Here are some of the April Fools jokes I've pulled off.
This year (2004) I made a flyer
congratulating my friend Todd Tinsley for winning the Pulitzer Prize in Physics, and inviting people to come by his office for free
milk and cookies. I put these flyers up all over campus, and left two bags of
cookies and a cooler full of milk on Todd's desk. People stopped by all day to
congratulate Todd and to find out that there is, in fact, no Pulitzer Prize in
physics.
Here's the flyer: 2004AprilFools-PulitzerPrize.pdf.
Last year (2003), during the UN-Iraq inspections crisis, I left notices on all the
labs in the building saying that the President had demanded inspections of all labs,
looking for biological agents, gas centrifuges, and aluminum tubes. The letter from the UN Security Council
("University Natural-Sciences Security Council") asked that students be present for
two hours starting at 6:30pm. All complaints were to be directed to Kay Semiller
(with the phone number of my friend Casey Miller). Not too many people fell for this
one (though several people called Casey) but a lot of people got a kick out of
it.
The lab inspections notice: 2003AprilFools-LabInspections.pdf
In 2001, I made letters from the "Office of the Library Adjudicator" reporting a
grossly overdue textbook ("Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity"
-- the title of the famous
Sokal Hoax paper) and threatening the recipient with a
host of unreasonable consequences. The contact was Robert Magnus, whose name appears
different but sounds the same as my friend Bob's. I made official-looking mailing
labels and put the letters in the mailboxes of pretty much everyone I knew. I
figured a few people would call; apparently about 25 people called (making Bob kinda
pissed, but I apologized and we worked it out).
Here's the letter: 2001AprilFools-LibraryAdjudicator.pdf
A few years ago the rooming house I lived in was being sold, and nobody knew what
would happen once it was sold. I distributed a letter saying the
building would be converted into an asylum for the criminally insane. Although
nobody had to vacate immediately, inmates would be moved in starting May
1; any tenant staying longer was asked to sign a release. Several
people called the landlord, who told them that it was, I quote, just a "sick, sick,
joke."
The letter: 1997AprilFools-MilleniumProperties.pdf