Pranks (part 2)

April Fools Day will be with us in a few days time, so to prepare everyone, this week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog features a round-up of silly pranks.

1) Before I get started though, if any blog masters are reading this, then if you keep reading I'll tell you how to trick your readers into thinking there's a hair on their screen.

Editor's note: "Charles, you forgot to include the advice on how to trick their readers. Also, have you got any advice on how I can get a hair off my screen. It seems to be well and truly stuck."

Charles: **chortle** "A hair on your screen, you say? No, sorry. I don't know how you would get a hair off your screen." **snicker**

Trolling is fun

Sometimes its obvious when people are trolling. For example, when this dude made a mask of himself not wearing a mask properly, he was obviously doing it to deviously troll people.

Mask troll.

Other times, though, trolling can be more subtle and not so obvious. For me, the perfect troll is when you are left wondering, are they actually trolling or are they genuinely that stupid?

So this week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog puts trolling under the microscope. Have a read of the following examples and see if you can decide whether it's a troll cleverly winding people up, or whether they genuinely are that stupid...

1) Flying Carp

Wow! What a rare sight! A bird hitching a ride on a flying carp!

"You can clearly see the bird riding on his back mid-air."

"Wow, I cannot believe you think the fish (who are known for swimming under water) is giving a piggy back ride to the bird (who are known for flying)! I am sad for humanity."

Trolling or stupid?

Prank ideas for April Fools Day

It's April Fools Day in a few days' time, so if you're looking for inspiration for pranks, here are a few ideas...

1) Hot stuff!

Anyone want to try an Egyptian strawberry?

"Try one. They're great!"

April Fools Day pranks (2021 edition)

Devious deception for the purposes of spreading misery and evil are definitely bad, and should always be frowned upon.

However, good natured pranks which the recipient finds amusing are a nice way to bring more smiles into the world. Here are a few pranks from this year's April Fool's Day...

1) Mashed Potato flavour ice cream

Mash Direct started the day by announcing an exciting new mashed potato flavour ice cream! Perhaps even more disgusting was their carrot and parsnip flavoured ice cream, and to complete the disgustingness they also revealed their new gravy topping! Gravy on ice cream? I don't think that's going to catch on.

It all sounds absolutely minging, but thankfully it wasn't real, and it was purely an April Fools Day prank.

Mashed potato flavoured ice cream ... mmm!

Get it while it's warm!

April Fools Day pranks (2019 edition)

Last week saw another April Fools Day come and go, so as has become something of a tradition on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, this week's blog post features a round-up of various April Fools Day pranks from various companies, people and organisations.

However, to test your powers at detecting prankery, one of the following 'pranks' is actually real and not a prank at all! It should be fairy obvious, but if you can't work it out, the answer is revealed at the bottom of today's blog post...

1) McDonalds Pickle Burger

I'm Gherkin It

Personally, I find the gherkins in Big Macs absolutely disgusting, but apparently there are some people who love them, so they must have been really excited when McDonalds Australia posted the following announcement on their instagram page:

"Pickle lovers, it’s the news you’ve all been waiting for. We’re super stoked* to announce the launch of our brand new McPickle Burger. It’s time to tuck into juicy, flavoursome pickles layered between melted cheese, ketchup sauce and toasted sesame seed buns. It’s sure to be a treat for all your senses."

* 'Stoked' is an Australian word for excited.

The announcement was accompanied by an image of a Big Mac style burger filled with gherkins instead of burgers!

However, gherkin lovers hopes were dashed when they discovered that sadly for them, it was an April McFool!

Life is like a box of chocolates

Surely nobody throws away ice cream!
That would be extremely foolish!

A recent study found that the UK throws away an incredible £13 billion worth of food every year! There are just over 63 million people living in the UK, so that works out at £205.75 wasted per person. Just think of what you could buy with £200! You could buy every book and short story ever published by Charles Fudgemuffin, and still have over £150 left over!

