April Fool’s Day has been observed in one form or another for hundreds of years. Some of the tricks and jokes played on the day are simple and harmless, while others can be oddly elaborate and mean spirited. In modern times, you can count on newspapers, businesses and websites to run fake stories every April Fool’s Day, making everyone a little paranoid about what can and can’t be believed that day.
As it happens, every so often, one of those pranks or jokes really strikes a chord with people. Then the joke is less that it was played at all and more that people got really excited by the possibility of it being true, which has led to more than one joke finding its way into the real world.
10. Gouken Started as a Fake Character in Street Fighter
According to Capcom, Street Fighter has sold 47 million units worldwide and is worth billions. It was so big they even made a movie out of it starring Jean-Claude Van Damme that you should probably never watch. The point is, it’s a big deal. And it was so big back in 1992 that when magazines ran stories about a secret character named Sheng Long, fans were incredibly excited at the opportunity to play as him.
The entire joke started as an error in translation. In the arcade version of the game, characters say different things when they win. One of Ryu’s statements was “you must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.” It was just a mistranslation of what should have been “if you cannot overcome the Rising Dragon Punch, you cannot win!” In simplified Chinese, shenlong or sheng long roughly translates to “god dragon.” So, in context, we get rising dragon. That said, it really makes it sound like you need to fight someone named Sheng Long.
Electronic Gaming Monthly seized on this and wrote a story for their April Fool’s issue about how to find Sheng Long. It involved winning the game multiple times while never taking damage; quite a tall order. Other magazines repeated it because it had come from a trusted source. A legend was born.
The rumors and jokes continued for some years until Street Fighter IV when Capcom finally included a character named Gouken, who looked exactly like Sheng Long had been depicted in the past and also had his backstory.
9. Culver’s Curderburger
Depending on where you live, you may not be familiar with the midwestern US restaurant chain known as Culver’s. Arguably, they’re most famous for their butter burger, which is, of course, a burger with butter on it. But they also have a penchant for cheese, and cheese curds are found on the menu as well. In 2021, the company made a joke post on Twitter for April Fool’s Day about a Curderburger; essentially a giant cheese curd on a bun.
The joke gained so much traction a petition was made for it to become a real thing, which 642 people signed. That was enough for Culver’s, who agreed to make the burger a reality for one day only. And it worked like a charm.
The company reported that 20% of locations broke single day sales records as a result of the Curderburger becoming a reality. In Wisconsin they were selling Curderburgers at three times the rate of normal burgers.
8. Pokemon Go
Pokemon Go was one of the biggest mobile games in history, and started as a Google joke. Back in 2014, the company’s annual April Fool’s prank was that they were adding Pokemon to Google Maps that you had to catch. People loved the idea so much that Pokemon Go, the augmented reality game, was developed as a result.
When the prank was first played, no one could have predicted just how big this would have been. The app went on sale for real in 2016 and made over $4 million in the first day. At the end of three months, that was up to $600 million.
Numbers dropped in 2017 and it seemed like the game might be dying off, but recent history shows that’s not the case. In fact, in 2021, in-app purchases reached $904 million. Now that’s a punchline.
7. Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout
Some jokes are awful and meant to make you cringe or feel uncomfortable. For instance, when Wynkoop Brewery made an April Fool’s joke about a new kind of beer they had developed, brewed with Rocky Mountain oysters, otherwise known as the testicles of bulls. It sounds terrible, because of course it does. Who wants that in their beer?
Well, the folks at Wynkoop couldn’t leave well enough alone, and they actually went ahead with their insidious plan, developing a real batch of Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout. It’s brewed in small 8-barrel batches and uses roasted barley, seven speciality malts, and 25 pounds of sliced and roasted bull testicles.
The novelty of it attracted a ton of attention from the press and guests at 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 really good. Mathematically, those testicles have to cover just under 2,000 pints of beer, so each pint glass has just over 1% testicle goodness, meaning the rest of the brew needed to stand on its own and reviews were very positive.
6. Google Maps for NES
Back in 2012, Google decided it’d be fun to make a joke about developing Google Maps for the Nintendo. They have a whole video and everything about the 8-Bit maps. It was a goofy little joke that very much mixed real Google Maps with some Legend of Zelda graphics.
Nearly 10 years later, someone took Google’s joke to heart and developed an actual 8-Bit version of Google Maps usable on a Nintendo system. With a few simple hacks that convert normal maps into Legend of Zelda maps, plus a tutorial on how to actually make your own Nintendo games, a YouTuber created the game, and it was surprisingly functional.
