When properly executed, an April Fools' Day joke is perfect for raising a smile, a clap,
and a sporting "well done" — even from the intended victim.
Sometimes, though, the best laid pranks of mice and men blow up in the practical joker's
face — in very serious ways.
Here's a look at April Fool's jokes gone wrong throughout history.
Google's mic-drop
Between their doodles and their adorable self driving car thing, Google has a pretty decent
track record of making people smile.
And their April Fool's Day jokes are usually no different.
But in 2016, things went horribly awry thanks to the terrible decision to add a "mic drop"
button to their standard email program, which, when pressed, would instantly send the recipient
a popular Despicable Me animated gif.
That may not sound too bad on the surface, but two major technical issues turned it into
a nightmare for some users.
Firstly, there didn't seem to be any way to get responses to the email, which was a major
problem given that the "mic drop" button was located right next to the "send" button.
The result was thousands of people accidentally sending the Minions to family, friends, clients,
co-workers, and bosses.
At least one person reported getting fired as a result.
The web lords later removed the button, issuing a broad apology, but the damage was already
done.
Bear bangers
For the leader of the Snowbirds — the famed Canadian military aerobatics group — an
explosives-laden prank resulted in some very unamusing consequences.
On April 1, 2000, a gathering at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan military base went wrong when
a prank involving a "bear banger" — an explosive meant to scare off bears — placed in the
officer's mess caused several minor injuries.
The Canadian military also wasn't amused when base commander Colonel Marc Oulette tried
to sweep the incident under the rug, so they relieved him of command.
Who's laughing now?
Another War of the Worlds
Reports of panic in the streets after Orson Welles' infamous radio broadcast War of the
Worlds by H.G. Wells may have been exaggerated, but the panic was very real in 2010 when the
Jordanian newspaper Al Ghad printed a feature about a UFO landing in the town of Jafr.
The mayor scrambled security forces, scouring the town for alien invaders, and a mass evacuation
was planned before the joke was revealed.
Not everyone was amused, as the newspaper was forced to issue an apology.
But hey.
It could have been worse.
"I woke up in a dirty metal dome and, uh, 40 little gray aliens watched me pee in a
steel bowl."
King of the hill
Back in 1980, Boston TV news producer Homer Cilley — yes, his name was actually "silly"
— wanted to have a blast on April Fools' Day.
So he faked one.
As viewers tuned in to WNAC-TV's daily broadcast, they caught a disturbing news blurb about
Great Blue Hill, a hill located in the nearby suburb of Milton.
According to the bulletin, the sedate mound was suddenly oozing lava, spewing flames,
and could pop off at any moment.
Cilley upped the ante by including real footage from Mt. St. Helens eruptions, and even dubbing
in warnings from then-president Jimmy Carter.
Despite Cilley including a card that read "April Fool" at the end of the segment, hundreds
of panicked citizens flooded law enforcement phone lines, and the station fired Cilley
for "failure to exercise good news judgment."
Aww.
Drinking problem
As part of their April 1st broadcast in 2013, Florida deejays Val St. John and Scott Fish
got into some chemically clever hijinks.
The shock jocks opened the spigot on a story involving a local outbreak of dihydrogen monoxide
oozing out of area faucets.
Dihydrogen monoxide, a.k.a. H20, is, of course, just plain tap water.
But panicked listeners freaked out, forcing the utility company to issue a statement that
the water was totally fine.
"They were asking about the water quality, and that's what we wanted to reassure them:
That the water was safe to drink."
The DJs were suspended and barely avoided felony charges.
Jeez, can't anyone take a joke any more?
Don't try this at home
On April 1, 2015, a resident of a campus apartment complex near Grand Valley State University
in Allendale Township, Michigan, thought it would be funny to throw firecrackers around
the house.
Take a guess what happened next.
Thankfully, all the residents managed to flee, and the fire department arrived before the
botched prank burned the whole place down.
For future reference: putting explosives in your hamper is a bad idea.
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