April Tomfoolery

[Lolua]

If you're reading this on April 1st, check out the following Potterian websites for some great April Fool's fun:

• HPANA's PNN.com: www.hpana.com/af/2005
  
• HPANA's Interview with the Half-Blood Prince: www.hpana.com/news.18548.html
  
• TLC's Letter to the Fans
  
• TLC's AskPeeves: www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/askpeeves/
  
• Veritaserum's Error Message: www.veritaserum.com/site/af2005/
  
• MuggleNet's Legal notice
  
• The Sugar Quill's Book 6 spoof: www.sugarquill.net/aprilfools2005/
  

UPDATE (4/2/2005): Now that April Fool's is over, I've changed the links above to reflect site archiving of the various pranks, where applicable.

[Oracle Of Odd]

Tomfoolery, indeed.

I found two articles from bogus CNN and BBC pages informing us that Rupert Grint had launched a pro golf career and that he was going to star in a new reality series on ... Nickelodeon of all channels, entitled "Rupertland" which will "appeal to wide variety of ages" ....

*considers*



That has to be a lie ... to appeal to ALL ages ... well ... the word 'illegal' comes to mind.

[Lolua]

Oracle said:

I found two articles from bogus CNN and BBC pages informing us that Rupert Grint had launched a pro golf career and that he was going to star in a new reality series on ... Nickelodeon of all channels, entitled "Rupertland" which will "appeal to wide variety of ages" ....

Yes, I saw those stories this morning, too... they were posted in the SnitchSeeker.com forums and relied solely upon shifty-eyed emoticons to express their lack of seriousness. Silly blond forum admin. Some of the people replying to the thread did figure out that it was a joke... but many did not, even after others pointed out that it was April Fool's Day. *sigh*

In the words of Vanyaria Darkshadow: "The moral of the story? Eat your kids before they get old enough to abuse the English language this badly." 'Nuff said.

[Lolua]

HPANA posted a round-up of the various sites' April Fool's jokes, some of which I missed.

www.hpana.com/news.18550.html

Also, MuggleNet's "legal notice" was apparently taken seriously by a Sri Lankan news outlet in a companion piece to a story about security for the publication of HBP. See the last blurb in the blue box on this page:

www.lankabusinessonline.com/new_full_story.php?subcatcode=11&catname=Law&newscode=1862492683

From a story on MuggleNet, www4.mugglenet.com/newsfusion/fullnews.php?id=175.

[Lolua]

Found another HP April Fool's gag that I'd missed. Chris Rankin Online, the official website of the bloke who played Percy Weasley in the first three films, posted a joke news announcement in honor of the holiday:

Chris Rankin Gives Up Acting, Launches Music Career as "DJ Muppet Supreme"
www.chrisrankin.com/aprilfool05/

The site features a sample mp3 for downloading and badly PhotoShopped pictures of Chris in gangsta gear and truly horrible bling.