Monday next week is April 1, which is otherwise known as April Fools’ Day.

As if Mondays weren’t bad enough.

Sometimes, the jokes and pranks work well (we featured some of 2018’s best efforts, and the same in 2017), and other times they flop terribly.

Let’s celebrate some of the latter with the help of Business Insider SA, who feature 12 such examples.

We appreciate that you’re a busy person, so let’s just stick with five.

Google delivered a Gmail prank that ended up being an epic fail

In 2016, Google got in on the popularity of big brands pranking users by introducing an April Fools’ feature called the “Mic Drop.” It let users insert an animated GIF of a minion from the movie “Despicable Me” dropping a mic at the end of any email.

After using the feature, the email chain would become disabled, as if you dropped the mic and ended the conversation. This may have been funny to some, but it confused many users because the Mic Drop feature was right next to the send button, and people kept mixing them up.

Some said they sent the feature to future employers or even when a family member told them about a personal tragedy.

If you’re making use of minion GIFs, I have no sympathy.

Ultimately, Google realised they’d made a blunder, saying “Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year”.

A radio prank in the UK likely caused a cliff to collapse

In 2001, a DJ in Brighton said that a replica of the Titanic could be seen from Beachy Head in Sussex. Hundreds of listeners believed him and didn’t want to miss it, so they drove kilometres to check it out.

Later, coastguards said they found a large crack in the cliff face that was caused by the weight of how many people had appeared to “see” the Titanic replica. A few days later, it collapsed.

The radio station later apologized to anyone it had tricked.

I mean, we can blame the DJ, but people who drive hundreds of kilometres after hearing something on the radio are the real culprits.

Claims of an alien invasion in Jordan caused widespread panic

In 2010, the Arabic newspaper Al Ghad reported that an alien spacecraft had landed near the town of Jafr, Jordan, and readers believed it. Kids stayed home from school and the mayor reportedly almost evacuated all of the residents.

The paper’s managing editor Moussa Barhoumeh later apologised, telling the Telegraph, “We meant to entertain, not scare people.”

At least the kids got a day off school.

A museum in America caused widespread panic when they said the world was ending

In 1940, the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia had its spokesperson, William Castellini, deliver a terrifying press release that read, “Your worst fears that the world will end are confirmed by astronomers of Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. Scientists predict that the world will end at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time tomorrow. This is no April Fools’ joke.”

It was just a weird promotion for their upcoming show on cosmic apocalypses, but first, it spread mass terror in Philadelphia, emergency lines were flooded, and Castellini was fired.

Could have saved us all a lot of trouble if it was true.

A UK police department got in trouble after joking about letting prisoners go

In 2015, the Manchester Police Department in the UK decided to get in on April Fools’ Day with a tweet that said, “Know someone in prison? You can get them released early by voting for them on here. The prisoners with the most votes also wins a holiday.”

Even if people knew it was a joke, many took issue with it, especially because some of the people pictured had reportedly been convicted of violent crimes.

That sounds like a sense of humour failure, but I suppose if you saw someone who had done harm to someone close to you, and the police joking about letting them go, you’d be miffed.

So, what you should consider doing this upcoming Monday to ensure you don’t end up on a list like this in the future?

I don’t care, as long as you leave me out of it.

[source:businsidersa]