The Best April Fool's Day Pranks Fool People, but Don't Make Fools of Them

April Fool's Day should be more fun.

A NY Times Op-Ed suggests that what April Fool's Day needs is a "patron saint," and that may help, but I think targeting our creativity is the answer.

Most of the best April Fool's Day events have been imaginative hoaxes. "Fooling" others in a light-hearted way is the soul of April 1.

To really work, the hoax needs to be fairly widespread, not mean-spirited, and the hoaxer must let everyone know it's a hoax relatively quickly. The prank should also be the type of thing that lets the people taken in by the hoax laugh at themselves for being so gullible. It needs to spark a response without starting a fire.

April Fool's Day 2006 is over, but a good hoax takes considerable thought, so you'd better start planning your 2007 prank now.