April Fools' Day has been celebrated in one form or another for hundreds of years. Some tricks and pranks played on the day are simple and harmless, while others can be strangely elaborate and mean-spirited. These days, you can count on newspapers, businesses, and websites to publish fake stories every April Fools' Day, making everyone a little paranoid about what they can and can't believe on the day.
As it happens, every now and then one of these pranks or jokes actually strikes a chord with people. Then the joke isn't so much that it was played at all, but that people were genuinely excited by the possibility that it was true, which led to more than one joke making its way into the real world.
10. Gouken started out as a fictional character in Street Fighter
According to Capcom, there were sold 47 million copies Street Fighter , and it's worth billions. It was so big that it was even made into a movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, which you should probably never watch. The thing is, it's a big deal. And in 1992, it was so popular that when stories appeared in magazines about a secret character named Sheng Long, fans were incredibly excited to play as him.
The whole joke started with a translation error. In the arcade version of the game, the characters say different things when they win. One of them Ryu's statements was, "You have to defeat Sheng Long to have a chance." This was simply a mistranslation of what should have been, "If you can't overcome the Rising Snake Strike, you can't win!" In simplified Chinese, shenlong or sheng long roughly translates to "dragon god." So, in context, we get the rising dragon. However, it does sound like you have to fight someone named Sheng Long.
Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine picked up on this and wrote an article for their April Fools' issue on how to find Sheng Long. This involved winning the game multiple times without taking any damage; a pretty high order. Other magazines repeated it because it came from a reliable source. A legend was born.
Rumors and jokes continued for several years until Street Fighter IV , when Capcom finally included the character named Goken, which looked exactly the same as Sheng Long was depicted in the past, and also had his own backstory.
9. Culver's Curd Burger
Depending on where you live, you may not be familiar with the Midwestern restaurant chain known as Culver's. They're perhaps best known for their Butterburger, which is, of course, a hamburger with butter. But they also have a penchant for cheese, with cheese curds on the menu. In 2021, the company tweeted a joke about the Kurderburger on April Fools' Day. ; essentially a giant cheese curd on a bun.
The joke became so popular that a petition was created to make it a reality, which 642 people signed That was enough for Culver, who agreed to make the burger a reality for just one day. And it worked like a charm.
The company said that 20% establishments broke single-day sales records as a result of the Curderburger becoming a reality. In Wisconsin, they sold Curderburgers at three times the price of regular hamburgers.
8. Pokemon Go
Pokemon Go was one of the most popular mobile games in history and started out as a Google joke. Back in 2014, the company's annual April Fools' joke was that they would add pokemon on google maps , which needed to be caught. People liked the idea so much that it resulted in the development of Pokemon Go , an augmented reality game.
When the giveaway was first held, no one could have predicted how big it would be. The app went on sale in 2016 and for the first day earned more than 4 million dollars . After three months, this amount reached 600 million dollars.
In 2017, the numbers dropped and it seemed like the game was dying, but recent history shows that this is not the case. In fact, in 2021, in-app purchases reached $904 million Now that's the highlight.
7. Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout
Some jokes are just awful and designed to make you cringe or feel uncomfortable. Like when Wynkoop Brewery made an April Fools joke about a new beer they had developed that was brewed with Rocky Mountain oysters, also known as bull testicles. It sounds awful, because of course it is. Who wants that in their beer?
Well, the guys at Wynkoop couldn't sit still, and they actually put their evil plan into action by developing a real batch of Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout. It's brewed in small batches of 8 barrels and uses roasted barley, seven specialty malts, and 25 pounds sliced and fried bull testicles.
His new creation has attracted a lot of attention from the press and attendees of the Great American Beer Festival. Think of it like those hot pepper challenges you see. People can't resist eating or drinking something that sounds awful.
The weirdest part? The beer is apparently pretty good. Mathematically, those testicles should cover just under 2,000 pints of beer, so each pint glass contains just over 1% testicles , meaning the rest of the beer should stand on its own, and the reviews have been very positive.
6. Google Maps for NES
Back in 2012, Google decided it would be funny to make a joke about the development Google Maps for Nintendo . They have a whole video and it's all about 8-bit maps. It was a stupid joke where the real Google maps were very heavily mixed with the graphics. Legend of Zelda .
Almost 10 years later, someone took Google's joke to heart and developed the real 8-bit version Google Maps that you can use on a Nintendo system. With a few simple hacks that turn normal maps into maps Legend of Zelda , as well as a tutorial on how to actually make your own Nintendo games, a YouTube user created a game and it turned out to be surprisingly functional.
