: Spike is Magic", a new show about Spike going in the Dragon Lands to teach friendship to his inhabitants, making friends and eating gems.
254** 2019:
255*** The show's social media claimed that Spike would be leaving in the first episode of Season 9 (the final season) to embark on a quest for his mother. This "announcement" included a graphic reminiscent of the ''Series/GameOfThrones'' title, whose final season also started that April.
256* Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}:
257** In 2017, they launched a new channel called "Nick Sr.", ostensibly a sister network to Creator/NickJr. They also replaced the opening of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KChr4NtB-SQ various different versions of the theme song]], ending with [=SpongeBob=] saying "April Fools"! These ''[=SpongeBob=]'' themes would return in 2018.
258** Creator/TeenNick:
259*** I 2013, the channel advertised that they were planning to show a long-lost episode of ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' at midnight as part of its Creator/NickRewind block. Said episode was 30 minutes of Mayo from the "Wacky Delly" episode, followed by a showing of said episode (presumably to clear things up for any confused viewers who didn't watch ''Rocko'').
260*** They did a sort of "Spot the Difference" thing for 2017—the difference being random {{Jump Scare}}s from other shows being inserted into episodes with no rhyme or reason. One example being that [[Creator/NickJr Face]], already a source of AccidentalNightmareFuel for many 90s kids, would show up on the screen at random.
261* In 2018, ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' and ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' had their theme songs sung by [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Grunkle Stan]] in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6_uybRbvZw these]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOOdQX4tA9I videos]].
262* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
263** Done with the season 2 premiere in 1998; the audience was expecting a resolution to Season 1's CliffHanger about who Eric Cartman's father was, but instead they got an episode dedicated to the farting Canadian ShowWithinAShow Terrence & Phillip that aired on April 1st. Reactions from viewers were quite negative, leading to Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone resolving the cliffhanger in the season's second episode. This was later {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the episode "Terrance & Phillip: Behind the Blow".
264** It was also referenced in the 2006 episode "Cartoon Wars Part II", which pulled a similar "this episode will not be seen tonight" gag involving Terrence & Phillip. Which had its own Muhammad joke that gets censored on its own... wait...What?!? Are Terrence & Phillip arguing with the executive behind the edit now? And they're bringing up ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' showing Muhammad uncensored? And the executive is saying someone is probably going to FOX to stop them? Ah, now the second part of Cartoon Wars ''truly'' begins...
265** Also parodied with another "Part 2 is cancelled" stunt in the 2009 episode "Eat, Pray, Queef" (which ALSO aired on April 1st). This time, it's an in-universe example where the boys get mad after the conclusion to a 2-part ''Terrence & Phillip'' episode is replaced with a ''Queef Sisters'' episode. The creators actually originally intended to do a whole episode about the Queef Sisters, but went against it.
266* In 2015, ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' had a CrossOver with ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa''. While it aired on April 2 (as to fit with the pattern of airing new episodes on Thursday), the episode itself says "April Fools'" in it. Part of the prank also included [[TrollingCreator one of the staff members]] considering it a {{Canon}} episode, though the episode itself outright states that it isn't canon.
267[[/folder]]
268
269[[folder:Real Life]]
270* Online tech news site Website/TheRegister regularly put up joke articles on April 1st. The articles are usually gone by the next day however, although some of them are archived for posterity.
271* China, notorious for their censorship regime, bans the media in the country from publishing or airing fake articles and reports on April Fools' Day.
272* A popular joke is the "Fools' Day Parade", wherein someone announces a time and place and big acts for a parade that never happens. Some of the more entertaining press releases are of New York's "Annual April Fools' Day Parade", written by world-class prankster Joey Skaggs.
273* British newspaper ''The Daily Mail'' pulled one when Tony Blair was still the Prime Minister, saying that he had replaced the black door of 10 Downing Street (the Prime Minister's residence) with a red one.
274* In 1977, another British Newspaper, ''The Guardian'', ran a [[https://medium.com/@realdougwilson/the-beautiful-island-of-san-serriffe-d95adbc5febb seven-page travel special]] on a small Indian Ocean island nation named San Seriffe, riffing off similar special reports by ''The Financial Times''. They even pulled in advertisers such as Kodak and Guinness to make joke ads. As word processing software and, by extension, most typography terms had not yet entered the popular consciousness, puns such as the country name, cities such as Bodoni (the capital) and Garamondo, island names Upper Caisse, Lower Caisse (together shaped like a semi-colon), and little extraneous Ova Mata, the ruler General M.J. Pica, and the currency Corona and Ems all flew over the audiences' heads, who filled the Guardian's switchboards with requests for information and provoked angry responses from travel companies and airlines when they refused to believe it didn't exist because they "saw it in the Guardian."
275* Many cable networks do April Fools' Day pranks. The Creator/AdultSwim programming block [[AprilFoolsDay/AdultSwim has its own page]], but Creator/CartoonNetwork proper isn't too shabby either:
276** In 1997, they ran the ''[[WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons Screwy Squirrel]]'' cartoon "Happy-Go-Nutty" repeatedly for twelve hours straight. The network's AOL site [[note]]this was a year before [=CartoonNetwork.com=] launched[[/note]] ran banner messages saying that Screwy had taken over the network and was making demands with the authorities. The banners read "April Fools" after the madness ended at 6pm. A six-hour ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' marathon immediately followed as an apology.
277** In 2000, they ran a 4-hour Creator/{{Boomerang}} marathon to celebrate the new network's launch.
278** In 2001, they ran ''Creator/TexAvery's Marathon of Fools'', which presented 18 hours of Avery's shorts.
279** In 2009, they replaced the majority of their programming with a surprise ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken''[[note]]which hadn't regularly been aired on the main network for years[[/note]] marathon. Not to mention that said marathon was disguised as a ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' marathon, using the latter's theme song and up next bumpers.
280** In 2010, they added fart and belch sound effects to almost every cartoon they aired throughout the day, even to the intros.
281** In 2011, the logo bug at the bottom of the screen was flipped upside-down.
282** In 2012, they aired a rerun of the first [[WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons Screwy Squirrel]] cartoon, which marked the return of a Tex Avery cartoon since April 11, 2004.
283** In 2017, the main characters in every show have googly eyes placed over their faces. They were even edited into all the advertisements for the shows on the network, including for ones that hadn't premiered yet.
284** In 2018, [[WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball Richard Watterson]] would interrupt programming by dancing, throwing eggs at the screen, and other random actions.
285** In 2021, the network became Cat-Toon Network, showing their regular programming with cats edited into it.
286* [[http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/hotelicopter.asp The Hotelicopter]].
287* For 2008, the morning [=DJs=] at WBPM in upstate New York announced they were quitting. All throughout their show, they received calls from listeners asking if it was true and begging them not to do it. Just before they signed off, they admitted that they ''were'' quitting... smoking.
288* In 2008, users of the [[Platform/{{Unix}} Kubuntu Linux]] beta found that their wallpapers were now one of those sickeningly sweet unicorn images. And that the dialog boxes for changing the wallpaper were disabled.
289* In the late 1980s, the U.S. Armed Forces Network (radio) in Europe celebrated April 1st with such news items as an invasion of Germany by giant grasshoppers. Also, the German "phrase of the day" feature was replaced with a ''cow'' phrase: "Moooo!" which means, "Hey, watch where you're putting those cold hands, buddy!"
