Should you play jokes on your readers?
It’s April 2nd so I’m sure most of you are suffering from post April Fools hangovers!! One of the biggest jokes played on internet sites this year was the ‘RickRoll’. The RickRoll is a joke where the website starts a script which plays Rick Astley’s cheesy 1987 classic ‘Never Gonna Give You Up‘ over and over again. The video jumps around a bit so you can’t close it and the visitor is left with over a dozen windows to close. If this happened to you then you got RickRolled!
I read about the RickRoll a few days ago (it even made the newspapers in the UK) and I even watched John Chow’s ‘How to get out of a Rick Roll‘ video before I got ‘RickRolled’ myself. Yes I’m a sucker!!! 
The site which rickrolled me was UberAffiliate and he achieved this with his post ‘John Chow Posts His Affiliate Earnings?‘ (don’t click on the links in that post if you don’t want to get rickrolled!). He wrote the post on April 1st so straight away I was ready for a joke however he worded it in such a way that my half asleep brain fell for it and I got RickRolled. I had to put my hands up right away and admit he got me good with it and since I hadn’t been suckered into this gag before I actually thought it was kind of funny (maybe because I had already watched John Chow’s video showing me how to disable it easily).
Many readers were less than happy though. Some readers said that they lost a lot of work because of it whilst others thought it was hilarious. One comment from someone named Dick W. Ad said that
The reason this isn’t cool, Sup3r, is because you’re fucking with your own readers. Also because we all have been rickrolled several times already on other sites…so by this time, it’s not funny, not interesting, not new.
I thought this was an interesting point. I wasn’t that annoyed because it was the first time I had the joke played on me however I’m sure if it happened to me several times and it made me close my browser and lose a lot of work I’d be pretty pissed off.
This raises an interesting question, Should you play jokes on your readers? . I think that jokes are fine (particularly on April Fools Day) if they don’t annoy the visitor in any way so a better question would be ‘At what point does a joke stop being funny and start being annoying?‘.
Having read the comments in UberAffiliate’s post it’s clear that this is something which people have a difference of opinion on. Do you think your blog’s regular readers would be annoyed if you played a practical joke on them?
Jeffry Degrande | April 2nd, 2008 at 9:50 am #
If you lost work because you were reading blogs .. you weren’t working anyway. April 1st is about having fun. The only time in a year you’re allowed to have some. Why not?
The whole RickRolling thing though is plain stupid. It’s not funny, not creative, only annoying. Tim Ferris’ prank .. now that was a quality joke.
Kevin | April 2nd, 2008 at 9:51 am #
I don’t believe the guy was reading a blog. He was most likely in the middle of either writing a blog post or editing one of his websites or whatever. I think that’s why some readers were pissed off - ie. they had to close their browsers and lost whatever it was they were working on at the time.
Marv | April 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 am #
Last weekend, a friend of mine asked me how many times I’d been RickRoll’d. I asked what that meant.
“Ohmygod! You’ve never been RickRoll’d? How’d you manage to miss this?”
After getting over his surprise, he explained all by showing me one of the RickRoll sites that don’t let you escape. I loved the idea.
My friend said it still raised a smile, but he was getting a bit sick of it now he’s fallen for it so many times.
I felt bad for being out of the loop. But I’m pleased that I’ve not been RickRoll’d yet. Mmm, I shouldn’t have said that, should I?
As you say, once or twice is probably fine, but it must be infuriating after that!
Ed Sutherland | April 2nd, 2008 at 11:03 am #
If your blog has a total readership of yourself and three close friends who share your sense of humor, then I say go for it - you didn’t like them that well in the first place, right?
However, if your audience would be larger, say potentially millions living in other countries who aren’t hip to your humor, I say leave the jokes at home. It’s time to grow up online, folks.
James Mann | April 3rd, 2008 at 4:31 am #
Let’s just say that I don’t like April Fools, I don’t play practical jokes on others whether they are my readers or the friends I live with every day.
I felt it necessary to unsubscribe from a few places that thought it was funny to screw with their readers.
I like to keep my friends and them knowing I would never screw with them is a good start in my mind.
Elizabeth Able | April 3rd, 2008 at 1:40 pm #
I don’t like pranks that take control of my browser or computer in any way. Period.
My favorites cause me to play along until I catch on, and then I have the choice to continue to play along if I prefer. Much more fun.
Genuine_Lye | April 4th, 2008 at 5:37 pm #
As long as it’s a rare occurence, I don’t care, but I was seriously annoyed by Chow’s video, because I could. not. close the stupid video down. I had to log off my user just to get it to stop.
F&J | August 26th, 2008 at 12:52 am #
Well I think it would be nice when from time to time spread the smile to all your readers, it’s good too because always news articles or in information or just any stuff would be turning your blog so serious.
Anyway thanks for sharing and good luck
Intelligence Game | September 3rd, 2008 at 1:38 pm #
HA HA! I’ve never heard of this - but it is hysterical! I should definitely play this joke on all of the funny nerds I know!
Fresh jokes | September 8th, 2008 at 5:41 am #
ha ha they were on the button! I guess this is just perfect for pranksters..