April Fool’s Day is a fun day of prank-filled frivolity. When you’re dealing with pranks, though, perspective matters and they sometimes backfire. The joke is sometimes in the eye of the beholder and may not be funny at all. Google’s prank–inserting an animated GIF of a Minion dropping the mic–has angered many Gmail users because they didn’t realize it was being included on their messages.
Google is in hot water with Gmail users after a relatively harmless April Fool’s Day prank went awry. Google added an option to include an animated GIF of a Minion dropping the mic—a cocky way the cool kids emphasize that they’ve had the last word and won the battle. Unfortunately, many people inadvertently included the GIF on emails where such sophomoric April Fool’s Day humor is wholly inappropriate.
I get it. April Fool’s Day is a crowd favorite in the Bradley household. Actually, it’s a favorite of the parents—the kids are pretty much terrified. We have done a lot of crazy pranks over the years. This year I covered my distinctly non-Trump supporting son’s vehicle with “Trump 2016” and a bunch of quotes illustrating the brilliance and wisdom of Trump like, “I buy a slightly smaller than large-size glove,” or “I love the poorly educated.” One of my all-time favorites was the year I crafted spoof emails designed to look like they were from the makers of the video game Spore, announcing that the kids had been selected for an all-expense paid trip to meet Will Wright—the creator of Spore—and get behind the scenes access to the game. Fun times.
April Fool’s Day can be a lot of fun. As is the case with this Google Gmail prank, April Fool’s Day can also have some horrible unintended consequences. There are examples all over social media of the mic dropping Minion popping up in emails where he just shouldn’t have been. One young man inadvertently included the Minion GIF in an email response regarding a job interview. Another unfortunate example included the GIF on an email correspondence about funeral arrangements for the recipient’s young daughter. Ouch.
Of course, there were a wide variety of silly pranks in the tech and tech media world—just as there are every year. Duo Security wrote a clever tongue-in-cheek announcement about acquiring RSA (tokens), and Cramer—makers of last year’s Pawculus Rift VR for dogs—introduced the world to augmented reality glasses dubbed Speak EZ-AR that provide an augmented reality overlay to allow speakers to view the audience in their underwear, or as kittens, or a variety of other ridiculous things.
You can read the full story on Forbes: Google Drops The Mic On April Fool’s Day Pranks.
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