290* Something about the radio business must really lend itself to these. From 1964, [[http://www.musicradio77.com/images/apfool4pcm.mp3 here's WABC's Dan Ingram]] being victimized during his on-air shift.
291** George Weber, who hosted a talk show on KOA in Denver in the early 1990s, was fond of elaborate April Fools pranks. These included: telling listeners that the gold on the dome of the Colorado state capitol building was being replaced and that they could go to the grounds to get free chunks of the old gold, claiming that Denver had just built a subway system (he even mocked up a "subway entrance" at a local comedy club), and making it sound as though KOA had changed their format from talk to CountryMusic.
292* On April 1st of 2010, the CD trading site swapacd.com included a link on their homepage promising users "free credits". Instead of credits that can be exchanged for [=CDs=], what they got were the kind of credits you see at the end of movies - a scrolling list of bad puns on names of famous actors.
293* ''All Things Considered'', the evening news program of Creator/{{NPR}}, does an annual April Fools news story, delivered in their usual deadpan style. Among others was a report on the dangers of exploding maple trees in Vermont one year, and then another was a reading outraged "listener mail" concerning Whale Farming (as in, raising whales in massive tanks in the Midwest) which was a long series of ComicallyMissingThePoint gags.
294* The Swedish television channel SVT had a glorious one in 1962. Known radio technician Kjell Stensson told the viewers that by simply cutting up a nylon stocking and attaching it to the television screen, they would get color TV!
295* A few years ago one Christchurch newspaper published a news report about how the iconic Christchurch City Cathedral was going to be demolished due to bad structural damage. This became HarsherInHindsight considering the catherdral ''was'' demolished in 2012 after a 7.9 earthquake struck the city.
296* In the 80s, the Australian UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}} team played a tour match in India on April 1st. The rules of cricket state that if the ball hits the stumps but fails to dislodge the bails, the batsman is not out. The Australians ''superglued the bails on'', and then just stood back and let the ball hit the stumps.
297* For 2011, Creator/Channel4 modified their (live-action with CGI effects) {{Station Ident}}s for the day by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wts8vOSyWdg removing the CGI 4 logos]].
298* On April Fools' Day 2011, Creator/ShoutFactory announced on its website that it would be producing a DVD box set containing the entire 72-year run of the radio/TV soap opera ''Series/GuidingLight'', collected on nearly 4,000 discs.
299* On April 1, 1966 the well-known BuccaneerBroadcaster Radio London, operating from a ship off the British coast, found its signal being drowned out by Radio East Anglia, which claimed to be broadcasting with an implausibly-powerful transmitter from somewhere in eastern England. This was so convincing that the police actually searched the region for illegal transmitters. Naturally they never found one, because the whole thing was broadcast from the Radio London ship with the help of two fake [=DJs=] (actually engineers) and good editing. It had all been planned by a couple of the real [=DJs=] - without the knowledge of the station's management, who weren't happy at the loss of scheduled commercial slots.
300* In 2005, a website was launched for "[[http://www.hyperborea.org/googolplex-theaters/ Googolplex Theaters]]", a supposedly innovatitve theater where patrons use a virtual reality headset that lets them watch any movie at any time. The theather, of course, didn't exist, while the technology wouldn't exist for over another decade.[[note]]As of 2018, anyone can own a VR headset and surround sound noise cancelling headphones, and Netflix is offering a VR mode on some versions of their apps. However this hoax came out in ''2005''.[[/note]]
301* The Internet Engineering Task Force often writes humorous Requests For Comments (the IETF's name for standards they adopt). Website/TheOtherWiki [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day_Request_for_Comments has a list]]. The very first one, "TELNET randomly lose" was taken serious enough times that for a while the IETF put a header saying "note the date of issue".
302* In 2014, grocery delivery service [=FreshDirect=] ran a promotion for "eagle-caught salmon": "Sustainably harvested in the wilds of upstate New York," the salmon is captured by company-sponsored eagles in the wild that are "tied with green and orange ribbons for tracking as well as a bit of flair."
303* In 2011, Auckland Zoo released online adverts promoting the zoo's newest attraction, the Tasmanian Tiger. Clicking on the adverts sent viewers to a webpage where the joke was revealed, as well as an appeal for awareness of conservation.
304* On 1 April 2016, automated DVD rental service Redbox announced it was hiring ''Kiosk Ambassadors'' to dispense and retrieve [=DVD=]s from within their familiar red boxes.
305* This backfired with the U.S. division of Volkswagen in 2021. During the last week of March, they promoted a name change to "Vol''t''swagen" to celebrate their new focus on electric cars, insisting that it was ''not'' an April Fool's prank. Turns out, it ''was'' a prank, to promote their all-electric SUV. Unfortunately for the company, this resulted in a lot of confusion and a sudden rise and fall in VW's stock.
306* On April 1, 2014, Domino's Pizza announced that they were creating edible pizza boxes.
307* On April 1, 2016, Honda released images they claimed were of the world's first official emoji number plate on its "race car for the road", the Honda Civic Type R.
308* On April 1, 2009, British supermarket Waitrose placed adverts in newspapers announcing the availability of a new fruit, the pinana (a combination of pineapple and banana).
309* On April 1, 2021, Goodlife (a company which produces vegetarian food) announced the launch of their new Chickpea Praline and Falafel Dough Ice Cream.
310* A wristwatch enthusiast website, Hodinkee.com, published an April Fool's article in 2014 about Dan Ackroyd's fictional Rochefoucauld wristwatch from the film ''Film/TradingPlaces'' as though it were real. In June 2020, GQ magazine wrote an article about the watch from the film and treated it as real, apparently having taken their information from the Hodinkee article without stopping to check the date on the article.
311* Creator/{{Teletoon}}:
312** Teletoon aired the special computer-animated ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "A Glitch is a Glitch" on April 1, 2013, the same day as its US premiere, even though [[LateExportForYou they still hadn't caught up on the series]]. However, a week before that day, Teletoon started airing a promo that promoted the episode as "[[ADayInTheLimelight Ice King Time]]". On the day of the premiere, other promos featuring clips of the Ice King were aired, including at least one clip (of him singing "Fries" to Gunter) from an episode that hadn't aired on Teletoon yet. When it was finally time for the new episode, a special bumper said that "Ice King Time" was coming up next. Then, near the end of the episode, an animation was superimposed over the episode that featured Jake pushing his butt up against the screen and farting, causing the screen to fog up so that it reads "HAPPY APRIL FOOLS' DAY". The following day, Teletoon uploaded both [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XIUKOOv-vFc their promo for the episode]] and [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NxM9g-uP7C4 the animation of Jake]] to their [=YouTube=] channel, the latter with music and sound effects added.
313** On April 1, 2014, Teletoon aired the alternate ending of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaAllStars''. (This wasn't a surprise, since there was a press release saying that this would happen.)
314* In 2023, CSIRO's official Facebook page made a [[https://www.facebook.com/CSIROnews/posts/pfbid02eCTtYLuXfCyqiSrdpeC2vRhZGPuRmgFVZV32S1sjp1kASzM64k6WpP3UzVPw3J5fl post]] claiming that a very tiny species of wombat (known as the "teacup wombat") had been discovered. The included link to more information on this species was a JustForFun/{{Rickroll}}.
