Honest to God, the gullibility quotient this year for fans is through the roof. I look around the Internet or get emails from people raging over obviously bogus announcements or see them lambasting various creators over things they were alleged to have said and obviously didn’t. It’s as if April Fool’s Day was invented for the hair-trigger mentality of Internet denizens to go nuts over. Still, in the spirit of the day, I offer the following Broadway Moment that sums it all up:
PAD
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PAD, the whole point of the day is to provoke those kinds of responses. An April Fools Day gag isn’t really successful if nobody believes it.
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You can’t have April Fools Day without a few fools.
Hm. I bet Barrowman would be great in that role.
There’ve been rumors since forever that he’d star in a revival of this show, actually.
I can’t decide if my favorite is “Writers Petition Brad Meltzer to Stop Writing” or “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1988.”
The writers wasn’t so much a prank as birthday thingee…
LXG 1988 was cruel, because it’d be so awesome!
Yeah, that kills me, how cool that comic would be. Never happen because of rights issues; you can’t just mix and match characters from various licenses not in public domain. Still, we can dream.
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PAD
I saw that pic and almost wept. Tears of joy for the level of pure awesome and tears of sadness that it’ll never be.
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We all get caught out at least for a minute or so. I was so dead tired this morning that I didn’t even notice what Google had done and then I actually wondered if someone bought them out before finally remembering the date.
Ayup, April 1st is the alsolutely worst day to have to tell someone extremely bad or significant news. “I eloped!” “I lost both arms!” “My first-draft script is getting a full season in Fox!” “Yeah, sure, Happy April Fool’s Day to you too.”
As I recall, last April Fool’s Day I listed a whole bunch of future story developments for X-Factor, including the senile Doctor Doom, and people just assumed I was joking. Which is what I figured would happen.
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PAD
What’s great about that is that a friend of mine DID elope on April Fool’s Day seventeen years ago. When they called us we didn’t believe them. They insisted; we laughed and hung up. They called us back and put a witness on whom we trusted; “No … they actually did, believe me.”
I’m almost 100% sure they chose the day very purposefully.
And I had fun with a prank yesterday; I had my students convinced for a few minutes that I was leaving at the end of the year. I could have easily had them completely convinced all day, but decided it would probably be better not to do that…
I’m so glad spring break and April Fools day coincide. I hate being in school. For one thing, many kids do not get the concept. They’ll pull your chair out from behind you and as your spine hits the floor and snaps like stale breadstick they yell out “April Fools!”
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Plus there is always the possibility that the place could catch on fire and the same kids will just sit there, convinced that the alarms and smoke and actual fire are all some elaborate gag which, given the events of the previous paragraph…good!
You’d think with “April Fool’s Day” being a trending topic on Twitter that there would be fewer people falling for these things. Apparently not.
“You’d think with “April Fool’s Day” being a trending topic on Twitter that there would be fewer people falling for these things. Apparently not.”
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Well I, for one, am glad to see some people still have a sense of humor. I was “half-got” by somebody today, meaning they had me and then halfway through their story I remembered what day it was – and I “got” two people, and all of us had a good laugh about it.
Peter, did some particular incident spur this blog post?
Probably the “Millar to Ebert: ‘Kick-Úš Will Knock Your Jaw Off'” entry at comicmix which is so tasteless and inappropriate I almost did not laugh long and hard.
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Special guest appearance by someone who misses not one but TWO obvious jokes and gets real huffy about it. Comedy is hard.
Probably the “Millar to Ebert: ‘Kick-Úš Will Knock Your Jaw Off’” entry at comicmix which is so tasteless and inappropriate I almost did not laugh long and hard.
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Just read that article and the responses. Wow.
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I’m not an April Fool’s Day fan (my wife hates the day with a passion), and this is the kind of thing as to why. Because not only does it lead to incredibly inappropriate ‘jokes’ being made, but it leads to incredibly stupid responses being made. I mean, incredibly stupid beyond the normally incredibly stupid and all.
