This April Fool’s Day, Consider Replacing the Rickroll with “Why Would You Click That?”

I enjoy pranking people on April Fools’ Day. And a while ago, I realized that simply Rickrolling people no longer carried the same thrill it used to (and let’s be honest, you only catch the chumps with that old chestnut, anyway).

So I came up with an alternative to the Rickroll – something anyone could use to prank their friends, with the site doing most of the work for them. The idea was to make a website that directly chided users for clicking on a tasteless/inappropriate link – called, fittingly enough, Why Would You Click That?

It functions pretty much like the Rickroll, with just a teensy bit of tech thrown into the mix. The gag is designed with Facebook in mind, but it works just as well via Twitter, your blog… pretty much anywhere you can post a link and some text. And best of all, it’s pretty simple to use:

1) Copy
2) Share it as a link on Facebook or Twitter or your blog, etc.
3) Create a gross headline + description

FYI, and I can’t emphasize this enough: the more tasteless, vulgar, or over-the-top you make your title and description, the better this thing works.

On Facebook, copy the shortened URL and share it as a link. You’ll see a series of thumbnails that were faked to look like still frames from a video. There’s placeholder text with instructions, so all you need to do is come up with your own title and description.

On Twitter, there’s no thumbnail functionality… so it’s all about text you choose. There’s a fine line between writing something plausible and writing something that seems obviously like a prank, so it’s up to you to make those 140 characters count!

Essentially, Why Would You Click That? just dishes up the same punchline, over and over. Like any good joke, the real work is done in the setup – so it’s all about your creativity, and how tantilizingly gross you can make your descriptions. You provide the link-bait, I’ll provide the shame.

A few examples/ideas, to get you started:

• 15 Photos of Children with Tattoos: Worst Parents Ever?
• Performance Artist Dives into Vat of Pudding from 10M Platform
• Video: Drunken Relative Knocks Over Casket During Wake
• Arlen Sanders Breaks Guinness Record for Most Live Goldfish Swallowed in 10 Minutes
• Elderly Couple Arrested on Florida Beach for Sunbathing Nude
• College Hazing Ritual Claims First Victim: The Defibrillator Dare

And so on. You get the idea.

This year, if you’re tired of simply forwarding along Google’s annual fake page… considering making something of your own. All it takes is a simple bit of copy/paste, and a little bit of imagination. From that gross, disgusting mind of yours.

Related:
Facebook Virus: Fake Status Updates Infect Thousands
TSA to Announce Ban on Thongs Due to Backscatter False Positives
April 1, 2005