315[[/folder]]
316
317[[folder:TV Tropes]]
318* For April Fools 2011, all the avatars in the Administrivia/TVTropesForum were changed to [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/april_fools_2011_spartacus_8552.png a picture of]] Film/{{Spartacus}}, and [[IAmSpartacus all usernames had "Spartacus" placed in front of them]]. After that, they began to rotate between several others, including:
319** [[Franchise/StarWars A Stormtrooper's helmet]], changing everyone's name to "Trooper [Troper's name]". [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/april_fools_2011_trooper_5853.png]]
320** A {{Bear|sAreBadNews}}, with "Grizzly [Troper's name]". [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/april_fools__2011_bear_6305.png]]
321** A [[Franchise/MyLittlePony purple, butterfly-winged pony]], with "Pony [Troper's name]". [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/april_fools_2011_pony_7896.png]]
322** ComicBook/SpiderMan, with "Spider-[Troper's name]". [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/april_fools_2011_spiderman_3825.png]]
323** [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Tweety Bird's]] head, with "Tweety [Troper's name]". [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/april_fools_2011_tweety_6095.png]]
324** [[Series/{{Firefly}} Serenity]], with "Still Flying: [Troper's name]". [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/april_fools_2011_serenity_5847.png]]
325** A [[NothingIsScarier blank]] [[OurGhostsAreDifferent space]], with "Ghostly [Troper's name]".
326** And a [[Series/DoctorWho Weeping Angel]], with "Unblinking [Troper's name]". [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/april_fools_2011_unblinking_3564.png]]
327* For the MediaNotes/MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness, some joker entered [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN5Mqr6tRlw Hugga Wugga]] from ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' under Level 7 ("Soprano and gravel"), and Cookie Monster's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye8mB6VsUHw C Is For Cookie (That's Good Enough For Me)]] under Level 9 ("Cookie Monster vocals - the TropeNamer"). Someone fell for it.
328* April Fools' Day 2012 had a couple unrelated events:
329** the prank ran for an i-day (from the moment it became April 1st just west of the International Date line, for 47 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds, to the moment it became April 2nd just east of the DateLine). Astute users could have guessed what was going to happen from the banner at the top of each page that read "Somewhere on Earth it is April 1st".
330** [[Administrivia/KnowTheStaff The moderators]] had a lot of fun within the forum. Most of them wear distinctive avatars, sig lines, and other gingerbread, and these have become well known enough that people identify the mods by their avatars rather than their names (to the point where @/FoxxyMod redirects to @/{{Madrugada}}, since she always has [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Vulpes_vulpes_laying_in_snow.jpg_100.jpeg an avatar of a sleeping fox]]).\
331\
332For April Fools' Day, they "dressed up" as each other: Each wore the gingerbread of someone else. This led to much confusion and silliness, since people suddenly thought the mods were posting in places they had never been before, e.g. @/BestOf took on @/FastEddie's avatar, signature, user title, and location, so people thought Fast Eddie was posting in Yack Fest, which rarely happens. [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13331907300A61220100 Here]] is the main forum thread about it, including [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/April_Fools_2012_mod_switches_4386.png diagrams of who switched to who]].
333** It expanded outside the forum too. The HomePage was made inaccessible -- whenever you went there, you were redirected to a random article from the Administrivia/HomePagesByLanguage index, which might be a translation in anything from JustForFun/{{Quenya|HomePage}} or [[Pl/StronaGlowna Polish]] to JustForFun/{{Pirate|HomePage}} and JustForFun/{{Elmer Fudd|HomePage}}. Because of the obscure home pages getting a lot of exposure, we ended up with [[JustForFun/WeirdestInboundLinkOfTheDay some weird inbound link counts]] as people showed them to their friends.
334* 2013 brought the scale down again -- nothing happened wiki-side. On the forums, the mods once again had their avatars changed, this time to Agent Smith from ''Film/TheMatrix'', but that was all. The main event was that location lines in posts were randomised. Instead of the location given in your profile, your location would be randomly selected from one of 256 possibilities the mods had previously compiled, and would rerandomise upon refreshing the page. Most locations were references to works. For example, you might be listed as "from"...
335** {{Atlantis}},
336** [[VideoGame/{{Zork}} the dark, about to be eaten by a grue]],
337** [[Literature/AnneOfGreenGables Green Gables, PEI]],
338** [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Mordor]],
339** [[Theatre/GuysAndDolls the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York]],
340** [[Film/FromRussiaWithLove Russia, with love]],
341** [[Creator/WilliamBlake where there be Tygers]],
342** [[AirVentPassageway your AC vent]],
343:: And so on.
344* 2014: The site thought tropers needed help editing and writing articles so they employed Lampshade, a knock-off of Clippit from Microsoft Office, that gives "helpful" tips. After two minutes, Lampshade will leave until the next time an article is being edited.
345* All of TropeReport's April issues have been April Fools' themed:
346** The [[Newsletter/News202104 April 2021 edition]] (or, as it was promoted, the March 32nd issue) contained joke entries for various works and tropes, such as claiming that the decade-old ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' article was a "new work page", that Creator/IanMcKellen is "an up-and-coming actor" or that GilliganCut is an "obscure trope". The Projects and Discussions section linked to [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=v208mf5vblq7klms1idihw29& a long-dead live blog]] and commented on a supposed punctuation cleanup thread that's actually a JustForFun/{{Rickroll}}. The contributors also replaced their biographies with jokes.
347** The [[Newsletter/News202204 April 2022 edition]] remade the logo [[StylisticSuck in MS Paint]], had an entry on ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV'' that referenced [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RqunFIEI1IY this]] WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} video, announced that {{Jossed}} had been renamed to "Davided" (as "discussed" [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13646132210A95550100&page=211#comment-5260 here]]), described CompleteMonster as "pretty obscure and under-wicked", and once again had the contributors write jokey biographies, which included credits to the {{Laconic|Wiki}} namespace and @/FastEddie.
348** The [[Newsletter/News202304 April 2023 edition]] was [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230402004026/https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/bulletin_list.php delayed a day]], with the "reason" being that the article was seized by TVTroops. The newsletter that released was retooled as Troop Report, complete with remade logo. Joke entries include but are not limited to CerberusSyndrome as an obscure trope, ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'' listed as a new work, a work listing entirely in phonetic Japanese, and a forum game that promotes rule-breaking. Like the years before, there are joke biographies as well as cameos from @/TheAdvertisementServer, @/{{system}}, @/{{request}}, and @/HastilyMadeSockPuppet.
349[[/folder]]
350
351!!Subversions
352
353[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
354* ''Anime/JustBecause'' was originally announced through a teaser site for an unnamed "April 1st Anime" project. When further details were announced in Megami magazine the magazine made sure to point out that it was not a joke. Part of the reason most people considered it a prank was because artist Creator/KisekiHimura, typically known for his SliceOfLife cheesecake ''Webcomic/TawawaOnMonday'', was the character designer for a straightforward romance.
355* Unlike ''Manga/PopTeamEpic'''s first April Fools joke (see its entry in the "Real Examples" section), the anime's announcement that it would be getting an hour long special really did happen. The ''real'' joke was that Popuko and Pipimi got new voice actors ''per channel broadcast''.
