Fools

There was a time when April Fools Day consisted of innocent, harmless gags. These included pranks like pretending you're sick before shooting silly putty when you sneeze, or telling your girlfriend that you've been sleeping with her mother. It was a simpler time, but everything changed when the internet exploded. Now it has become an April Fools tradition for every single website to concoct some elaborate scheme to confound their audience.

Some of the pranks I saw today literally five minutes after logging into my computer at work was the "New Gmail Autopilot" and news about a new Grand Theft Auto game called Harbor City on IGN.com. Some of the more elaborate ones include YouTube setting all their videos to play upside down. I did get fooled by one, a breaking news story on WWE.com which said General Manager Vickie Guerrero was pregnant, which seemed like a storyline on RAW to me, because every day is April Fools Day in wrestling. The one I liked the most was the brilliant and shameless advertising prank on Collegehumor.com, where AXE Body Spray took over the entire site.

The one curious prank to me was the Guardian News story about how the venerable newspaper was shutting down and switching to Twitter. It amazed me they did this, because it's an obvious prank, but it could actually happen. Twitter is the fastest growing web phenomenon of all time. Everyone has one because its simple to use and not much thought needs to be put into it. Newspapers around America and the world are in shambles, and the internet is holding the gun at the industry's head, ready to pull the trigger and take over. Since the news industry is becoming more and more brainless as we speak. Something like this could actually happen in a year or two, or maybe sooner if the economy goes off the cliff and every company is desperate to make money by any means necessary.

One day, there's going to be an scandalous breaking news story on April Fools Day, and everyone is going to think its just a joke. Hillary Clinton is going to rise up from the State Department in 2010 and stage a coup for the Presidency. She will be engaged in a sword fight with Barack Obama in the Oval Office. Sides will be drawn. Tim Geitner will be leading the Obama Forces through the Executive Office Building, while Bob Gates tries to outflank them with the Clinton Forces at the East Wing. Robert Gibbs will scream frantically at the White House Press Corps to remain calm, and they will all laugh at him. Chuck Todd's hearty giggles will be the soundtrack to the Secretary of State and the President dueling for control of the United States Federal Government. This will happen, and no one will believe it.

April Fools.