Written by Neil Miller

This morning I sent a note out to the FSR Editorial team, letting them know that today was going to be an intentionally slow news day – not because there wasn’t any stories out there in the movie blogosphere, as there are plenty of headlines, but because you just can’t trust what you read on the internet today – it’s all a bunch of bologna.

So instead of pulling our own gag (and I did have a pretty solid one in my head, I just couldn’t pull it off), we have decided to put together a list of our favorite movie-related April Fool’s Jokes being thrown around the halls of the interwebs today. So thanks to all of our friends and neighbors, as you are making my job quite easy this afternoon.

10. Cloverfield Monster in Transformers 2 [Giant Freaking Robot]

This is one of those things that you glance at, start to move along, then glance back at again. Then, on your second glance, you realize that it is as obvious as the existence of the Sun that this one is fake. It is creative though, I will give them that.

9. Tyler Perry Movies on to Horror [Bloody-Disgusting]

Tyler Perry’s They Live… I would actually go an see that one.

8. Colin Farrell to star in a Once Remake [Moviehole]

One drunk Irishmen taints the work of a seemingly sober Irishmen by remaking his movie and singing his songs. The best part about this one is the alleged Colin Farrell quote: “In our version I’ll of course f&* the girl”.

7. Wolverine to Make an Appearance in The Incredible Hulk [ComicBookMovie]

I will admit, this one almost got me. If you take the fact that Marvel is crossing over between Hulk and Iron Man combined with the fact that Wolvie is currently in production, this one almost seems like it could work. On top of that, the guys at Comic Book Movie started this one yesterday, sliding it under the April Fool’s radar.

6. Art House Movie: There Will Be Farts [RopeOfSilicon]

Brad and his team at Rope of Silicon really went all out on this one. If you click the link to the official site for this film, one exists (although it is hosted on RoS). On the official site, you will find a pull-quote from Pete Hammond (whose outlet is His Desktop Computer) that says “I can’t wait… Milkshake jokes and pregnant teens are sure to make a hilarious spoof film!” Somewhere, a Weinstein Company Exec is scrambling to secure the rights to this one…

5. X-Files: Full Moon Rising [IESB]

Like something from a Creedence Clearwater Revival song, the title of the X-Files sequel came springing from the pages of IESB. Full Moon Rising? Really? They really should have stuck with “Curse of the Werepeople”.

4. Superman vs. Spider-Man Movie Announced [Slashfilm]

From our good friend Peter at Slashfilm comes a rumor about a Jake Gyllenhaal Spider-Man facing of with a CGI Christopher Reeve. Oh dear Pete, you had me going until the part about the CGI Christopher Reeve… That is good stuff.

3. Jake Gyllenhaal is Spider-Man [Joblo]

Joblo goes after a rumor that is plausible, to say the least. Rumors of a Jake Gyllenhaal takeover in the Spider-Man series have been circulating for some time now, but have never been confirmed. On any other day, the rest of us would be reporting this as well, but today is not any other day. The story really falls apart when they quote Gyllenhaal as saying that he would love to make out with his sister Maggie on-screen. Missed that part? You might want to take another look.

2. Christian Bale and Brandon Routh Sign on for Justice League [Cinematical]

To me, this one seemed like the most obvious April Fool’s joke possible – both Bale and Routh have publicly denied having anything to do with the “Justice League” movie, but fans are secretly holding out hope. But while it was obvious to me (and maybe you as well), this one did get one of my staff writers, hook line and sinker. I received an email from a writer on my staff (who will remain nameless) asking if I had seen this yet and whether or not I would like a write-up. Even more hilarious is that this is one of our best writers here at FSR… It gave me a good chuckle.

1. The Existence of a Justice League Movie [Warner Brothers Pictures]

You didn’t hear this from me – but the entire existence of George Miller’s Justice League Mortal is a sham. It has been a long running gag on all of the internet writers. You may not believe me right now, but bookmark this moment – did you really believe that someone named Armie Hammer was going to play Batman? Ha…

Honorable Mention goes to IGN for the Legend of Zelda Movie Trailer. Cheeky bastards!

So there you have it, a list of my favorite April Fool’s Day gags procured by our friends around the movie webosphere. There are more, in fact Alex at FirstShowing has created a pretty in-depth list, as has Peter at Slashfilm. Have you seen any other good ones out there? Feel free to drop them in the Sound Off section below.

Written by lifehacker

Since the dawn of time, geeks have been playing harmless pranks on their beloved (but unsuspecting) associates, and it’s up to all of us to carry the torch forward. On the eve of April Fools’ Day, when you’ve got local network access to your coworkers’ and family systems, cubicles just crying out to be filled with packing peanuts, and webapps that can do all sorts of things automatically, there’s no better time to baffle, confuse, perplex, and just plain mess with your loved ones and associates. Hit the jump for our top 10 favorite harmless geek pranks, just in time to get your prankster pistons firing for tomorrow.