356* ''Anime/PowerpuffGirlsZ'': The announcement that there was going to be a MagicalGirl anime SpinOff of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' was presumed as an April Fools joke due to being announced on said date.
357** More than that: it was announced on an April 1st, then nothing was said about it for months and months, with no new information to be had anywhere, until a follow-up announcement on, you guessed it, the following April 1st.
358* ''Anime/{{Sarazanmai}}'''s collaboration with the famous sushi chain [[http://www.kiyomura.co.jp Sushizanmai]] was revealed to be real the next day.
359* Creator/MasaakiYuasa formally announced his retirement from Creator/ScienceSARU on this day in 2020. To make sure nobody got the wrong idea, he also mentioned his retirement started on March 25th.
360* The first episode of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' aired on April 1, 2010.
361[[/folder]]
362
363[[folder:Asian Animation]]
364* The adaptation of ''Webcomic/AllSaintsStreet'' premiered on April 1st, 2020.
365[[/folder]]
366
367[[folder:Comic Books]]
368* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' #1 was released on April 1st, 2015.
369[[/folder]]
370
371[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
372* The trailer for ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' was released on March 31, 2006 with the second ''WesternAnimation/IceAge''. Despite being one day before April 1st, it did create some initial beliefs that Fox had been pulling an early April Fools' Day joke.
373[[/folder]]
374
375[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
376* The [[http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/03/31/leonard-nimoy-transformers-dark-of-the-moon/ casting]] of Creator/LeonardNimoy as the voice of Sentinel Prime in ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' was announced near April 1st. Extra skepticism points thanks to Nimoy's retirement from acting (which clearly didn't stick as he continued to act right until his passing in 2015).
377* The announcement that Creator/HideakiAnno [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-03-31/evangelion-hideaki-anno-is-new-japanese-godzilla-film-chief-director-writer/.86598 would be directing]] ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' film. It was announced on March 31st, but due to timezones it was April 1st in Japan.
378* The digital release of ''Film/StarWarsTheForceAwakens'' was on April 1st, 2016.
379* The ''Series/SesameStreet'' documentary ''Street Gang'', adapted from the 2008 book of the same name, was announced on April 1, 2016.
380* AMC Theatres [[https://www.amctheatres.com/movies/marvel-studios-22-movie-marathon-59916 announced]] ''Marvel Studios: 22 Movie Marathon'', a premium 59 hour and 7 minute marathon of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse's entire Infinity Saga, from ''Film/IronMan1'' up to ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' (which screens an hour earlier than the regular showing). This event was announced to begin on April 23 (three days before ''Endgame''), limited to three theaters.
381[[/folder]]
382
383[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
384* Just days after the series finale aired, The Science Channel announces that they're rebooting Series/MythBusters, starting with a reality TV style season in search of getting a new team together. Many assumed it's an April Fools joke given the day the news was published. As it turns out, nope, it's real.
385[[/folder]]
386
387[[folder:Music]]
388* Kasane Teto, the most well known vip@2Ch April Fools joke {{Music/Vocaloid}}, actually did recieve her own voice, albeit synthesised in [[Music/{{UTAU}} a different program]]. And for free.
389** Inhabitants of vip@2ch used to do it every year since then, most of not all of them gaining voice banks in UTAU.
390[[/folder]]
391
392[[folder:Print Media]]
393* When ''Magazine/ElectronicGamingMonthly'', well known for its April Fools' Day hoaxes (see above), announced in its April 2000 issue that Creator/{{Rare}}'s kid-friendly platform game ''VideoGame/TwelveTalesConker64'' was being reworked into an adult-oriented game with plenty of swearing, innuendos, cartoon violence, and ToiletHumor, most people thought it was a joke. [[VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay It wasn't.]]
394[[/folder]]
395
396[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
397* The official ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' website pulls off some sort of elaborate joke every year on April 1st, but occasionally hides some truth in it as well. Perhaps the best trick they pulled was on April 1st, 2004, when they announced ''Unhinged'', a sequel to the popular ''Magic'' joke set ''Unglued''. A few days later, it was revealed that the announcement was '''true'''.
398** Aaah, but when else to unveil new Unglued cards but that most auspicious of days?
399** The ''real'' Fool's Day Joke was the announcement that they were banning the Plains card: one of the resource cards you need to ''play the game''.
400** In 2010, they put up an "Arcana" (mini-article) that was just a LongList of [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial increasingly ludicrous]] rumors they want to debunk. Only the first 5 or so (of 38) were plausible enough to merit debunking.
401* [[Creator/SanguineGames Sanguine Productions']] 6-page, $1,279.95 PDF supplement for ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'', known as The Book of Fools, is free on April Fool's Day.
402* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsTheDragoning'' was released on [[Website/FourChan /tg/]] on April 1st. Those who actually checked the PDF found an RPG way better than it had any right to be.
403* In 2022, Creator/GamesWorkshop posted a short trailer that teased the return of the Squats to TabletopGame/Warhammer40000, a faction of space Dwarves who had been removed from canon in the game's early days. The next day, they released another trailer with shots of an actual miniature, revealing it as a double bluff - [[TheBusCameBack the Squats really are back]], in the form of the Leagues of Votann.
404--> What? You thought we were JOKING?!
405[[/folder]]
406
407[[folder:Theme Parks]]
408* Walt Disney World's Blizzard Beach waterpark leaned on the absurdity of its "Melting Ski Resort in Florida" premise by opening on April 1, 1996.
409* 2014 finally saw the debut of WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit as a mascot in the Ride/DisneyThemeParks, specifically in Tokyo Disney Resort. Of course, [[http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/04/oswald-the-lucky-rabbit-makes-his-debut-at-tokyo-disneysea/ since the announcement happened on April 1]], one of the first comments was a verification on whether or not this was an April Fools' prank.
410[[/folder]]
411
412[[folder:Video Games]]
413* Announced on April 1st 2012, ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird: Enter the Dominatrix'' was thought to be an April Fools Joke until it was later revealed to be a real standalone companion game retailing for $30. Triply subverted as development on the game got so ambitious that it got revamped into ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'', and ''then'' the first ''Saints Row IV'' mission DLC is called -- wait for it -- ''Enter the Dominatrix''.
414* ''[[VideoGame/DefJamSeries Def Jam Vendetta]]'' had an initial release date of April 1, 2003. Hardly anybody took seriously the idea of a LicensedGame where rappers beat the stuffing out of one another. The game actually met the April 1 release date, and it sold like hotcakes, inspiring a pair of sequels.
415* As with several earlier examples, [[Creator/SquareEnix the merger of Squaresoft and Enix]] was initially thought to be an April Fools' Day prank because it was announced on April 1.
416* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''[='=]s Jarate weapon for April Fools' Day 2009 is now a genuine weapon as of the Sniper vs. Spy update, release by the end of May 2009.
417** Valve have also made multiple ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' April Fools' Day updates.
418** On the subject of Valve again, 13 indie games on Platform/{{Steam}} saw odd updates relating to potatoes on April 1st, 2011. Surely enough, these potatoes served as the omen to [[http://valvearg.com/wiki/Valve_ARG_Wiki something]] [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} more]] [[AlternateRealityGame sinister]] than a mere foolish prank...
