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April Fools stories

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by HejiraHenry, Apr 1, 2012.

  1. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    At my previous shop, it was a "tradition" to let the long-time columnist write an April Fools Day story. Management (locally-owned paper) lapped it up and any objections I had were waved off. I hated everything about it.
     
  2. We ran a story about a player who just finished his college playing career stealing a $3 taco and fleeing the cops two days ago. Surprisingly, a large chunk of our readership legitimately thought it was an early April Fools joke.
     
  3. Small Town Guy

    Small Town Guy Well-Known Member

    I admit it, I sort of like 'em. A few small dailies I used to read always did them on the front page and had done them for decades so maybe that was part of the charm. Doing it out of the blue for the first time now maybe wouldn't work and would simply make people vomit on their screen or crumple up their paper and light fire to it.

    And I'm not sure why you can't do one just because of Sidd Finch. If we used that criteria, wouldn't that set the bar kind of high for any story? No one can ever write another Christmas story, especially an editorial. Why? Who's going to top the New York Sun's "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus?"

    You wanna write a play about death and revenge and indecisiveness? Forget it, unless you can top Hamlet.
     
  4. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    As a kid, I just remember reading the Finch story and thinking the Mets were going to have a helluva rotation with Gooden, Finch and Darling.
     
  5. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    A competitor when I was starting out did an entire April Fools Day front page wrap. It included a fake story on how the mayor was giving up her re-election bid, etc.

    They damn near got sued right out of existence. The disclaimer was there, but it was so small as to be barely discernible. They put this edition in racks, etc.

    Awesomely stupid.
     
  6. Lieslntx

    Lieslntx Active Member

    A true April Fool's prank that was pulled on me by my then 10 year old daughter. It was pretty awesome.

    I love to take bubble baths and I have quite the collection of bubble bath scents to choose from, usually about 20 bottles or so at any given time. My daughter (somehow, without me knowing and in the middle of the day) emptied out every single bottle of bubble bath that I had. That evening, as I am preparing to take a bath, she is hiding and watching me as I pick up a bottle, realize that it's empty, throw it away, pick up another, realize that it's empty, etc. After about 5 or 6 bottles, I am starting to get really pissed, as I don't normally keep an empty bottle. Her laughing from behind the door ticks me off further, until I come to realize that she had done that to every single bottle I had! She had put them into bowls and labeled them so that we knew which bottle to put each one back into. It was a pain to pour them back in, but I tried not to be too upset, as it really was a great joke.
     
  7. I got my college roommates pretty good one year. Scanned and printed up an old letter our apartment complex management had used and then replaced the body of it with an eviction notice, citing individual clauses of the lease we had violated and already been notified for (noise violation and something else I can't remember). Saved an old plastic wrapper they used to hang notices on our doorknob and slipped the letter in before I went out to class.

    I was in class when the text messages started flooding in. One roommate texted me and after about two messages back and forth, I gave up the ruse. Second one, same thing.

    The third one, I didn't hear from. So I get back from class and he's on the phone yelling at the top of his lungs at his mom, telling her this is total bullshit and getting really, really upset, threatening to bring the apartment complex to court, etc. After he gets off the phone, I ask him what's going on. He goes on like a five-minute rant explaining that we've been evicted. With a perfectly straight face, I told him we should call the office and talk to them to see if there's anything we can do before we freak out too much. He calls them and they literally have no idea what he's talking about. I can see the confusion on his face starting to grow. He hangs up the phone and I look at him and say "April Fools."
     
  8. It's been my experience that half the people in SEC country will call for the coach's head and the other half will say you're stirring the pot by reporting on it before the jury reaches a verdict and continue to live in blissful denial until then. April Fool's Day sounds like a wonderful excuse not to believe that one.
     
  9. mpcincal

    mpcincal Well-Known Member

    Not a newspaper, but I like what the "Stuff Journalists Like" website did today.

    http://www.stuffjournalistslike.com/2012/04/keith-olbermann-joins-stuff-journalists-like.html

    Followed up a couple minutes later by this:

    http://www.stuffjournalistslike.com/2012/04/stuff-journalists-like-fires-keith-olbermann.html
     
  10. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Onward State strikes again:

    Penn State student publication ‘kills’ former editor who prematurely killed Paterno

    http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/168530/penn-state-student-publication-kills-former-editor-who-prematurely-killed-paterno/#more-168530
     
  11. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

    I have no words.
     
  12. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I'm sure I've told this story before, but here goes...

    I hate this holiday because some people have no concept of what is funny and what is just fucking sadistic.

    At my last job, a boss told a co-worker of mine that he wanted to see him after work and that it wasn't good. This was at about 1 p.m.

    I watched the guy, who was struggling at his job a bit, turn into a complete wreck over the next few hours. I was just in the office turning in expenses, but after this happened, I stayed around just to see what was going to happen.

    At about 4 p.m., he called the guy in and said he had to tell him "April Fools"

    The reason the boss had targeted him was because when the boss had gone on vacation, he and two female co-workers, rearranged the keys on his keyboard (which I agree was a dumb thing to do, but some of the office people did that kind of stupid (relatively harmless) shit when people went on vacation.

    Obviously, he wasn't going to target the females who did it, that might seem mean. (He said this later when he had to apologize, which may have been one of the most disingenuous apologies I've ever seen a guy have to make in his life.) But he decided to target a father of three who was struggling to keep his job in a brutal economy.

    The guy in question outlasted me and the boss at the paper, so maybe he's getting the last laugh. The guy wasn't the best at his job, but every time I see his byline, it makes me happy that he outlasted that dickhead boss.
     
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