Anyway, it got me thinking how important it is not to waste food, and I remembered this lesson when I recently received a box of chocolates as a thank you gift for a small favour I did for a friend. Although I appreciated the gesture, unfortunately I suffer from a chocolate allergy, so I was unable to enjoy the chocolates. I didn't want to appear ungrateful though, so I accepted the gift, and rather than throw the chocolates away, I decided instead to take them into work and leave them in the canteen with a message for people to help themselves.

April Fools' Day pranks (2017 edition)

It's that time of year where I round up a selection of some of the April Fools' Day jokes that were found on the internet to celebrate April Fool's Day last week.

1) Russian hacking services

The award for the most unexpected April Fool's Day prank had to go to the Russian Foreign Ministry who posted their apparently updated answering machine message on their facebook page. The message advises callers:

As unbelievable as it seems,
facebook deleted the link,
but you can still read the transcript.

"You have reached the Russian embassy. Your call is very important to us. To arrange a call from a Russian diplomat to your political opponents, press 1. To use the services of Russian hackers, press 2. To request election interference press 3 and wait until the next election campaign."

For legal purposes, they add:

"Please note that all calls are recorded for quality improvement and training purposes."

You can listen to the prank answering machine message below:

Update: Sadly, in an extremely uncharacteristic move ** shifty eyes**, facebook have now deleted the prank answering machine message, so unfortunately you can't listen to it anymore. I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it!

April Fools Day pranks (2016 edition)

A selection of spoofs and tricks from April Fools' Day...

As usual, with yesterday being April Fools' Day, the internet was full of fake stories. Here are just a few of them...

1) Japanese keyboards

Kids born in English speaking countries are lucky that we only have 26 letters to learn.  However, in Japan there are about 50,000 kanji characters, and between 2,000 to 3,000 of these are in common use! So as you can imagine learning to type in Japanese must be quite a task, as you can see by this Japanese keyboard...

The screen licking pug

A helpful pug to answer all your questions...

A cute baby pug.
Please note, this pug isn't the actual 'screen licking pug'
and is used purely for illustrative purposes.

The Charles Fudgemuffin blog should perhaps be renamed the 'Charles Pugmuffin' blog, because last week's blog post featured ten cute pug photos to celebrate National Pug Day, and this week's post also has a pug theme to it.

It's an adaptation to a childish facebook prank I previously featured, whereby whenever your friends ask a question on facebook, you simply post a reply claiming that the following link provides a helpful solution to their problem:
www.smarturl.it/InfoPage216

However, in actual fact the above 'InfoPage216' link isn't helpful as all, and instead it sneakily redirects them to the 'screen licking pug'.

Here are a few examples to demonstrate...

Prank facebook hacking

"Hello everyone. I am about to learn a hard lesson today. I am about to learn not to leave my facebook account logged in at work..."

That was a friend's status on facebook a few weeks ago, and it's also the theme for this week's blog post. I should first of all clarify that Charles Fudgemuffin in no way condones prank facebook hacking, but if you do find yourself with access to a friend's facebook account and you decide to post an embarrassing prank fake status, then the following examples, taken from my own facebook timeline, may provide inspiration for ideas.

A loving husband makes a generous promise to his wife
... or does he?

First of all, here's a standard classic hack...

1) "Best piece of advice you'll ever get... Listen to your wife. She knows best!"

Hmm, I wonder who could have been behind this status?



And a variation on the same theme...

2) "Well today I am going to take my wife shopping and buy her lots of nice things."

Strangely, the husband in question must have then had second thoughts because he replied to his own status with the comment:

"I am soooo not!"

7 April Fools' Day pranks (2015 edition)

A few of this year's spoof April Fool's Day stories...

Last week I featured a spoof story involving a petty politician, and this week the internet was full of spoof stories, as Wednesday was April Fool's Day. Here are some of the April Fool's Day pranks that various companies, organisations and websites posted on the internet...

1) CATNAV

"Anything dogs can do, cats can do better..."

First up is an interesting new scheme launched by the Royal National Institute Of Blind People ... CATNAV! RNIB help many blind and partially sighted people with their trained guide dogs, and they now plan to expand by training cats to act as 'guide cats'.