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I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if a good chunk of content on sites like Snopes are due to April Fool’s jokes.
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Oh dear lord… He has certainly gotten denser since I last quit reading his posts here, hasn’t he.
Craig: I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if a good chunk of content on sites like Snopes are due to April Fool’s jokes.
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I don’t remember any articles listing April Fools Day as an origin, but several articles on Snopes list parody sites as the origin. People reprint stuff from the Onion and e-mail it around more than anything else, but every college newspaper seems to have written at least one spoof article that ended up creating an internet rumor.
Heh, I thought that was real. Just because I could totally see Mark Millar saying those things.
I didn’t realise that Roger Ebert story was a joke.
I guess I just don’t expect to see these joke stories, so I don’t always recognise them when I do.
It was a combination of things. The Comicmix stuff in which Frawley pulled the stick out of his ášš long enough to wave it scoldingly, combined with several people who sent me angry emails expressing fury over the obviously bogus report from Locus over a sequel to “Atlas Shrugged.”
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PAD
Why would someone send *you* an email about a sequel to Atlas Shrugged? Do you have some kind of Rand connection I was heretofore unaware of?
…and here I thought you wanted to be done with me. Yes, I would suppose I was gotten by that April Fool listing. At first it seemed unlikely someone would make up such a vile and indefensible story and find an editor who accepted it, but in all likelihood that is what happened.
Peter David is still a contemptible creep, and that has not changed in the recent past. Considering his bloated ego and the offensiveness of his public statements, I would have expected him to find a way to use his own name rather than his wife’s. I am not at all convinced she should be lumped with him. Surely he knows how to type his own name and an email address which links to it, rather than posting under her byline.
Yeah, PAD really should have signed his own name to his posts…oh wait, he did.
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Since nobody else will bother, let me walk you through this.
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The initial post was an April Fools hoax. Clue? Well, it was April 1st and the post was obviously a hoax. I mean, hello?
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But you got suckered. A better man would have laughed it off.
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Then PAD, in all liklihood not directing this at you, makes the following joke–It’s obviously bogus. I mean, come on, look at the byline: Marc Alan Fishman? Clearly fake.
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See, the joke is, that is actually his name, or at least the name he uses on comcmix. Often you can spot the April Fools jokes by the byline–obviously fake names that give the game away. Dr Norm D. Plume, Sue D. Nym, Hugh G Rection, that sort of thing. The joke is that Marc Alan Fishman is NOT one of those. Get it?
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Or not, maybe it didn’t strike you as funny. Well, no harm…unless you were to, I don;t know, use it as a springboard to expose yourself to a NEW group of people as curiously obsessed with PAD.
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Me, I like the guy. But he occasionally says some things that strike me as wrong and could, if one were of that frame of mind, be used to go on the attack. At this point though, you have been bested so many times–mostly self inflicted damage but still–that he would have to do or say something monstrously wrong headed for you to have any chance to score a point. My advice is to find a new, fresh target for your rage. You lost this game.
Yes, I would suppose I was gotten by that April Fool listing.
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So, you prove yourself to be the not-just-April Fool you are, and you take it out on PAD. Classy.
Why would someone send *you* an email about a sequel to Atlas Shrugged? Do you have some kind of Rand connection I was heretofore unaware of?
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Good lord, no. It’s just that people routinely send me links to all kinds of things that upset them. After writing a column for twenty years, I think people see me as the clearing house for things that has them riled up. Sometimes it’s just FYI. Sometimes they’re hoping I’ll get angry about it and address it publicly on the assumption that what I say will carry more weight with people (which I think is not likely, but whatever). Sometimes they even ask my opinion about whether they have grounds for getting worked up.
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I get a few a week. I get a LOT on April 1st.
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PAD
Some people fell head over heels for the Avatar Press To Sue James Cameron story on Bleeding Cool. Even after reading the bit about serving papers printed in lenticular 3D.
On the Internets, isn’t *every* day “April Fool’s Day”?
Yes, but it’s also the one day that people should be hyper-alert for it.
