Lessons Learned on April Fools’ Day

Ahh, yes. April Fools’ Day. A day of hoaxes and practical jokes unleashed upon the weak-minded and the gullible. A time for merriment and dickeries. But can we learn anything from all this mischief? I believe we can because I did.

Before I share the lessons I’ve learned on April Fools’ Day, let me tell you about the pranks I pulled for this most glorious of days:

Prologue: BADDIE JOKES PRACTICALLY!

Pre-2003, I was constantly playing practical jokes on my friends and family. From farting in front of my sister’s face, to tripping a friend who was running really, really, really fast, I’ve done it all. But nothing a few words of apology can’t fix. Then I sort of grew up. Sure, there’s the occasional Dumping a Pail of Water on Someone Just for Kicks gag, but I got over my Extremely Annoying Prankster phase early in college. But I just couldn’t resist. I decided to take it up a notch. I was ready for some mind games!

APRIL 1st, 2003: BADDIE KNOCKED UP SOME GIRL!

Around midnight, I was at my dorm just chillin’. Some of my friends were out partying and I was pissed because I had to stay in to study for a final exam, shit I probably won’t use for the rest of my life. I thought “Well this sucks. I think I’ll just go ahead and screw with people’s minds.” I sent a text message to everyone on my phonebook saying “I got someone pregnant =( ” or something. People were shocked. SHOCKED. I couldn’t believe they fell for it. Some of my closest friends even called me to ask who I knocked up. I don’t think the high improbability of a dude without a social life knocking up someone crossed their minds. I owned up to the prank immediately to prevent the spread of rumors. My parents would’ve knocked me out if they heard the shocking developments in my higher education.

APRIL 1st, 2004: BADDIE IS DEAD!

In 2004, Friendster was all the rage. I got reconnected with high school classmates and I thought it was a great opportunity for a Friendster-based mindfuck. Posing as one of my family members, I logged into my Friendster account and I sent out a message to all my contacts. The message? “Baddie has met terrible tragedy, and now he’s dead.” or something like that. I didn’t want everyone to take it seriously, just the gullible ones. So I replaced my primary photo with a drawing of a headstone to weed out my smart friends. I was so glad a lot of them didn’t fall for it, but sadly, a significant few fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Some of them were devastated, even offering condolences. I owned up to the prank after a day, and a lot of people got pissed. Really pissed. I even got a couple of long private messages from high school classmates about the tasteless nature of my prank. They didn’t find it amusing. I thought it was funny.

APRIL 1st, 2005: BADDIE KNOCKED UP SOME GIRL AND NOW THEY’RE GETTING MARRIED!

By this time, I was already blogging, so I thought the joke will reach more people if I post it on my blog. I had a hard time thinking of a good mindfuck because really, you can’t top faking your own death. So I resorted to the ol’ knocked up scenario, but this time, there’s a wedding involved. I managed to get a hold of the blog entry, and here it is:

A Very Special Announcement

What: A big bad wedding
When: April 24, 2005
Where: Sta. Rosa Parish church

I love Kim. I’ve only known her for just a few months. We were simple acquaintances, at most, friends. But there comes a time in a couple of friends’ relationship that they reach a crossroad. Continue on the straight and simple road of friendship, or take a higher road where you’ll be taking your friendship to another level. A couple of months ago, we did the latter.

We just found out that the road we took came with another traveler joining us in our journey. In a few months, that traveler will be officially joining us. Yes, we’re pregnant.

Yes, we’re getting married because of the baby. But we’re also getting married because we found ourselves in love. Deeply. I love Kim.

It’s a mixture of sadness and great happiness. And I’m inviting you to join me in this very interesting time of my life. Hope you can come.

A lot of my regular visitors got the joke immediately, but good lord, some of them congratulated me. That sort of scared me, actually. It reminded me that I’m getting old and people my age are starting to settle down. The joke kind of backfired, and that was my last April Fools’ Day prank. Anyway, just to let you know, I truly love Kim. I love her now as much as I loved her the first time I saw her.

So, what did I learn? I learned that not all people share the same sense of humor. A seemingly innocent prank may mean the end of the world for some of your closest friends. I learned that it can take some extreme event to occur before you can see what your friends are really made of. I learned that pulling mindfucks will get you two kinds of reactions: the reaction to the information you dish out, and the reaction that comes after you admit that it’s all bullshit. The witnessing the former is usually funny, but the latter? There’s the 50/50 chance of you losing some friends.

The most important realization of all is that some people are completely gullible. I mean, come on. Would you really take a person’s death seriously if it was announced in the Friendster bulletin board and that person’s new primary photo is a cartoon headstone? Christ.

• My April 1st Plurks? LIES!
• Blogathon
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• Ready for Battle!
• Baddie 2008