5. A High School Therapy Rabbit
A few years ago the principal of Briggs High School in Columbus, Ohio made an April Fool’s joke about getting a therapy llama for students at the school. Everyone was very excited and then she told them it was a joke and everyone became very upset and probably could have used a therapy llama. Why jokes about a therapy llama? That’s probably a story for a different article. The point is, it happened and then the rug was pulled out from under everyone who was into the idea.
A couple of years later, in a Zoom meeting, someone joked about getting a therapy dog. Why does everyone keep joking about the kids at this school needing therapy animals? No one knows. Still, the idea had now returned. The principal suggested a bunny would be better and, as it happens, someone knew a person who was fostering a rabbit. Suddenly, the joke became a reality, and the school had a week-long trial with a foster rabbit.
The trial worked out and the school now houses the rabbit, named Briggsy, in a “calming room” where students can go to relax and interact with the rabbit. The rabbit has had an overwhelmingly positive effect on everyone.
4. The Barbara Bush/Aleister Crowley Conspiracy
Some rumors have a way of taking on lives of their own. What starts as a joke becomes something bigger and then when you try to set the record straight, people refuse to believe you and think any truth is actually a conspiracy to cover up the “real” truth. That may be how the story that former First Lady Barbara Bush was the daughter of the wickedest man in the world, occultist Aleister Crowley. In that way, this entry isn’t about something that is factually correct, but something that became real in the minds of conspiracy theorists even when it’s openly acknowledged to be based on nothing but a joke.
This weird story dates back to a 2006 April Fool’s Day joke from a guy named Joseph Cannon. He wrote the joke article based on nothing more than the fact he thought Crowley and Bush looked alike, 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 featured in Crowley documentaries. Even right-wing radio host Alex Jones brought it up. It’s been translated into other languages and still makes the rounds on conspiracy and alleged “truth” sites to this day.
3. Tesla Tequila
If there’s one thing you can count on from Elon Musk is that he’s going to be doing some trolling online. What else should the richest man on Earth do with his time? The difference is that while most of us have to leave a joke as a joke, Musk can make anything he wants come to life, because of course he can. And that’s where Teslaquila comes in.
Back in 2018 Musk joked that he was drowning his sorrows in Tesla brand tequila after the company went bankrupt (he actually wrote bankwupt, but nevermind that). Fast forward two years and in 2020 you could pick up an actual, non-joke bottle of Tesla Tequila shaped like a lightning bolt for $250. It was aged 15 months, hence the long wait between joke and reality, and was only made in a small batch. Later, a 420 version with sipping glasses limited to 420 bottles was available for, of course, $420.
2. A Pool Float To Accommodate Large-Breasted Women
Have you ever heard of a lilo? It’s a trademarked term, but it’s also used as a general term for those inflatable, floating mattress-looking things you can use in a pool. In 2018, lingerie company Bravissimo made an April Fool’s joke about selling one that had built-in “cup-holders,” which is to say it was designed to accommodate women with larger breasts who wanted to be able to lay down on their stomachs on one. It was exactly the type of joke you’d expect from a lingerie company, but that’s not how it went over. Instead, they started getting serious inquiries from customers who actually wanted the product.
A couple of months later, the product was a real item for sale on the company’s website. Given that they’re just inflatable beds, you can imagine the overall design and production was fairly simple, even though it was completely outside the company’s realm of expertise. They sold them for £25 a piece.
1. The Paddy Power Strip Poker Tournament
Getting people to agree to play strip poker is not the sort of thing you’d think has a lot of widespread appeal. It tends to be the sort of thing done behind closed doors with close friends, or at least friends you want to get close to. But gaming site Paddy Power made it something massive, all thanks to a joke.
In 2006, 195 strangers showed up for the Paddy Power World Strip Poker Championships, where one champ walked out with £10,000 in one hand and his clothes in the other. This was the result of Paddy Power making a joke about the tournament on April 1st of that year. Despite the goofy nature of the idea, a lot of people took a shine to it. Obviously, since 195 of them actually showed up. The response they got was so overwhelming they threw caution and clothes to the wind and held it for real, donating another £10,000 to charity to legitimize the whole thing.
In the end, people had a good time, charities got some money, and the event took a Guinness World Record for largest strip poker tournament ever.