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PAD
Peter David has more experience of the publishing industry than I, but I think there are still such things as libel and slander. When one reads something from a generally reliable source there is the natural assumption that it is more than an extremely offensive hoax. I cannot see any way in which the Fishman column rises above libel and constitutes defensible satire.
It’s about as funny and and as subtle as a dìçk joke.
Dude, you got taken. You looked foolish. let it go. This does not make you look any better and will only drive more people to the site of your initial foolishness.
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I know this falls on deaf ears but when you’re in a hole stop digging.
Thanks for taking the trouble to try and talk to him, Bill. And just for you: A funny dìçk joke.
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Did you hear about the baby who was born with no eyelids? In a ground breaking, twelve hour procedure, plastic surgeons were able to fashion eyelids for the infant using the foreskin from his pëņìš. Good news is, the operation worked. Bad news is, now the kid’s cockeyed.
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PAD
Good one!
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(Just so it’s clear to everyone–it’s not like I collect them. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.).
When that kid reaches puberty, his eyes are going to pop open everytime he has a wet dream.
What? Jokes? Or foreskins? 🙂
I don’t disagree. 🙂
More interesting than my own gullibility are Peter David’s posts on that string, in which he makes a number of pronouncements, none of them remotely humorous, and a number more in which he declares it was all a joke, and that I am a moron for not knowing that. After having read quite a few of his bloviations and finding very few of them funny, I think he’s a liar and a blowhard. He makes unfounded pronouncements, sees if anyone laughs, and then assures them that they WOULD, if they were just as wise and wonderful as he. Oh, yes – wise and wonderful enough that he posts under his wife’s byline. I cannot speak for her, but in her place I would want to link my name with my own thoughts: PAD could make her look like an intolerant crank when that is not necessarily the case.
Seriously, it’s time somebody takes your shovel away. The grave was deep enough long ago.
Bill Mulligan: PAD’s name is Peter Allen David, not Kathleen David. Foolish fellow that I am, I know this, and so should you. It is unfortunate that some of his most pathetic “humor” and arrogant boasting are posted under her byline. It shows a lack of respect to link her name to his own failures.
Jeffrey, it isn’t like comicmix is hidden behind some stone wall where people have to take your word on things. It’s just a click away and when they click they will see the posts and see each one is signed PAD and they will think you are insane.
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The hilarious thing about Jeffy trying to play this off as if Peter were somehow trying to pull a fast one is that Peter signed every post. Here’s the very first post Peter made.
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“Kathleen David (7:17 PM on Thu Apr 1, 2010)
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It’s obviously bogus. I mean, come on, look at the byline: Marc Alan Fishman? Clearly fake.
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PAD”
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Ðámņ that Peter David! Isn’t he so sneaky the way he signs his initials at the bottom of the post just like he does everywhere else. Curse his trickster soul!
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Of course, what makes it even funnier is that the direct response to Peter’s post was Jeffy’s where he makes clear that (A) he knows who he is responding to and that (B) he knows why Peter’s posts tag as Kath’s over there.
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“Jeffrey Frawley (7:53 PM on Thu Apr 1, 2010)
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I suppose the entry above was by PAD, despite the Kathleen David byline. Comicmix is purported to be unable to tell PAD and Mrs. David apart. I think most of us puny humans could pass that test. He’s the one who says non-obvious things are obvious, and then there are the issues of age, gender and appearance. It’s obvious!”
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So, exactly what point is Jeffy trying to make beyond that he will forever be the impossible twit in every thread he joins?
I’m not bothering to engage Frawley on this board because it’s kind of a pointless exercise, but just for the record: I never said he was a moron (as he has claimed repeatedly). I said he was a humorless git. I’d say I stand behind that, but his own postings pretty much prove it to such a degree that no defense is required.
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PAD
Oh, but he is a moron, too. If he died tomorrow, nobody here would care or notice.
