On April Fools' Day, you are almost certainly going to have Frompers dancing on your ceiling.
April Fools' Day from Holidays On the Net includes lots of historical background -- and a good caution. Keep your April Fools' Day fun -- for everyone. Be careful with pranks involving flames, explosive devices, and mechanical devices -- and be sure to announce "April Fools'!" before an April Fools joke gets out of hand.
Satirical humor, like April Fools' jokes, is best played on people in a position of power, rather than on the weak and powerless -- especially on those who take themselves altogether too seriously. Jesters and Artists of the Muse are fond of such satire. Also check out the Ring of Irony, and see what other satirists of the web are up to for April Fools' Day.
Real Change began publishing an annual April 1st "news" story in 1996, with Wes Browning's We're Outa Here! recounting how the homeless were leaving Seattle in droves. To the surprise of all of us at Real Change, many in the city believed this story, and the May issue carried an editorial by Tim Harris assuring everyone that it was humor, and analyzing the reasons why it had been taken so seriously. The next year Wes Browning and Anitra co-wrote an article describing all the homeless people in the country descending on Seattle. In 1998 Tim Harris the Editor God wrote Let Them Eat Chowder, describing how Seattle was throwing all of its surplus millions to homeless people. In 2000 Tim took over from Jonathan Swift and described a new adoption program called See 'n Swoop.
Some other entertaining April Fools' sites:
Many entertaining lnks, as well as book and movie recommendations, at Utter Lunacy.
It sounds like April Fools, but This Is True
The Top Ten April Fool's Jokes on the Starship Enterprise
Related Sites:
HotAIR - Rare and well-done tidbits from the Annals of Improbable Research
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Well... so where else am I going to put this link, eh?)
People Online's Rock&Roll Hall Of Shame
Home Appliance Shooting Someone who thought John Denver sang "Blow Away Your TV".
The Illustrated Guide To Breaking Your Computer
For the rest of the year -- avoiding being taken in:
Quackwatch guide to health hoaxes
National Fraud Information Center
Computer Virus Myths home page
Another use of April Fools' jokes is to make us aware of the absurdities in our daily lives that we have taken far too seriously: "Let That Be Your Last Chainletter".
Enjoy April Fools' Day!