April Fool's Day Roundup

In case you haven’t noticed, today is April Fool’s Day, or Poisson d’Avril as it’s known to the French. It’s a day on which it’s completely appropriate to treat people horribly in the name of laughter. I remember when I was 10 and I put saran wrap over my mom’s toilet before she went to bed. She woke up in the middle of the night, groped her way bleary-eyed to the bathroom, and was met with an uncomfortable rebound, so to speak. A classic prank that you might try on a roommate tonight.

But this is just one example of the type of jokes you can pull on April 1. The idea is to pull a prank or tell a white lie that “fools” someone, though over the years I’ve sort of regressed to just using the day as an excuse for poor behavior. For example, you can fart openly at your desk and say, “Haha, April Fool’s!” Or you could pay $0.25 for a $4 latte and just walk away.

Anyway, to honor this great day on the Gregorian calendar (as well provide you with some better ideas than my terrible ones), here are some links that might be of interest:

• A Brief History of April Fool’s Day
• The April 1, 2008, Wiki
  Already filling up with a roundup of this year’s pranks from around the world.
• Lifehacker and Wired Offer Their Top Ten Pranks for Nerds/Geeks
  Perfect for the office, especially the one where you take a screenshot of your co-worker’s desktop, make it their wallpaper, then hide the icons and toolbars so they are left clicking in futility.
• Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time