An early pilot of the scheme suggests that CATNAV will be ideal for any blind or partially sighted people who want to climb trees or hide under cars.

RNIB introduces CATNAV

If you think our politicians are bad...

...then consider yourself lucky you don't live on the island Geojis Seom!

Drivers of red cars got on the wrong side
of Sijang Sasohan, Mayor of Geojis Seom.

It seems that nowadays politicians are forever in the news for things like false expenses claims, treason, and other assorted inappropriate behaviour, but they don't generally stoop to the level of childish pettiness shown by one politician who didn't take too kindly to a light-hearted newspaper report poking fun at him.

The mayor of Geojis Seom* has made the news before (admittedly, more so in Asia than in the rest of the world) due to some of his strange decisions as leader of the island prinicipality, but his most recent behaviour has to be his most petty decision yet.

* The disputed island territory a few hundred miles north east of Korea which several countries lay claim to.

Sijang got notably upset earlier this year at an official government press conference when he launched a tirade of abuse against the daily newspaper Jalang Simin (Proud Citizen). Jalang Simin published a light-hearted report mocking drivers of green cars, and as Sijang himself drives a green car it seems he didn't take too kindly to the article. In a subsequent fit of rage, Sijang tracked down the perhaps ill-advised journalist who wrote the article, discovered he drove a red car and then quickly introduced a new law giving green cars priority over red cars on all public roads.

The latest facebook hoax

The best way to respond to internet hoaxers...

Sammy The Seagull with his face pixellated to protect his privacy.

Over the last week, most people on facebook will have noticed some of their friends posting a long-winded message stating that they don't give facebook permission to use their photos, information or posts, and that violation of privacy can be punished by law UCC 1-308-11 308-103, etc, etc. Apparently, UCC 1-308-11 308-103 doesn't even relate to online privacy (and even if it did, I'm pretty sure that an American law wouldn't be much use for people in the rest of the world), and it turns out that the message was started by a sneaky prankster.

To me, the art of bluffery should only be used for playing good natured tricks on people and having a bit of daft fun. The best way to deal with an online hoax like this therefore is probably the way one facebook friend responded to it, i.e. by posting the following message:

The Broof Pirate: A childish facebook prank

The Broof Pirate, happy to help with all your facebook questions...

Most pirates carry a pirate sword like this one pictured,
but the Broof Pirate instead carries a bottle of Broof.

In the past on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I've featured a few daft childish pranks to play on facebook, and once again I thought I would mention an amusingly childish facebook prank. Most people will probably find this extremely childish, and also a bit surreal, so it'll only appeal to people who are extremely immature and easily amused, like myself for example.

The prank involves a link shortener to disguise the actual website link, and the link is www.smarturl.it/InfoPage468. The 'InfoPage468' reference makes it appear as if it links to some useful information, but in actual fact the link sneakily redirects to the 'Broof Pirate' website which is a ridiculous website featuring a pirate who makes funny 'broof' noises.

To play the prank, just wait until one of your facebook friends posts a question asking for advice, and then post a reply providing an allegedly 'helpful' link. However, instead of posting a helpful link, you instead post the disguised link to the Broof Pirate.

Here are a few examples based on questions posed on my own facebook feed...

Pranks on facebook and twitter

A few examples of how to prank people on social media.

As I've mentioned before on my blog I'm a big fan of pranks, but the prank has to be good natured otherwise it ceases to be a funny prank and instead becomes a sly trick. So with that in mind, here's another batch or pranks (or sly tricks, depending on your point of view), but this time featuring pranks and tricks with a facebook and twitter theme...

1) My breath smells of farts!

Like this photo if you have camel breath.

This first example is a funny trick you can play on facebook which will make your friends feel a bit embarrassed. First of all post a status which is happy news or a positive comment or basically something which is likely to get as many likes as possible from your friends.

Then once a load of friends have liked your status, edit your status to say something completely different, such as:

"Like this status if your breath smells of farts!"

So then it will appear as if all the friends who liked your original comment have clicked 'like' to indicate that their breath smells of farts.

