This is not an April Fool’s joke. While I’m not entirely sure how a post containing me whining about something could be an April Fool’s joke, there’s a very real possibility that you might think it is given the fact that I am posting it on April 1. And therein lies the reason for my whine about…

April Fool’s Day and the Web

I think April Fool’s Day is great. Playing pranks on coworkers, friends, or family members can result in hurt feelings, embarrassment, yelling, hitting, throwing things… in other words, a whole lot of fun. Unfortunately, like anything else in real life, jokesters of the world have brought the notion of April Fool’s pranks online which often manifest themselves in fake press releases about companies releasing ludicrous products or untrue blog posts about movies that aren’t ever coming out. And they’re doing too good of a job at it.

With realtime social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter becoming somewhat mainstream, it is very easy for a simple fictitious blog post to spread across the Web as truth very quickly, resulting in a large number of retractions, corrections, and/or apologies.

I have relied lately on my Twitter stream to find if anything major or interesting is going on in the world. If something worth noting is happening, inevitably someone I follow on Twitter will write something about it. Unfortunately, on April Fool’s Day, I can’t trust anything that anyone writes. The other half of the problem is that if there is new (and real) information that I’d like to post on April 1, it is at first met with skepticism about its authenticity. In other words, productivity and efficiency are ruined on this day each year as the increasing level of lame online pranks force everyone to doubt what they read and see on the Internet.

Now, with all that said, there are always a few shining gems amongst the April Fool’s clutter. These are the gags that are obviously fake but genuinely funny. Here’s today’s best example (so far):

First, I received a tweet from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails that said, “I’ve been busy. Brand new FULL LENGTH NIN record available now.” It linked to this site. Just the image of Reznor wearing those Kanye West-style glasses is enough to brighten my April Fool’s Day, but reading the description of the “record” makes it even more memorable:

To download NIN’s new full-length album Strobe Light, PRODUCED BY TIMBALAND, enter a valid email address in the fields below. A download link will be sent to you immediately. Your credit card will be charged $18.98 plus a $10 digital delivery convenience fee. Your files will arrive as windows media files playable on quite a few players with your name embedded all over them just in case you lose them. You will also receive an exclusive photo and a free email account with our partner Google’s Gmail service.

Combine that with a track list pairing Reznor with artists like Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, and Bono, and it’s obviously an April Fool’s joke, but still enjoyably funny.

So although I applaud Trent Reznor and the Nine Inch Nails gang for making me laugh, I would still rather have April Fool’s Day stay offline, reserving pranks for only those you can physically watch squirm before they realize what day of the year it is.