419** The 2013 April Fools was a form of zig-zag, since it was originally a straight-up joke (see Reddit's section in New Media above), but resulted in two new promotional hats for Reddit being added into the game two days later.
420* Similiar to the ''Powerpuff Girls Z'' example above is ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'', which was also announced near April 1st and thought to be an elaborate prank.
421* Similar to the previous example is ''VideoGame/PokerNight2''--however, the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' items that you can get from this game were added to the ''Team Fortress 2'' files before it was even teased.
422* Version 0.31.01 of ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', two years in the making, was released on April 1, 2010. No surprise that the website broke within the hour.
423* Ogmo from ''VideoGame/{{Jumper}}'' has been announced to be a playable character in ''Super VideoGame/MeatBoy''. The fact that Ogmo and Meat Boy himself are look-alikes left those who saw the news skeptical.
424* ''VisualNovel/{{Narcissu}} -side 2nd-'' was supposed to be released on April Fools' Day. It got updated a few hours early, and some still think it's an April Fools' Day joke.
425* One April Fools Day, Max Barry announced that the UN-like organization in his browser-based nation simulation game ''VideoGame/{{Nationstates}}'' would change its name to the World Assembly because of a complaint from the real UN about his use of the name and emblem. Turns out, the UN really did send him a letter, and the change was made to comply with it.
426* The fan-made ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMORPG]] ''Pokénet'' was [[ScrewedByTheLawyers shut down by Nintendo]] on April 1, 2010.
427* ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'''s introduction states that the character designs were released on April Fools' Day, and there's an anecdote (could be truth, could be just an UrbanLegend) that the creators of this game had originally intended for the game to be a normal DatingSim with human guys and posted bird designs for these guys on the website as an April Fools' joke, only for fans to love them so much that the game ended up being all about dating birds instead.
428* Rovio Mobile announced an ''VideoGame/AngryBirds'' [[TheAnimeOfTheGame animated series]] on April 1st 2012.
429* Whilst ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' usually plays this straight, a notable subversion was the announcement of the long awaited champion Lee Sin, the Blind Monk who was released a few days later. In the April Fool's version, he was indestructible and could kick across the map but the player was filtered through a blurry screen. Here's the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3DWCGs3Tl8 April Fools spotlight]] compared to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6SleHuJjLo real spotlight.]]
430%% ZCE * The remake of ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' had an April Fools trailer, but not everything shown in it is fake...
431* The announcement of ''VisualNovel/{{Rewrite}}'' by Creator/KeyVisualArts on April 1st 2008 was subsequently validated the following day.
432** The announcement that Rewrite would be an adult game on April 1st 2010 was revealed as a joke.
433** The release of a video showing the characters in distinctly un-Key like situation on April 1st 2011 was also confirmed the following day (and the events in video do actually happen in the novel).
434* For ''VideoGame/WarThunder'', in 2013 Gaijin Entertainment released a trailer showing [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic cute, colorful ponies]] as a new playable faction. Then they actually updated they game to include said ponies, each packing 4 20mm machine guns, 8 rockets tubes, and 2 half-ton bombs. Oh, and they each flew like a high-speed rocket plane. [[PeripheryDemographic Bronies]] were ecstatic, while brony-haters were... uh... [[StopHavingFunGuys not]].
435** In 2014, they added a Kaiju snail for the Japanese army. With eye stalk lasers.
436** 2015 saw them go for a two-fer.
437*** One event was all about walking tanks - think the turret from a KV-2 plonked onto a pair of walker legs that wouldn't look out of place in ''Battletech'' and then whack a 20mm turret to either side of the KV-2 one. Players would start in a pre-set roster of normal tanks and have to earn points before they could spawn in one of the walkers.
438*** The other was called "Unrealistic Battle" (referencing the game's own Realistic Battle mode) where players would control inflatable Shermans that launched high-explosive potatoes and armour-piercing carrots at each other in order to deplete their health bars (as a not-so-subtle dig at ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks''). The Shermans would bounce around and their barrels would bend and wobble like you'd expect from a giant inflatable tank while holding the button that lets you check the status of your machine's internals would reveal that the interior was four guys on bicycles around a wooden platform that the 'gunner' stood on. He had crates of vegetables at his feet and used a strong slingshot to fire them out the barrel.
439* In 2013, Konami [[http://i.imgur.com/4YXAMGH.png redecorated]] the ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'' e-Amusement website to promote "Wow Wow VENUS", with the unlock condition for the song ostensibly requiring tons of LevelGrinding. The site was reverted the day after as expected...but then, much to the joy of players wanting to play it, "Wow Wow VENUS" became an ''actual playable song'' the day after, freely available with no unlock precondition for one week, permanently so for the player if they played it once during that week. Currently, the song can be obtained by grinding through the "bistro saucer" unlock system.
440* Also in 2013, Creator/WayForwardTechnologies announced a game called ''VideoGame/CatGirlWithoutSalad'', which eventually saw an actual release on June 2016, available only on the Creator/HumbleBundle store. Seven years to the day after its initial announcement, ''CGWS'' made its console debut on the Platform/NintendoSwitch.
441* In 2014, ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' developers [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXN5yr4dGIc revealed]] the newest addition to the game's cast: PaletteSwap MovesetClone character Fukua. Intended as a quick TakeThat against a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dC-Hl33Xqpk certain other character trailer]], she was removed from the game shortly after April Fools... and was later permanently added, with a complete moveset and her own story mode.
442* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' was confirmed for the 3DS, Platform/{{Wii U}}, and Platform/XboxOne on [[http://bindingofisaac.com/post/115192982234/rebirth-coming-to-3ds-wiiu-and-xbox1 April 1, 2015]]. Due to the timing, and a well-known history that [=BoI=] has previously run into issues being released on Nintendo's eShop service, some thought it really was a joke, prompting the game's creator [[https://twitter.com/EdmundMcMillenn/status/583164512330592256 to state on Twitter that it's no joke.]] The dev did take the chance to still add in some jokes though, by making [[http://bindingofisaac.com/post/115192982234/rebirth-coming-to-3ds-wiiu-and-xbox1 a joke post]] stating that the Nintendo versions would have three "subtle" changes -- Isaac will now wear a fig leaf, the voice Isaac's mother hears coming from Max the dog rather than God, and the [[JesusTaboo references to Christianity would be replaced by references to Scientology]]. A crossed-out section at the end claims that there are additional changes to the Nintendo versions such as replacing "blood" with "sweat" (a la the SNES version of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1992'') and "pills" with "lollipops."
443* Creator/{{Nintendo}} made the announcement that they would indeed be holding a WebVideo/NintendoDirect on April 1, 2015, even stating in the announcement "despite the date, this Direct is no joke!" During said Direct they made announcements that caught many off-guard, such as releasing the first debut trailer for ''[[VideoGame/TokyoMirageSessionsFE Shin Megami Tensei × Fire Emblem]]'' (after two long years of not announcing anything besides a short teaser), announcing that the fifth entry in the ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' series (for the Wii U) will indeed see a release outside of Japan (after the previous entry failed to see an official non-Japanese release), [[VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}} Lucas]] will be the next DLC character for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'', [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and even the announcement]] that ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' will hit the Platform/VirtualConsole service after many fans previously thought the game wouldn't due to rights issues.
444* ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'' announced DLC that would replace the voice of Elohim with the voice of ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'' on April 1, 2015. It not only is an actual DLC, but it was also free for a short while.
445* On April 1, 2015, Creator/BioWare revealed ZITHER!, a WanderingMinstrel mage with ThePowerOfRock as the first multiplayer DLC character for ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''. A month later, the Dragonslayer DLC was announced, and ZITHER! with his [[MechanicallyUnusualClass unique mechanics]] were confirmed as the DLC's new Mage agent.
446* On April 1, 2016, Website/SFDebris posted a review of the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episodes, "Party of One," "Lesson Zero," "It's About Time," "Luna Eclipsed."
447* On April 1, 2017, Creator/{{Arika}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2x8c-RFGnA showcased footage]] of a long-awaited follow-up to ''VideoGame/StreetFighterEX'' and ''VideoGame/FightingLayer'' as part of [[MilestoneCelebration an extended celebration of the company's 20th anniversary]]. Though the video description clearly states that it's Arika's prank for the holiday, Akira's vice president [[https://twitter.com/miharasan/status/847840152223268864 quickly clarified]] that the game's closely guarded development, not the product itself, was the actual joke, and a demo build was livestreamed at [[https://www.facebook.com/co.arika/posts/1334036619965033 an official promotional event/location test by Arika]] later that day. The game would be released as ''VideoGame/FightingEXLayer'' in 2018.
448** On April 1, 2019 they apologised for a delay in releasing the next playable character (Area), then showed footage of a mobile version... which was ''released immediately afterwards''.
449** On April 1, 2021 they released the Nintendo Switch version titled ''Fighting EX Layer: Another Dash''. The joke is that it is a completely reworked version, therefore cross-play is not possible with the [=PlayStation=] 4, Xbox One, or Steam versions.
450* The announcement of the English localization of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel IV'' came out on April 1, 2020.
451* ''VideoGame/RivalsOfAether'''s developers make most of their announcements on April 1st of each year in videos titled ''WebVideo/RivalsDirect''. The videos have comedic elements to them, but the most of the things shown are real.
452* The mobile game ''VideoGame/SonicForces Speed Battle'' introduced Longclaw, Baby Sonic's caretaker in ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'' to the game. The company that made the game, Hardlight, had to reassure people that ''this was real''.
453* In 2020, Creator/PlatinumGames launched a teaser on April 1st for ''VideoGame/SolCresta'', an arcade game collaboration between the studio and Hamster Corporation on a new entry in the ''VideoGame/TerraCresta'' series. Unlike the previous teasers Platinum had done near April 1st (see its entry in Video Games for more), ''Sol Cresta'' was revealed to be in development the following year, and showed off its first gameplay trailer on April 2nd.
454* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'': [[http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/duke-fishron-and-the-aquarian-horde.137907/ In the form of a joke post about a new boss and new invasion that came alongside it.]] This became {{Foreshadowing}} when it turned out that the boss, Duke Fishron, was a real thing (sans the invasion). Further foreshadowing with the same boss, the April Fools post claimed that Duke Fishron demands a fair fight, and will scale its HP based on how many players are in the server. In 1.3's Expert Mode, this is actually the case, where Duke Fishron's HP will increase the more players there are.
455* ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' weirdly went about this. On April 1, 2019, Sega showed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noioqCv92hM gameplay]] of a new ''Yakuza'' game which is a turn-based RPG and not a beat-em-up like all previous games. And then the first official reveal trailer for ''Yakuza: Like a Dragon'' shows that the game was actually going to be an RPG. The thing is, the creators weren't actually planning on [[GenreShift switching genres]] when they showed that footage, but they saw people were actually rather open to the idea of a ''Yakuza'' JRPG and ended up going through with it.
456[[/folder]]
457
458[[folder:Visual Novels]]
459* ''VisualNovel/{{Nekopara}}'' originally joked about making a GenderFlip of the premise, ''Nekopara: Cat Boys' Paradise'', in 2019. Two years later, the spin-off was announced to be real and coming to both smartphones and Nintendo Switch.
460* In 2016, Creator/{{Sega}} released a browser game known as ''VisualNovel/BigsBigFishingAdventure3TheTrial'', which was a parody of the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series while starring the big purple cat. It started off as a RunningGag from the franchise's official Twitter account, before it was officially released on April 1st.
461** In 2023, Sega did it again, declaring that the ''Sonic'' franchise was moving in a new direction: [[OurHeroIsDead he's dead]]. They released a murder-mystery VisualNovel spin-off titled ''VisualNovel/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog'' on Steam. (Though due to the fact that it was a worldwide release, some time zones had it happen while it was still March 31st.)
462[[/folder]]
463
464[[folder:Web Animation]]
465* An ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanity'' {{Website/Kickstarter}} campaign was set up on April 1st 2016. This was justified as this was the series' fifth anniversary.
466* ''WebAnimation/RWBYChibi'' was first announced on April 1st, 2016. Despite Creator/RoosterTeeth explicitly stating that they would ''never'' make any April Fool's jokes on account of the company being founded on April 1st, some people still thought it was a joke until the series was officially announced.
467* In 2017, [[WebAnimation/{{asdfmovie}} asdfmovie10]] was given an un-announced release.
468* ''WebAnimation/MinilifeTV'' premiered a channel update on April 1, 2019 announcing an estimated release date of late 2020 for ''[[TheMovie Minilife Origins]]'' (before it got [[ReleaseDateChange delayed]]) and a new series of shorts called ''Minilife Chronicles'', [[Recap/MinilifeChroniclesTheNinja the first episode]] of which aired not long after the announcement.
469* The WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUDejhGOG6s "parenting"]] was released on April 1st, 2022. Given that this is ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', which has a history of actual April Fools' Day pranks, maybe not having a joke ''is'' the joke.
470[[/folder]]
471
472[[folder:Webcomics]]
473* Subverted in 2010 by ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'' who chose April 1 for some real yet unlikely plot development. It would seem that two party members met long ago, but the sane one was too badly hurt to remember in detail.
474* ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' brought us [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/206 this strip]]. Jodie completely naked!
475* After [[WebcomicTime several months]] of ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' being almost entirely Miho and Piro talking, April 1st, 2012 unexpectedly delivered a barely offscreen naked MagicalGirl wrestling match and Piro getting smacked in the face with a washbasin. [[http://megatokyo.com/strip/1332 Canonically.]]
476* On April 1, 2003, ''Webcomic/QueenOfWands'' put up a comic where Shannon is shown crying and announces she's pregnant; it was removed a few hours later. Naturally it caused quite a bit of discussion as some fans had seen it and some did not. One year later the comic was put up again and ''stayed'' up, beginning a legitimate story-line.
477* Most of the plot of ''Webcomic/{{Exiern}}''[='s=] Wild North story arc was [[spoiler:brought to a sudden conclusion on April 1st, 2014 when a newly arrived character [[http://www.exiern.com/2014/04/01/red-2/ interrupted the villain.]]]] This was so abrupt, and done by someone known to be trusted not to overreact, that it sparked debates as to whether it was real.
478* In ''Webcomic/{{Rascals}}'', this page in rascals right [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/rascals/rascals-286a-candy-time/viewer?title_no=149078&episode_no=325 here]] with the sudden introduction of Candy Star.
479[[/folder]]
480
481[[folder:Web Original]]
482* Website/{{Google}}'s Gmail service was announced on April 1, 2004 with storage limits that (at the time) sounded absurdly unfeasible; it was no joke. Since then, Gmail has run an April Fools' joke every year, including such "new features" as a free email printing service (subsidized by giant red context-sensitive ads on the back of the emails) and a feature allowing the user to send an email to days earlier.
483** The [[http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-gmail.html press release]] was even intentionally written to look like an April Fool's joke, tricking everyone who thought they weren't falling for the trick.
484** And in 2007, a Google NY employee had to continuously state that his [[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/snakes-in-plain-old-office-building.html 3 foot python really was loose in the building]].
485* Popular gaming site The GIA[[labelnote:initialism]]'''G'''aming '''I'''ntelligence '''A'''gency[[/labelnote]] suddenly announced its dissolution on April 1, 2002. Readers were confused for ''months'' before finding out that, yes, it really was closing down, and many were angry that they would pick April 1 of all days to make the announcement. The GIA was later retooled into the ill-fated [=GameForms.com=], which didn't last very long; the site would remain dead for many years before a brief resurrection lasting from 2013 to 2015.
486* ''WebVideo/NarutoTheAbridgedComedyFandubSpoofSeriesShow'' was meant to be one of these, but it ended up as a side project of [=LittleKuriboh=]'s. It currently has 5 episodes.
487** That was 2009's April Fools joke. In 2008, he made a fake ending to the series and "moved on" to Zork and Pals. Then in 2010, he created "a Anime/YuGiOh5Ds abridged" with everyone just shouting "CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES!!!"; then it turned out to be Iruka and Joekage watching it and then showing each other their abridged series. Naruto lampshades at the end how tired it's gotten and complains.
488* An ''accidental'' subversion: [[http://www.gamefront.com/ Gamefront]] (known back at the time of the incident as Filefront) announced on March 24, 2009, that they planned to shut down by the end of March. However, they managed to deal with their issues at that very moment and thus didn't close down after all; they just happened to be unfortunate enough to solve their problems by April 1st.
489* Like ''Naruto The Abridged Comedy Spoof Series Show'', ''WebVideo/MyLittlePonyCamaraderieIsSupernatural'' started as an April Fools' joke for 2011 from the creators of ''WebVideo/SonicF''. It got popular enough that another episode was made.
490* WebVideo/ReZonanceSoundtrackReviews' Bubble Bobble's soundtrack review ran on April 1, 2013. After a lampshade of the trope, the review was played completely straight. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer It wasn't a gag review, or a prank, it was a straight up honest review.]] It even plays an important part to the continuity of the reviews.
491* On April 1, 2010, the [=CWCki=] (a wiki dedicated to ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'') was [[http://sonichu.com/cwcki/List_of_Christian%27s_edits_to_the_CWCki vandalized]] by the comic's author Chris Chandler. Most users assumed it was a prank at first. Imagine their surprise when it quickly became apparent that Chris was there ''for real''.
492* Website/TheOtherWiki populates the "Featured article", "Did you know?", "On this day" and "Featured image" sections on its front page with content that appears humorous or absurd, [[SubvertedTrope but are legitimate topics]], such as factoids with puns and wordplay ("...that [[VideoGame/SpaceTravel space travel]] cost only US$50�75 in 1969?" Specifically, the video game), and featured articles on such diverse topics as [[PropheticName prophetic names]], "Fanny scratching" (the Cock Lane Ghost), Disco Demolition Night, and an Indonesian film literally titled ''?'' (the Featured article space contained a giant question mark and nothing else). Since 2016 the jokes have been scaled back, with only the "Did you know?" section being silly in recent years.
493** The site also runs rampant with pranking by users, such as changing all the links on the JustForFun/{{Rickroll}} article to point to, well, a Rickroll, and [[SelfDeprecation jokingly nominating internal project pages (including articles on Wikipedia itself!) for deletion.]]
494* On the Creator/AgathaChristie section of the [[http://jdcarr.com/forum/index.php Golden Age Mysteries Forum]], one member posted a [[http://jdcarr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3023 thread]] speculating about a possible lesbian couple in one novel. Because this thread was posted on April 1 2006, another member at first thought it was a joke.
495* Once there was a major ''Website/DragonCave'' release on April Fools; neither the date or the name ("Mod Madness") lent credence to the idea that no, this was a legitimate release, and the eggs weren't going to disappear or become something ridiculous.
496* An edit button for {{Website/Twitter}}, one of the site's most requested features, [[https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1509951255388504066 was announced]] on April 1st, 2022, probably done on purpose to make people think that it was a joke. Followup tweets confirmed that [[https://twitter.com/TwitterComms/status/1511456469207556101 no, it was not a joke,]] [[https://twitter.com/TwitterComms/status/1511456430024364037 and no, Elon Musk had nothing to do with it.]]
497[[/folder]]
498
499[[folder:Web Videos]]
500* ''WebVideo/FreemansMind'' has had several over its run:
501** 2009, Episode 10.5: Short non-canonical episode, at the end of which Gordon dies. Episode 11 begins at the same spot as this one, with Gordon having a strange feeling of deja vu, which he suspects comes from eating bad Doritos. The title card features [[WingdingEyes X marks]] in Gordon's glasses.
502** 2013, VideoGame/{{Doom}}Guy's Mind Episode 7 set in ''VideoGame/BrutalDoom''. Here he plays a psychotic, [[BloodKnight bloodthirsty]] SpaceMarine as he happily slaughters his way through Phobos base.
503** 2014 gives us a trailer for ''Freeman Across the Universe'', in which Freeman enters every first-person game ever made, often with hilarious results.
504** The very first episode of ''Freeman's Mind [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 2]]'' aired on April Fools' 2017. The joke is that the viewer clicks on the video ''expecting'' it to be a joke, only to be surprised when it's actually the real episode. Some people suspected that it would turn out to be the ''only'' episode released or that, like its source material, [[VaporWare it wouldn't reach Episode 3]], but those proved false too. Ross Scott also deliberately stayed offline and didn't respond to any attempts to contact him for a week or so after the episode went up to help stoke the paranoia.
505* WebVideo/TheMysteriousMrEnter did a unique subversion, where, on April Fools 2015, he posted a ''Admirable'' Animation video that appears to be about the highly requested ''WesternAnimation/{{Foodfight}}''... [[spoiler:only for it to actually be a surprisingly good (and fairly recent at the time) ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode, also named "Food Fight" (note the spacing).]] Of course, those who watched his "Top 11 Things I'll Never Review" video should have at least known that he wasn't talking about the movie.
506* WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows pulled a similar trick, where he posted a One Hit Wonderland video involving the song "Float On". At first it appears to be the Music/ModestMouse song, but [[spoiler:it's actually a completely different song with that name, this one by the 70's soul group The Floaters]].