10. Install the Blue Screen of Death Screensaver

Make your co-worker think their PC crashed when they get back from lunch. The BSOD (“Blue Screen of Death”) screensaver is a free download from Microsoft (ironically.) For other operating system “support,” check out the Linux BSOD ‘saver with support for Apple, Windows, and Linux crash screens.

9. Fake a Desktop with Screenshot Wallpaper

Freak out your co-worker or family member by faking out their Windows desktop with an unclickable facade: Take a screenshot of their current desktop, then set it as the desktop wallpaper. Hide the actual taskbar and disable desktop icons (right-click the desktop and choose “Arrange Icons By” and uncheck “Show Desktop Icons.”) When your victim returns to the computer, watch the futile clicking begin.

8. Schedule a Phone Call with a Text-to-Speech Message from Wakerupper.com

Wake up calls aren’t just for the a.m., you know. Pop your victim’s phone number, a time, and a custom message into Wakerupper.com, a free wakeup call service, and they’ll get a call with the message read Silicon Sally text-to-speech style back to them. (original post)

7. Fill an Office with Packing Peanuts (Or Make It Look That Way)

Actually filling your co-worker’s cubicle with packing peanuts can be a pain in the ass, but if there’s a glass wall involved, it’s easy to make it look like you did. Check out Hack N Mod’s nifty gallery of what looks like a glass room filled with packing material.

April Fools: Cubical Chaos Fakeout [Hack N Mod]

6. Remote Control Your Co-Workers’ Computer with VNC

How would it feel to have your mouse taken over by a ghost and do things on your computer you never intended while you watched? You can inflict this feeling of utter confusion on your victim using VNC, a computer remote control protocol. You’ll need to install the VNC server on your victim’s computer first, and have their IP address, so this one will work best in the office when you’re on the same network. Here’s how to remote control a computer with VNC. Mac users, here’s how to remote control Leopard with TightVNC.

5. Message Co-Workers with NET SEND

Hidden in the depths of the Windows command line is a nifty little utility called Net Send, which pops up very official-looking alert messages on any computer you send them to. If you know your co-workers’ IP address, you can net send them goofy messages, like this person on the Geeknewz boards:

A good prank that I have played on some friends involves the net send command. What I did was I used the net send command to send a message that said “Microsoft has detected that you have a small penis. Please consider upgrading for better performance” to other people on my local network. When you use the net send command in the command prompt, you specify the computer you want it sent to by typing the computer name, it also says on the message which computer it came from, so I changed my computer name to Microsoft, so it appeared, to the technically challenged, that the message actually came from Microsoft. In case you were interested, the syntax for the net send is:

net send computername message

Here’s more on how to use net send.

4. “Break” Your Victim’s LCD Screen with Wallpaper

Want to put a crack into that shiny new widescreen monitor? Download the broken LCD desktop wallpaper, set it as your victim’s desktop wallpaper and hide the taskbar and icons.

3. Hijack Firefox with the Total Confusion Pack Extension (Enabled on April 1st Only)

Your victim use Firefox? Install the “Total Confusion Pack” Firefox extension, which enables the following “features” on April 1st only:

• Two Steps Back: Make the back button go back twice-not every time, but only on random instances.
• Rick Rollr: Switch out 2% of the video clips your victim watches with the infamous Rick Astley video.
• The Devil’s Inbox: Make the number of unread email in your victim’s Gmail inbox exactly 666.
• Highs and Lows/Sarcarsm Enhancer/For real: Add LOL, *sigh*, “for real,” “Whatever” and various other commentary to web page text.
• Watch it: Make it look as if the page was loading forever. (Now this is just plain mean.)

Download the Firefox Total Confusion Pack here.

2. Customize the Office HP Printer’s Console Message

Baffle your coworkers with an “Insert Coin” message on the office printer using the HP Printer Job Language (HPPJL) command set. Here’s how to customize the printer’s Ready prompt to read whatever you want. (original post)

1. Turn Web Pages Upside Down

If your office or housemates all use the same Wi-Fi network and you’ve got some network admin skills, run the web traffic to their computers through custom scripts that turn images upside down, blur them, or redirect all web page requests to kittenwar.com. This is the most difficult trick in the list to implement, but it’s pretty clever. Here’s more on how to set up Upside-Down-Ternet. (original post)

For more good pranks, check out Wired’s Top 10 April Fools’ Pranks for Nerds, and Ask MetaFilter’s thread on the topic.

What’s your pick of favorite April Fool’s Day prank? Share the love in the comments.