April Fool’s 2010

Each year, it is always fun to see all of the creative jokes on the Internet.  This year was fun as always.  My day started off with doing searches on the Topeka search engine!

Here are some of my favorite from the past and present:

Google TiSP

Spaghetti tree hoax

Spaghetti trees: The BBC television programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing Italians harvesting spaghetti from trees. They had claimed that the despised pest, the spaghetti weevil, had been eradicated. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees. It was, in fact, filmed in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England.

Taco Liberty Bell

Taco Liberty Bell: In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times announcing that they had purchased theLiberty Bell to “reduce the country’s debt” and renamed it the “Taco Liberty Bell.” When asked about the sale, White House press secretaryMike McCurry replied tongue-in-cheek that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would henceforth be known as the Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

from Engadget — the time traveller

A time-traveling mystery man has this morning been arrested by Swiss police. Early reports indicate he had returned from the future in order to sabotage the Large Hadron Collider, prevent the discovery of the Higgs boson particle, and avert a future world he describes as “a communist chocolate hellhole.”

from Engadget — iPhone converter

An iPhone-to-iPad converter has been unveiled, with a touchscreen magnifying glass allowing you to enjoy a bona fide jumbo iPhone experience without shelling out unnecessary cash.

from Engadget — TubTop laptop

CTRL-ALT … PUMP!

The TubeTop features instant inflation both quickly and safely with just a few key strokes. Simply press and hold the CTRL and ALT keys and then type in P-U-M-P. The integrated inner tube quickly fills with air and you’ll be surfing in no time. The best part? You won’t even need an actual pump!

Here are some links about some of the other ones that I came across:

• Wikipedia: list of Google’s hoaxes
• My favorite one from Google: TiSP (from 2007)
• Engadget: April Fools’ Day Roundup
• Wikipedia: Well-known Pranks
• The Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time
• British media revel in April Fools’ tradition

Bible Study: April Fool’s Day 3

This morning, I came upon this verse:

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

— Proverbs 17:22

Is it possible that April Fool’s Day could be therapeutic?  If it brings a smile, I would say so.

Bible Study: April Fool’s Day 2

Building on the previous post,  here is another thought about April Fool’s Day.  April Fool’s Day is not a holiday for the truth!

The Bible says that Jesus is the truth:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

— John 14:6

The verse says Jesus is the truth, not that He is truthful.  If he was just truthful, one dishonest slip or action would simply mean that he is just not quite as full of the truth.  But, the truth is His identity.  One dishonest slip and Jesus ceases to be who He claims.  The truth is important to Christ!

We are called to be like Jesus, which could only mean that we should strive to be honest in all things.  For example, Paul said:

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

I Corithians 11:1

We follow Jesus’ example not to obtain salvation, but because of what He did for us.  After receiving salvation from Him, following His example is the least we could do.  Any, maybe it will lead others to accepting His free gift of salvation.

In conclusion, any April Fool’s joke should at least be clear in that it is a joke.  You should not leave the reader or observer to doubt when all is said and done what is the truth.  The goal should be to make people laugh, not deceive them.

Bible Study: April Fool’s Day

Is April Fool’s Day Biblical?  Well, I know that the Bible is still applicable on April Fool’s Day, but God wants us to enjoy life and have fun at the same time.  So, this year, I would like to explore humor guidelines and April Fool’s Day from the perspective of the Bible.  So, if you have any input, please sound off in the comments.

First thought:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

— Matthew 22:36-39

The golden rule still applies on April Fool’s Day.  We should ask ourselves this question before any joke: would I want this joke played on me?  That doesn’t mean we can’t play any jokes, but we want the other person to laugh, not get angry.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas for where to take this study.  I started by looking up “funny” and “humor” in my Thompson Chain study Bible, but I didn’t find either.

Update: More April Fool’s

Last year, I stumbled upon a few more April Fool’s day links, but never got around to posting them.  Here they are:

• Mingle Proj-o-matic — automatically develops software for you!
• Lifehacker: Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks — these are funny to read, but I am not the type to pull them off
• GripeLine — InfoWorld’s Gripe Line blog

Since these jokes have caught my attention each year, I plan to start ahead of time rather than posting things late.

April Fool’s 2008

Last year, I was a little late with the April Fool’s day post, but this year I hope to post it in a more timely fashion.

The Google Operating System blog posted an article about some of Google’s April Fool’s Day jokes. I think I like the gDay one the best. Google got me with the “New! Gmail custom time” link!

The post also pointed to a Wikipedia article about Google’s past jokes. The Google TiSP was hilarious to me; check it out.

Wired published a top 10 list of jokes. I like the “Just another windows-related crash.”, but that is only because I wasn’t part of the $3 billion lost.

Musuem of Hoaxes has a top 100 list of jokes.  The Taco Liberty Bell, Spaghetti growing on trees, Sid Finch learning to pitch baseball at a monastery, the left handed whopper are all part of the list.

One project I have been following is Haiku, a new operating system. They posted a small April Fool’s Day joke! According to them, they have overtaken Google and renamed Google Summer of Code to Summer of Assembler Poetry!

Airlines joined the ranks of the jokers by offering to allow passengers to upgrade for $12 to a seat in the overhead bins.

Fun Fact: April Fool’s Day

This is a little out of date, but better late than never. I had planned to post it shortly after April Fool’s day, but I let it sit around for quite a while:

Apparently, many people on the Internet like to get in on the fun.

Here the links of the jokes I have seen so far:

• The Opt-Out Constitution
• GMail Paper
• Linux vs. Microsoft News Joke

Here are some older jokes:

• SearchViews List of Jokes