What is Digg?58 Comments
- Sunscreen, on 04/02/2009, -6/+107What the *****? Why is there a thumbs-up on the digg button? Why is the word digg gone from the webpage title? I DON'T LIKE CHANGE!!
- ScottMcIntyre, on 04/01/2009, -2/+10052 years later, the BBC's 'Panorama' spoof documentary on 'The Spaghetti Tree' still ranks as one of the cleverest jokes played on the public. It worked so well because at the time, Brits weren't used to travelling abroad and few had any idea how Italian pasta was made. It's a classic, still being quoted today.
- Wetzilla, on 04/02/2009, -2/+87Planetary Alignment - 1976
The British media have a unique affinity for pulling April Fools' pranks, matched only by the British public's unique ability to fall for them. On April 1, 1976, BBC Radio 2 astronomer Sir Patrick Moore gave listeners some bunk about how, at 9:47 am, Pluto and Jupiter would align in such a way to temporarily reduce the earth's gravity. Moore told listeners to jump at exactly that time to experience the once-in-a-lifetime effect. At 9:48, callers flooded the lines, eager to describe how they had briefly floated. News that Moore had played them no doubt brought everyone crashing back to earth.
The Spaghetti Tree - 1957
Switzerland is known for banks and chocolate, not spaghetti, right? Tell that to the millions who fell victim to a BBC April Fools' report touting the bumper harvests from Swiss spaghetti trees. The report, which ran three-minutes long, even led some to ask how they too could have a spaghetti tree of their own. The Beeb's response? Put a strand of spaghetti in tomato sauce and "hope for the best."
Gmail Paper - 2007
"You click. We stack. You get."
Google has long encouraged users of its Gmail service to archive, rather than delete, their e-mail. But paper archives, too? That was the promise behind the 2007 launch of Gmail Paper, which promised to provide printed copies of e-mail on-demand for users. The massive costs of printing and shipping would be offset by advertisements on back of each sheet, printed in "red, bold, 36 pt Helvetica."
The hoax Web site lives on today. But paper-lovers beware — there's still no word on how Google planned to handle the Viagra ads and Nigerian e-mail scams that would undoubtedly clutter up every shipment.
Richard Nixon for President - 1992
"I never did anything wrong, and I won't do it again."
Certainly not the makings of a great campaign slogan, but it's the memorable line from Richard Nixon's ill-fated 1992 campaign for president. Nevermind that Nixon himself wasn't involved — comedian and Nixon impressionist Rich Little and NPR's John Hockenberry teamed up to pull off the 1992 prank on the radio network's "Talk of the Nation" program. Befuddled listeners called in to let "Nixon" know just how certain they were that they didn't want to give him the chance to, um, not do anything wrong again.
Alabama Redefines Pi - 1998
Scientists aren't exactly friendly toward Alabama's efforts to push intelligent design in schools, but one hit below the belt when he published an article in the April 1998 issue of New Mexicans for Science and Reason suggesting the Alabama legislature was tampering with Pi. The article, penned by physicist Mark Boslough writing under the pseudonym "April Holiday," suggested Alabama was redefining Pi as 3.0 instead of 3.14, to keep it closer to the "biblical value." State legislators were swamped by angry callers beseeching them to leave Pi alone.
The Taco Liberty Bell - 1996
Freedom doesn't ring as sweet when Taco Bell is footing the bill. America was outraged when the fast-food chain took out a full-page ad in six major newspapers claiming it had purchased the Liberty Bell and were renaming it the "Taco Liberty Bell." But no worries — they planned to leave it on display. The prank's real victims were hapless National Park Services manning the phones at the Liberty Bell. Unaware of the media blitz, they spent their April Fools' day reassuring Americans that no, their national monument hadn't been sold off to the highest bidder.
The Left-Handed Whopper - 1998
Burger King cooked up a whopper of a different sort in 1998, but that didn't mean that fast-food customers were any less willing to swallow it. In a full-page ad campaign in USA Today, Burger King announced a solution for the 1.4 million left-handed customers who visited their restaurants every day: the Left-Handed Whopper. Burger King said all the condiments were rotated 180° to suit the left-handed burger connoisseur. Southpaws tried eagerly to order the burger the next day, but they had to wait in line behind right-handed folks equally caught up with making sure they got the correct Whopper. The thought that a burger is basically, you know, a circle, apparently never crossed their minds.
Sidd Finch - 1985
A fastball that cracks 165 mph. A devoted student of "yogic mastery." A name like "Hayden Siddhartha Finch." A baseball player like that has to be too good to be true, and he was. Sidd (for short) was merely the figment of Sports Illustrated writer George Plimpton's imagination. That was enough to get him a 1985 article in the magazine. Mets coach Mel Stottlemyre got in on the ruse, posing for a photo talking to Sidd, who was actually an art teacher masquerading as the fake baseball player.
Do-It-Yourself Color TV - 1962
Color television wasn't widespread until 1966, but some Swedes armed with nylon stockings tried to get it four years earlier. They fell victim to a hoax by Sweden's Sveriges Television, which trotted out a "technical expert" to explain on-air — in thoroughly technical terms — how a thinly-stretched nylon screen in front of a television would bend light's wavelengths and produce a color image. The thousands who tried it learned quickly that there was no such trick — and were out a pair of stockings to boot.
Wisconsin Capital Collapses - 1933
The Madison Capital-Times' 1933 April Fools' edition included a doctored photo of the Wisconsin state capital in ruins. The accompanying story claimed the building was felled by a serious of unusual explosions caused by hot gas produced as a result of the "verbose debates" in the chambers. Readers weren't amused by the trick, but Washington D.C. had to be relieved this was merely a hoax. If such explosions were possible, there would be nary a building left standing in the District. - ericz25, on 04/02/2009, -12/+60Who else doesn't care that it was submitted by MrBabyMan?