Oh, but he is a moron, too. If he died tomorrow, nobody here would care or notice
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I’d care. I mean, where there’s life, there’s hope. It’s obvious Frawley has some serious issues that, I suspect, have absolutely nothing to do with me. This much hostility typically arises from some sort of misplaced aggression. Perhaps with the aid of therapy or something he could deal with whatever the hëll’s really bothering him. Maybe even start behaving like a reasonable person. Not likely, but possible. If he dies, then that can never happen. And that would be a shame.
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PAD
So, were you watching some Monty Python (or other British comedy) lately? “Git” is a pretty British word, and one I don’t recall seeing PAD use a lot in his work. (And since it’s after 4/1, no trying to convince us you’re moving to England, PAD, and practicing your snappy retorts.)
It’s a great word though, isn’t it/ Even if you’d never heard it before if someone said “Hey, your a real git!” you’d probably know they weren’t paying you a compliment.
I’ve used “git”on occasion when it seems to be called for. I like British slang. I called someone a gormless teat once. That was fun.
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PAD
Bølløçkš! Sod off with your porkies, you pillock. You’re just one of those Yank tossers trying to speak Brit because you think it makes you a toff.
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(Just taking the mickey.)
I didn’t get taken in by the Millar/jaw post because I didn’t read it. I saw the headline, saw that it concerned Mark Millar, and went on to the next thing.
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And I didn’t even get the ‘jaw’ comment in reference to Ebert. Just didn’t make that connection. Tasteless? Yeah, but much comedy is.
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I don’t fall for many April Fool’s jokes, but reading that Millar/jaw post today, it is all too obvious it was a joke.
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The only April Fool’s thing I sorta fell for this year was the local radio station’s weather report calling for frigid temperatures and 2 inches of snow (we are in a record heat wave). I just assumed they popped in the wrong tape until I heard a mention of the date an hour or so later.
Alan Coil: If one comprehends English, the provenance of the ‘jaw’ comment was made clear in Marc Alan Fishman’s initial post. Saying you didn’t make the connection is much more saying you had no idea what you were talking about than it was noting the comment’s obscurity.
Jeffrey Frawley is a humorless git.
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All right. PAD finally said something funny. “I’m not bothering to engage Frawley on this board” Very good! On the other hand, it demonstrates that you are a liar or an idiot. Which seems better to you? I will abide by your decision, but there are only two choices.
The only good thing about Frawley posting here – besides the entertainment value of his increasingly foam-mouthed rants – is that he has the rest of us,some of whom are guaranteed to say black simply when someone else says white, all agreeing on something. Such unity – however temporary – is beautiful to behold. So there’s that.
In the directors cut of Watchmen, Ozymandias’ plan includes New york City being crushed by a giant Jeff Frawley.
And the best thing is, he’ll believe that it’s only because you’re a bunch of suck ups who parrot everything I say, despite all evidence to the contrary. He can’t wrap himself around the notion that it’s all him.
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PAD
Yeah, he probably believes that it’s only because we’re a bunch of suck ups who parrot everything you say.
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***Squawk!!!***
“And the best thing is, he’ll believe that it’s only because you’re a bunch of suck ups who parrot everything I say, despite all evidence to the contrary. He can’t wrap himself around the notion that it’s all him.”
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Yeah, because everyone KNOWS I’m a suck-up who parrots everything you say:)
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Seriously, though at times I have seen you get hot-tempered, believed you to be wrong at times and acting a bit snide at times, Peter – if I ever thought you to be a “contemptible creep” I would simply find a way to address it with you personally if there was a legitimate issue that was sticking in my craw or simply find other things to do with my time.
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But Frawley has been harassing you for YEARS now on your own personal blog made up with fans of your work, maybe even some friends. Maybe he thinks he’ll “reveal who you truly are”, have the scales drop from our eyes so to speak. Instead,he has only revealed a lot about himself.
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“f I ever thought you to be a “contemptible creep” I would simply find a way to address it with you personally if there was a legitimate issue that was sticking in my craw or simply find other things to do with my time.”