507* Creator/RoosterTeeth, having been founded on April 1st 2003, has as a corporate policy to ''not'' to do any sort of pranks and usually uses the day to introduce trailers for new series and new seasons for existing series... However, they ''do'' admit that it's amusing that fans will tend to claim one or more trailers are fake and are actually shocked when it turns out that it actually exists, despite that other fans will tell them that RT doesn't do April Fool's pranks. For example, take ''WebAnimation/RWBYChibi'' an extremely LighterAndSofter spin-off of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', made extra silly-sounding by the fact that it was announced shortly after [[CerebusSyndrome the extremely dark]] Volume 3.
508* ''WebVideo/RosssGameDungeon'', also by Ross Scott, had one with the review of ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein2009'', released on April Fools Day of 2015. It was a perfectly normal episode, except that every character in the game had [[SillinessSwitch their head replaced by a pumpkin]]. Ross did not acknowledge this at all, except for a comment about the game having extremely satisfying headshots for some reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. The video even includes a BaitAndSwitch where he finally admits that he was playing a joke on everyone... that joke being that he knew all the requests he received to review "''Wolfenstein''" were actually referring to ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'', he [[ExactWords followed the requests literally instead]]. The pumpkin heads still never get mentioned, and Ross even played dumb in the comments section.
509* LetsPlay/ProtonJon uploaded Stage 10 of VideoGame/Superman64 on April's Fool Day 2021. Considering that the last episode was uploaded in February 25, 2017, which is '''[[ScheduleSlip four years ago]]''', the upload of the video itself could be the joke in it of itself.
510[[/folder]]
511
512[[folder:Western Animation]]
513* The long-awaited DVD sets for both ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'' were announced by Warner Brothers on April 1st, 2008.
514* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
515** On 1 April 2012, Netflix added the first season to their online service. When Blog/EquestriaDaily posted about it (in the midst of a "Hasbro Takeover" for the day), no-one took it seriously. The next day, people realize they weren't joking. One more day later, and ''Friendship Is Magic'' occupies the "Most Watched Right Now" spot on Netflix.
516** Meghan [=McCarthy=] announced that Mike Vogel would be working on the sixth season on the 1st of April, 2015 (this was just before the fifth season even started). Equestria Daily even waited until the following day to announce this, as they knew that if they announced it then, people would think this was another joke.*
517* Mike Nawrocki announced that ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' had been cancelled on March 31, 2018. While this could possibly sound like an April Fools' joke to some, Mike suggested that this was serious.
518* The cast of Creator/{{AMC}}'s ''WesternAnimation/UltraCitySmiths'' was announced on April 1, 2021.
519* The international debut of the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Attack of the 50 Foot Sister" on Disney Channel Brazil was April 1st, 2009.
520[[/folder]]
521
522[[folder:Real Life]]
523* Music/MarvinGaye was shot and killed on April 1, 1984 by his father. People were shocked the next day because then they knew it was true.
524* People did not initially believe Tazz's departure from Wrestling/{{WWE}} was real because it was so close to April 1.
525* "Think Geek" added a [[Franchise/StarWars Tauntaun]] sleeping bag to their catalog as an April Fool joke ... but response was so great they're now checking with Lucasfilms about making that bag for real. ([[http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/bb2e/ They got permission.]])
526** The same happened with the [[http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/interactive/a5bf/ Personal Soundtrack t-shirt]], which was an April Fools' Day joke that was so popular they ended up actually making one.
527** Same with their ever popular [[http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/hats-ties/9352/ 8-bit tie.]]
528* Following a shift in power at Creator/{{CBS}} Sports and complaints over his being overexposed on the network (and appearing to be overly power-hungry), sportscaster Brent Musburger ended up getting fired on April 1, 1990, with the NCAA Basketball Championship game serving as his lame duck assignment prior to joining Creator/{{ABC}} Sports.
529* The death of comedian Creator/MitchHedberg was questioned because it was announced on his website on April Fool's Day.
530* Creator/SteveJacksonGames had an announcement about the long-desired ''Ogre'' update on April Fools Day 2012. But it wasn't a joke, the wargame ''is'' being republished. (The Kickstarter campaign was fully funded ''before the formal announcement''.)
531* In Spain, the Philippines, and most Spanish-speaking Latin-American countries April 1st is just a regular day, though April Fools does have an equivalent celebrated on December 28th, the Day of the Holy Innocents. Be wary of the media in those parts of the world those days.
532* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fool%27s_Day_Blizzard The April Fool's Day Blizzard]]. After a fairly below average winter, some people didn't believe that a huge blizzard would hit a week and a half into Spring; it ended up being Boston's third (now fourth) biggest snowstorm ever, coming only an inch shy of the winter season's 26 inches.
533* Traditionally in the UK, if you try to pull an April Fool joke after mid-day, you ''are'' the fool, as April Fool's Day ends at mid-day. If someone tries to pull an April fool's prank on you after this point, you can get them back by chanting a rhyme similar to the following[[note]]there are several variations[[/note]]:
534--> April Fool's Day is past,
535--> You're the biggest fool at last!
536* [[Music/TheBeatles Cynthia Lennon]] (Music/{{John|Lennon}}'s first wife) died of cancer on 1 April 2015.
537* Also in 2015, Amazon announced their dash button service on March 31. They actually had to flat-out explain that [[http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/03/31/amazon-dash-ordering-button/70747342/ it wasn't an April Fools joke.]]
538* The AMC Gremlin - the first American car designed to compete with foreign compacts - debuted on April 1, 1970. The car's highly divisive appearance ("Where's the other half of your car?") led many to call it a joke.
539* [[http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/29/google-unveils-fiber-phone-a-10month-home-phone-service-coming-to-all-fiber-cities/ Google Fiber Phone]], a home-phone service by [[Website/{{Google}} you-know-who]], was announced close to April Fools Day 2016.
540* At late March 2017, Crayola announced that [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/crayola-dandelion-retire_us_58dd657ce4b0e6ac7093865a they were retiring the color dandelion]] from their list. The company confirmed that it was not an April Fools stunt, and they announced that [[http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/01/us/crayola-new-crayon-color-contest/index.html a new blue color]], appropriately named "[[http://www.crayola.com/splash/promos/newcolor Bluetiful]]", is taking its place in September that same year.
541* The [[UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} Canadian]] territory of Nunavut was established on April 1, 1999, officially separating from the Northwest Territories.
542* [[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic Titanic's]] sea-trials were originally scheduled to be on April 1, but high winds delayed them for the next day.
543* Villanova's 66-64 win over heavily favored Georgetown in the 1985 NCAA Division I men's UsefulNotes/{{basketball}} championship game, typically considered the biggest championship game upset ever, happened on April 1.
544* For April 1, 2021, the fast-food chain Culver's announced the "Curderburger" -- a massive deep-fried cheese curd on a bun.[[note]]Fried cheese curds are a popular side item at Culver's.[[/note]] Customer response was so strong that on October 15 of that year, the company released a modified Curderburger (this one a regular burger topped with a burger-sized fried cheese curd) as a one-day-only special menu item. 2022 saw the [[https://www.culvers.com/stories/food-cravings/curderburger return of the Curderburger]], still a limited-release but this time running for two weeks or until locations run out.
545* The full cancellation of [[UsefulNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo E3]] in 2022 was announced on April 1 of that year. Due to the unfortunate timing, many news sources had to tell their readers that that was ''not'' an April Fool's Day joke. (They learned their lesson the next year, as E3 2023's cancellation was announced on March 30.)
546[[/folder]]

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