5. Middle School Therapy Bunny
Several years ago, the principal of Briggs Middle School in Columbus, Ohio, made an April Fool's joke about owning a llama. therapist for the school kids. Everyone was really excited and then she told them it was a joke and everyone was really upset and probably could have used a llama therapist. What's the joke about a llama therapist? That's probably a story for another article. The point is that it happened and then the rug was pulled out from under everyone who was in on the idea.
A couple of years later, someone joked on a Zoom meeting about getting a therapy dog. Why does everyone keep joking about the kids at this school needing therapy animals? No one knows. However, the idea is now back. The principal suggested a rabbit would be better, and someone happened to know someone who was raising a rabbit. Suddenly, the joke became reality, and the school did a week-long trial with a foster rabbit.
The test was a success, and now there is a rabbit at school named Briggsy located in a "calming room" where students can go to relax and interact with the rabbit. The rabbit has had an extremely positive effect on everyone.
4. The Barbara Bush/Aleister Crowley Conspiracy
Some rumors have a way of taking on a life of their own. What starts out as a joke becomes something bigger, and then when you try to set the record straight, people refuse to believe you and think that any truth is actually a conspiracy to cover up the “real” truth. Perhaps that’s where the story about the former first lady Barbara Bush was the daughter the most the most vicious man in the world , the occultist Aleister Crowley. So this post is not about what is actually true, but about what has become reality in the minds of conspiracy theorists, even when it is openly admitted that it is based on nothing but a joke.
This strange story goes back to April Fools' joke 2006 from a guy named Joseph Cannon. He wrote a joke article based on nothing more than the fact that he thought Crowley and Bush looked alike, and then waited to see if anyone would contact him to ask if it was true and what evidence he had. No one ever did. But the story spread and took on a life of its own.
The joke became a conspiracy and was featured in documentaries about Crowley. Even right-wing radio host Alex Jones mentioned it. It was translated into other languages and continues to circulate on conspiracy and supposed "truth" websites.
3. Tequila Tesla
If there's one thing you can count on Elon Musk to do, it's that he'll troll online. What else is the richest man on Earth to do with his time? The difference is that while most of us have to keep a joke to ourselves, Musk can make anything he wants happen, because of course he can. And then comes into play Teslaquila .
Back in 2018, Musk joked about drowning his sorrows in Tesla-branded tequila after the company went bankrupt (he actually wrote bankwupt, but never mind). Fast forward two years, and in 2020, you'll be able to buy an actual, no-nonsense bottle of Tesla tequila shaped like a lightning bolt. for 250 dollars . He was 15 months old, hence the long wait between the joke and reality, and was released in a small batch. Later version 420 with sipping glasses, limited to 420 bottles, was available, of course, for $420.
2. Pool Float for Women with Big Breasts
Have you ever heard of a lilo? It’s a trademark, but it’s also used as a generic term for those inflatable, floating, mattress-like things you can use in a pool. In 2018, lingerie company Bravissimo joked about selling a model with built-in “ cup holders ", meaning it was designed for women with large breasts who wanted to be able to lie on their stomachs alone. It was exactly the kind of joke you'd expect from a lingerie company, but it all went wrong. Instead, they started getting serious requests from customers who actually wanted the product.
After a couple of months the product became real goods for sale on the company's website. Considering they were just air beds, you can imagine that the overall design and manufacturing was pretty basic, even though it was completely outside the company's remit. They sold them for £25 each.
1. Paddy Power Strip Poker Tournament
Getting people to agree to play strip poker isn't something you'd think would be widespread. It's usually done behind closed doors with close friends, or at least friends you want to get close to. But gaming site Paddy Power has made it a big deal, and it's all thanks to a joke.
In 2006 195 strangers showed up to the Paddy Power World Championship of Strip Poker, where one champion walked out with £10,000 in one hand and his clothes in the other. This was due to Paddy Power making a joke about the tournament on April 1st that year. Despite the silly nature of the idea, many people took to it with aplomb. Apparently, because 195 of them actually showed up. The reaction they got was so overwhelming that they threw caution and clothes to the wind and went for real, donating another £10,000 to charity to legitimise the whole thing.
In the end, people had a good time, charities made some money, and the event made it into the Book Guinness World Records as the largest strip poker tournament.
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