If you don't want to post something childish like this on your own facebook page then you can also do the same trick by replying to someone else's status with a comment which is designed to get lots of likes, and then later editing your comment to something embarrassing.

Funny prank or sly trick?

Funny pranks: Rickrolling

Charles Fudgemuffin takes a look at one of the biggest worldwide internet pranks.

An inflated balloon which I'm never gonna let down.

A few weeks ago I briefly mentioned the 'rickrolling' phenomenon which for anyone who doesn't know, is the art of posting a link to a seemingly relevant subject, only to instead sneakily redirect the user to the video for Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up'.

I have to admit, I'm not really a massive fan of Rick Astley's music, but I am a fan of foolish japery, so the idea of someone clicking on a link expecting to find information about a serious subject, only to instead be shown a cheesy video of Rick Astley singing 'Never Gonna Give You Up' appeals to my weird sense of humour. It also apparently appeals to Rick Astley, as he has called the rickrolling phenomenon 'bizarre and funny'.

Over time, variations on the rickrolling theme have developed, with ever more elaborate 'Rick Astley' related pranks being sneakily implemented. Here are a few notable rickrolling examples...

7 April Fools' Day pranks (2014 edition)

A few of the spoof stories and pranks found on the web on April Fools' Day.

Last year I rounded up some of the best online pranks played by various websites on April Fool's Day and as you'd expect there were plenty of spoofs this year as well, so here are a few of my favourites...

1) Scientists baffled by square eggs

Traditional 'egg' shaped eggs could become
a thing of the past according to 'April Fuller'.

Freedom Food Farms were reporting that one of their farms had become the first in the world to rear chickens that can lay square eggs! Egg distribution company Hammond Eggs are already looking into the benefits of the square egg, with an obvious bonus being that eggs will now be easier to stack, and of course the square shape means that making sliced egg sandwiches will be more convenient from now on.

However, eagle eyed viewers may be able to spot a couple of 'April Fool' clues in the promotional video, such as square eggs being available in shops from April 1st, and also a more subtle clue is the name of the Hammond Eggs spokeswoman ... April Fuller.

You can watch the full video at the following link:
Chickens lay square eggs (Sadly, Hammond Eggs's April Fools Day video is no longer available.)

Funny prank or sly trick

When does a joke cross the line?

Wanted for playing sly tricks!

The thing with tricks and pranks is that different people draw the line at different points, so what one person considers a funny prank might be regarded as a totally sly trick by someone else. So to investigate where the majority of people would draw the line, I've compiled a 'funny prank or sly trick' quiz.

Basically it's all about when does a good natured prank go too far and become a sly trick? Some of the following scenarios are fairly tame whereas others are more harsh...

1) Misleading translations

To set the scene for this first example, a few years ago my mate used to have a soft spot for a Japanese girl he used to work with. For the purposes of the scenario we'll call her Mavis, but that wasn't her real name. (Actually, you probably already realised that, seeing as how Mavis isn't a very common girl's name in Japan.)

Daft office pranks (part 3)

Yet another example of office related japery.

This daft trick requires fast typing skills.

Readers of my blog may recall that from time to time I like to write about various childish tricks that I used to play on people when I worked in an office.

This next daft office prank is another trick which I used to play back when I used to work for the council on the pensions team. Anyone who’s worked in an office will have probably come across at some stage the use of shared spreadsheets which everyone in the office has the ability to update. A consequence of this is the possibility that on occasion you will try to get into a shared spreadsheet but unfortunately someone else will already be using it which means it’s locked for editing. In those cases Excel will give you a message along the lines of:

Daft office pranks (part 2)

More office related tomfoolery

Phone based pranks.

From time to time on the blog I feature daft pranks, and this next one is a daft office based prank which used to amuse me when when I worked on the pensions team at the council a few years ago.

Part of my job would involve phoning other councils on a regular basis to discuss certain pension queries, so another childish trick which I used to play sometimes was I would ring up another council for no reason, and then just before they answered the phone I would quickly transfer the call to someone else on my team.

If I timed it right it would mean that both of them (the other council and the person on my team) would answer the call at the exact same moment.

So what would happen would be that the other pensions team would answer: