April Fool’s Day Pranks to Pull on Programmers

The list for April 1, 1997
The Top 16 April Fool’s Day
Pranks to Pull on Programmers

  1. Using their e-mail address, post a request for penpals to the alt.prison.bodypiercing newsgroup.

  2. Three words: electric mouse buzzer.

  3. Assign them to the new "Heaven’s Gate" project.

  4. "Look, Bill Gates!! Ha! Made ya look!"

  5. Put them in the same room with a member of the opposite sex.

  6. "Have you got Prince Albert in a LAN?"

  7. Tell them that "everyone knows Star Trek transporter technology is bogus."

  8. 10 GOTO 10

  9. Swap their monitor for a large cardboard box with handpuppets. Watch the fur fly!

  10. Announce that annual raises will be based on a subjective test of one’s ability to "schmooze the way the butt-kissers in Marketing do."

  11. Intercept their daily Top 5 List, then remove #8 and re-insert it between #5 and #6.

  12. Pretend to "discover" a Fox TV website with a now-out-of-date win a weekend with Gillian Anderson of X-Files contest.

  13. Every hour, on the hour, forward them a warning about the "Good Times" virus.

  14. Call her up and ask if her program is running, and when she says "yes," tell her "Well you better go catch it!"

  15. Replace all the Jolt in the soda machine with Perrier and V8.
And the Number 1 April Fool’s Day Prank to Pull on Programmers…

  1. Special announcement: "Forget Java — Starting immediately, all coding will be done in COBOL."
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CREDITS
Selected from 83 submissions from 37 contributors.
Today’s list authors were:

  • Kermit Woodall, Richmond, VA — 1, 5 (3rd #1)
  • Phil Doyle, Mercer Island, WA — 2, 4
  • Jennifer Ritzinger, Seattle, WA — 2
  • Craig Stacey, St. Paul, MN — 3
  • Dave Wesley, Pleasant Hill, CA — 6
  • Bob Mader, Knoxville TN– 8
  • Lev L. Spiro, Los Angeles, CA — 7
  • Tony Hill, Minneapolis, MN — 9, 14 (Hall of Famer)
  • Alan Smithee, Sugar Land, TX — 10
  • Michael Wolf, Brookline, MA — 11
  • Marshal Perlman, Minneapolis, MN — 12
  • Sue Prifogle, Rushville, IN — 13, Topic
  • Alexander Clemens, San Francisco, CA — 14
  • Bruce Ansley, Baltimore, MD — 15 (Hall of Famer)
  • Marianne Tatom, Austin, TX — 16
  • Chris White, New York, NY — List owner/editor
  • Heart, Seattle, WA — Ambience
T5040197

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