So, the relationship between April Fools' Day and April Fools' Plot:

According to the description, the Trope April Fools' Day is for showing April Fools Jokes played by creators, and, for subversions, when they turned out to not be a joke/were defictionalized. In addition, fictional examples appear to be just April Fools Day being referenced, although one of the sentences in the description brings into attention things that could happen. It does not appear to indicate that those things must happen to be considered the trope.

April Fools' Plot is for a specific plot "That focuses on April Fools day" and follows the theme of the description.

Neither of the descriptions bring up universe-equivalent holidays. Just saying "or an in-universe equivalent" would do wonders in clearing up confusion, assuming we want one or both of the tropes to include equivalents.

Misuse:

April Fools' Day Fictional Examples:

• Keroro Gunsou: Can't tell from the description if it occurs on April Fool's day.
• Lucky Star: Looks alright.
• Batman: Looks alright.
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips: Looks alright.
• Horror Movies: Zero Context Example.
• Billy and Howard: See Keroro Gunsou.
• The Confidence Man: Looks alright.
• Harry Potter: Looks alright if April 1st just being referenced counts.
• Community: Looks alright.
• Red Dwarf: Looks alright.
• Peanuts: Looks alright.
• Nicktoons: Assuming all the "dittos" and "alsos" relate to the The Wild Thornberries example in how they are performed, then all of them would be alright. However, Catdog is an in-universe equivalent.
• The Simpsons: Looks alright.
• Family Guy: Looks alright.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes: In-universe equivalent.

For April Fools' Plot, Popeye and SpongeBob SquarePants seem to be the only examples that apply. The others either don't follow the "Jerk uses April Fools as an excuse", don't occur on April Fools' Day, or have no context.

What should we do with these two tropes?

edited 30th Mar '12 10:08:05 AM by PiratePete

This has been on my "To do list".

The short answer is to move the fiction section on April Fools' Day to April Fools' Plot.

edited 30th Mar '12 11:30:01 AM by Catbert

If that is so, would we need to made April Fools' Plot not have to follow the particular theme?

edited 31st Mar '12 6:42:00 AM by PiratePete

I disagree, April Fools' Plot examples work - only some are more about being pranks outside of April Fools but still follow the same framework.

Maybe move some of the examples in the original April Fools' Day to April Fools' Plot?

It looks like the problem would be solved by moving in-universe examples from April Fools' Day to April Fools' Plot and tweaking the definitions to clarify that In-Universe is the basis for the distinction.

Furthermore, there is a movie by this same name.

It also strikes me that, striking the fictional examples, this could be either a Useful Notes page (even with the media meta-examples, as these are jokes in action).

So...

• April Fools - A disambiguation page between:
• April Fool's Day - The slasher film
• April Fools Joke - This page renamed again and possibly put in Useful Notes
• April Fools' Plot - The In-Universe Fictional version (i.e. the equivalent of Christmas Episode)

Or have Main/AprilFoolsDay be the Disambig page.

edited 25th Apr '12 12:25:36 AM by DonaldthePotholer

Sounds like a plan to me.

I think that April Fools Joke is a plot trope, especially since so many episodes of works seem to revolve around it. I do think we need to contain it to In-Universe examples, and not to listing things publishers do.

I think that April Fools Joke is a plot trope, especially since so many episodes of works seem to revolve around it.

April Fools' Plot is the plot trope.

I do think we need to contain it to In-Universe examples, and not to listing things publishers do.

I disagree. I think there is nothing wrong with having a page that collects April Fools jokes that media creators do, the way April Fools' Day currently does. Many of there are storytelling of a form, and sometimes they are closely related to their actual published works.

I agree with Catbert. It would be a shame to leave stuff like the tauntaun sleeping bag and Halo Babies off the wiki.

This thread has been open too long with no action.

The solution is quite simple. Move the "Fiction" section on April Fools' Day to April Fools' Plot.

Clocking due to lack of activity.

Sounds good to me.

I moved the examples. Latter today I will work on the descriptions to try and clarrify the differenc betweent the two, and go through the wicks.

Bump. Anything else to do here?

We'd have to PM Catbert for this

Sorry, forgot about this. Basically the wicks need to be updated so that anything refering to in-universe plots about April Fools Day needs to be switched over to April Fools' Plot.

Is there still cleanup here?

Looks like we have:

• April Fools' Day for creators playing pranks on fans in real life
• April Fools' Plot for In-Universe pranks.

Have the wicks been shifted to reflect that?

Point of clarification, April Fools' Day can happen in-story too. The difference isn't whether it's happening in real life or not, it's whether the characters are pulling pranks on one another or the writers are pulling pranks on the audience.

What the Hell is the picture?

In-Story is April Fools' Plot. But if one part of the production team is playing a prank on another and it ends up on the Blooper Reel or the DVD Commentary, then it falls under April Fools' Day.

edited 10th Dec '12 10:56:23 AM by DonaldthePotholer

April Fools' Day occurs in-story when the writers play a joke on the audience by changing the story. Examples would include the cabbage prank in RuneScape where all the cabbages started hopping around, or the Superman comic "The Night of March 31st" where weird stuff happens to Superman on April Fools Day.

April Fools' Plot is when the characters play pranks on each other. Like in that clip show episode of The Simpsons where Bart shakes up Homer's beer can and it makes a giant explosion.

The difference is who's playing the pranks.

Clock is set.

Welp, guess this goes to sleep.