There's No Fool Like An April Fool!

Ah, April Fools Day!  As a merry prankster, I love April Fool's Day.  Now I don't always do a prank, I only do one if I am truly inspired.  This year, I am more inspired to talk about pranks themselves and what makes a good prank.  As an example I'm using one that Star Trek's George Takei posted on Facebook this morning.

Friends, I'm thrilled to share this news with you today. As announced at Emerald City Comicon, where I'm appearing this weekend, Paramount Pictures has green-lit a new Star Trek Movie entitled "Excelsior" in which I will play the captain. This announcement is part of Paramount Studio's 100th-year anniversary campaign. The studio has acknowledged the fan enthusiasm for this concept ever since I appeared in command of the vessel in "The Undiscovered Country." J.J. Abrams will direct, with Robert Orci again writing the screenplay. My co-star in Allegiance, Paulo Montalban, has been cast opposite me to play the mercurial "Agha," the grandson of Khan (played by Ricardo Montalban in the Second Star Trek Movie). Also featured are Gilbert Gottfried (playing a wily Ferengi First Officer) and Lisa Lampanelli (as a Bajoran security officer). More to come on this breaking story soon. Thanks again for the years of support, and I'll see you on the Bridge of "Excelsior."

Absolutely Brilliant!  Here's why it works.

1)  There is a small amount of truth in it.  Takei was in fact at Emerald City Comicon this weekend, like he said, and comic book conventions are places that announcements like this one do take place.  J.J. Abrams is in charge of the Star Trek franchise currently so it makes sense that if this were to happen, that he would be the one to direct.

2)  There is a slow build from reasonable to ridiculous.  It starts of fairly normally, Paramount green-lit another Star Trek movie to be made after the one currently in production.  Okay, I can buy that, especially since Star Trek is big enough that you don't need to see how well the next one does to greenlight the one after that.  Someone that I've vaguely heard of with the last name of Montalban playing the grandson of one of the best Star Trek villains ever, Khan Noonien Singh, yeah, I could see that.  Gilbert Gottfried playing a Ferengi...um okay...if there was any Star Trek race that Gottfried could play, I suppose it would be a Ferengi.  Lisa Lampanelli as a Bajoran Security officer...okay this is definitely a hoax.

3)  You kind of wish it was true.  Hell, I know I would be there on the first day to see a movie about Sulu as captain of the Excelsior battling the grandson of Kahn.

4)  It's Funny.  This is the one thing that a whole lot of pranks miss, once you realize that it's a prank, you laugh your ass off.  A lot of the pranks I see are just designed to fool you and are only funny to the person who made the prank in a, "Ha, ha, I fooled them!" kind of way.  But Takei's prank is actually funny.  What makes it funny?  Probably has something to do with a combination of all the points that I mentioned.  If you really want to pull a prank next year, try to follow Takei's example and make it funny.