- DRFTME, on 04/02/2009, -0/+38mmm Left-Handed Whopper
- Lloydinator, on 04/02/2009, -0/+30MrBabyMan also changed his avatar. Everything's changing my boy.
- Aequus, on 04/02/2009, -3/+27It's a slideshow on TEN different pages, with each separate page linking to ANOTHER irrelevant slideshow of TEN more pages.
This takes bad web design to a whole new level. - culbeda, on 04/02/2009, -0/+14Anyone else think of this:
Audience of scientists: blah blah blah...
Frink: Uh... may I have your attention please
Scientists: blah blah blah...
Frink: Please, pay attention!
Scientists: blah blah blah...
Frink: Pi is exactly 3!
Scientists: *GASP*
Frink: I'm sorry it had to come to that, but I needed to get your attention.*
(Tried to find a video of this, but Fox's lawyers had it removed from Youtube.) - inactive, on 04/02/2009, -1/+12They should do a prank like a plant that grows weed or something
- oricle001, on 04/02/2009, -1/+12I can understand people falling for certain pranks but come on, a burger is a circle for Christ's sake!
- thebeginning, on 04/02/2009, -0/+10I can't believe people actually fell for some of this stuff.
Thankfully that makes it hilarious. - DemDude, on 04/02/2009, -0/+9HO... LY... *****...
Wow. Just... Wow. The world is coming to an end. - mishaneah, on 04/02/2009, -3/+11S ...
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W ... - larrimer7, on 04/02/2009, -1/+7"DOWN WITH THE BABYMAN!!!!1"
Shift happens - Riatsala, on 04/01/2009, -1/+7Eating spaghetti still reminds me of that prank lol.
- blindot, on 04/02/2009, -0/+6Man, you're going to hate books.
- rinote, on 04/02/2009, -0/+5Obama did promise change!
- IpwnZnoobs, on 04/02/2009, -2/+7He's a power user who re-submits stories. I hate him.
- ronaldinho, on 04/02/2009, -0/+5I was pretty sure I floated for a couple seconds when I jumped a moment ago
- rypic7, on 04/02/2009, -4/+8ten pages? nevermind.
- veriix, on 04/02/2009, -0/+4I also get enraged by smalls changes that I may or may not notice.
- DephexTwin, on 04/02/2009, -1/+5MrThirsty, you're an idiat.
- inactive, on 04/02/2009, -3/+7The new MrBabyMan Icon looks like it is performing a goatse.
- maqikelefant, on 04/02/2009, -2/+6LMFAO. The "Biblical Value" of Pi? That is an all-time classic right there.
- crossmr, on 04/02/2009, -0/+3and with this people can learn what a real april fool's day joke is. Not some stupid pop-ups or some other lame crap like that.
The trick is to tell a lie that is good enough that people will buy it. - TheCatsProxy, on 04/02/2009, -0/+3The fact that people would try to buy a left-handed whopper is amazing
- TheHerk, on 04/02/2009, -1/+4Weird. Does he have a support team now?
- McDutchie, on 04/02/2009, -3/+6@MrThirsty: uh, right. Try again. http://www.wisconsin.gov/state/core/wisconsin_stat ...
- inactive, on 04/02/2009, -0/+2^wow
- ironiridis, on 04/02/2009, -0/+2Dugg for copyright infringement. ***** the USCO!
- Zedian, on 04/02/2009, -0/+2Aprils Fools 2009 is but a memory but this gets dugg for the lefty Whopper.
- Trigonometron, on 04/02/2009, -0/+2What is this, Myst? Show me the damn content.
buried for 10 pages of clicking - MachineMessiah, on 04/02/2009, -0/+2At least books don't have pop-up windows, pages that are nothing but advertisements, and ads lining the edges of the book so that you can only really read 1/3rd of a page of writing
- Wetzilla, on 04/02/2009, -0/+2I'm not claiming it's my own writing, so it's not plagiarism. If anything it would be copyright infringement.
- maqikelefant, on 04/03/2009, -0/+2No *****? I did not know that. Thank you for my new knowledge of the day, sir.
- DephexTwin, on 04/02/2009, -2/+3The biggest joke is that 3 really is the Biblical value of pi.
- FishHammer, on 04/02/2009, -3/+4Apparently you did if you took enough time to post about it.
- Lacrossedragon, on 04/02/2009, -1/+2Why no mention of "Thomas Menino (Mayor of Boston) Dead" by Opie and Anthony? It freaked out the entire town and got the boys fired.
- LoveWidescreen, on 04/03/2009, -1/+2Sadly, MrBabyMan isn't an April Fools joke. Then we'd have to deal with his narcissism and ridiculous need to be on the front page on only one day of the year.
- lhbaker, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1Confucius? Is that you?
- lhbaker, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1This is me not caring, yet caring enough to point out that I don't care.
- lhbaker, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1Looks like you're the baby man.
- Smokeydabear, on 04/02/2009, -2/+2A woman I had an affair with yesterday said "I told (insert husband's name) about us and he's pissed. He wants to kick your ***** ass.....April Fools!"
- inactive, on 04/02/2009, -1/+1Buried. This was on Digg last year.
- McDutchie, on 04/02/2009, -9/+9The idiots at Time can't spell. It's not the Wisconsin state capital that "collapsed", but the Wisconsin state capitol. I'm a pedant and proud of it, but in this case the difference is actually rather significant.
- Terasiel, on 04/02/2009, -2/+2You mean Marijuana? The plant. You know, the plant that grows weed.
- Chappie08, on 10/29/2009, -0/+0good vid
- hawkdude56, on 04/02/2009, -3/+2I can't lie.... I fell for the Sidd Finch article... even though I read it 12 years after it was written.
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