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If it was just finding Peter to be a “contemptible creep” I could see option #1 working. But since Frawley has stated multiple times over the years that he isn’t actually a fan of Peter’s work, dislikes Peter as a person, thinks that he’s a liar and a blowhard, disagrees with the vast majority of what Peter believes and says about political and social issues, etc, etc, etc…
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You would think that the “simply find other things to do with my time” option would have occurred to him a long, long time ago. Seriously, there are things that some people do that I just can not fathom and wonder what their ultimate end goal is. He’s certainly not making friends here or networking for connections. He’s not attempting to contribute anything meaningful to the discussions and debates. He’s certainly not setting up a memorable and fun meeting for himself with Peter at a convention.
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Soooo…. What?
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His ultimate goal is to maybe be remembered as a faceless, voiceless set of pixels on a computer screen that showed that someone out there going by the name of “Jeffrey Frawley” could outlast all the other trolls who wanted to prove that they could be complete ášš clowns to both Peter and Kath? A mighty fine goal he’s set for himself even if nobody here thinks twice about him or his posts when they’re not actually looking at the blog and occasionally not even then. And I’m sure that his boasts of being a thorn in the side of Peter David never fail to draw the appropriate responses from friends, family and coworkers whenever he chooses to regale them with his stories of his time here “behind enemy lines” on the blog.
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Seriously, you sometimes wonder how joyless someone’s life must be when they seemingly get some sort of enjoyment out of being a complete ášš and working that hard to prove it to a group of total strangers.
Amen.
Mr. Chandler’s reading comprehension is about as good as his critical reasoning. I have never claimed to be a hater of PAD’s professional work. I have not read everything he has written, and doubt Mr. Chandler has either, but what I have read has varied between competent and extremely good. What I despise is the persona he maintains on this blog. I consider him a contemptible creep who trumpets his personal virtues while demonstrating he has none – a rotten S.O.B. who is a quite talented writer of fiction, not a stumbling idiot. Is that any clearer?
It must be incredibly frustrating to be so consistently bested by someone you have so little regard for. Perhaps you should go after an easier target–your actions here have only enhanced PAD’s position, since you come off so poorly.
Bill, seriously, why are you bothering with this guy? I don’t know what it is in Frawley’s personal history that’s made him like this. Maybe he had to watch someone close to him die of an illness when he was very young. Maybe he has a social disorder. But I think we both know that such a degree of obsession with someone he can’t stand is simply not normal, nor is it healthy. The more you talk to him, the more you feed into whatever his particular dysfunction is.
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PAD
Yeah, yeah…it’s a flaw in my personality that I have trouble letting nonsense like this go..
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Let me put it this way–when I look back on my past, I see too many times when I let the wrong kinds of people say the wrong kinds of things…and said nothing. Now I probably overcompensate for that.
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But obviously we are at the point where if Mr Frawley says something inappropriate about you and we ignore it you would not take that as a tacit agreement with him. It’s harder to stay quiet when he brings Kathleen into it, which is of course why he does it.
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Anyway, your point is well taken.
Heh… this reminds me of this Collage Humor sketch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMEe7JqBgvg
Actually, that would be “college humor.” There is neither collage nor decoupage involved in that sketch. This is generally taught in high school, but if it is not it can be determined by reading the title on YouTube.
Who’s Jeffrey Frawley? Aside from the angry dude who posted above? I could google it but that would eat up too much time in my life. Considering how much a smoke and drink, I ain’t got that much to waste.
Ran a quick Google on the name, and most of the results came back as related to a Nigerian-scam type email, in which a Sgt. Jeffrey Frawley sought to enlist the recipient’s help in smuggling $12 million in US aid out of Iraq.
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Of course, the grammar of the letter is more consistent with the Nigerian scam than with even Frawley’s ill-thought-out rants, so I doubt strongly that they’re the same person…
I’m impressed with your scholarship. When I look up “TallestFanEver” I get various sideshow freaks, and “Jonathan” returns either Superman’s adoptive father or King David’s homosexual lover. These are also probably false leads.
Jeffrey Frawley is a humorless git.
Alan Coil has simply failed to say anything funny.
Jeffrey Frawley is a humorless git.
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For PAD and Bill (and everyone else of course),
TWO Ðìçk Jokes
1.)”Mom took Little Johnny to the doctor for lacerations on his pëņìš.
Doctor: “How did such a thing happen?”
Johnny: “It’s that dámņ neighbor girl, Susie. Her braces are too darned sharp.”
2.)”A man is having problems with his Johnson which certainly had seen better times. He consults a doctor who, after a couple of tests, says, “Sorry, but you’ve overdone it the last 30 years. Your dìçk is burned out; you only have 30 erections left in your pëņìš.”
The man walks home (deeply depressed); his wife is already expecting him at the front door and asks him what the doctor said concerning his problem. He tells her what the doc told him. She says, “Oh no, only 30 times! We shouldn’t waste that. We should make a list!”
He replies, “Yes, I already made a list on the way home. Sorry, your name isn’t on it.”
Since we’re going lowbrow, here are two terrific ones (the first ties in nicely with the health care issue):
1) A doctor is showing an elderly female hospital benefactor around the hospital. They come to a room with an open door, where they see a man sitting on a table mášŧûrbáŧìņg furiously.
“Oh my word,” the woman exclaims, “what is he doing?!?”
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” the doctor answers, “but it’s medically necessary. This patient has an illness that causes his testicles to produce semen at an alarming rate. If he doesn’t… relieve himself several times a day, his testicles could rupture.”
“Well, then, I suppose it’s alright,” the woman responds.
The two walk to the next room, where they see a man sitting on a table getting a bløw jøb from a beautiful nurse.
“Oh my!” the woman shouts. “How do you explain that?”
The doctor says, “Same ailment, better insurance.”
2) A father comes home and tells his 10-year-old son, “We’re going next door to see our neighbor’s new baby. I’m going to warn you: She was born with no ears, and if you make any jokes or comments you’ll be in big trouble!”
So they go next door, and the boy looks at the baby — who does indeed have no ears.
“How’s her eyesight?” the boy asks the new mom.
“She has 20-20 vision,” replies the mother proudly.
“Good,” says the kid, “because if she had to wear glasses she’d be fûçkëd!”
Guy wants into a bar, sits down, orders his drink, and as he’s sitting there, he keeps hearing piano music. Looks around, nobody’s there. Still hearing the music, he turns to the bartender and asks, “Hey, I’m sorry, do you hear a piano playing?”
Bartender goes, “Check this out,” reaches under the bar and pulls out a tiny little man playing a tiny little piano.
“Hot dámņ,” guy exclaims! “How’d you get that little piano guy?”
Bartender says. “I got a genie. He’s in the bathroom.”
Guy goes into the bathroom, out pops the genie. Genie goes, “I will grand you one wish.”
Guy immediately answers, “I want a million bucks!”
*POOF!* One million ducks appear in the bar.
Guy angrily stomps back to the Bartender, and snaps, “What the hëll is wrong with your genie? I ask for a million bucks, he gives me a million ducks?”
Bartender sighs and says, “Yeah, I know. You really think I asked for a 12-inch pianist?”
Hey! Careful with that joke, it’s an antique! Ba-dum-dum-ching. Anyway, this is one of my favourite quickie jokes:
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Two eggs are sitting in a frying pan. First egg turns to the other and says, “Man, it’s hot in here.” Second egg goes, “Holy šhìŧ, it’s a talking egg!”
That Raul Esparza is one talented bloke.
Bill,
I get where you’re coming from. I’ve done the same thing and feel the same way. But it’s long past time, after the same nonsense over and over, thread after thread, year after year, that instead of anger or indignation over the individual in question simply take a cue from Dark Willow and say…”Bored now.”
I once knew a guy who I thought was a contemptible creep. That’s why I talked to him every day and hung out with him and his friends as much as I could.
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Oh, wait, no I didn’t. That would have just been crazy.