Fool us Five Times: A Quintet of Online April Fool's Jokes

It’s April Fool’s Day! Everyone loves April Fool’s Day. I mean, who doesn’t like to be made to feel like a complete idiot? Of course, your friends at TV.com are far too honest to try to pull one over on the savvy likes of you -- so instead we thought we’d round up the best TV-themed April Fool’s pranks from around the web. Gotcha! We’re not really going to do that. Just kidding! We are. (Or are we?)

1. Hulu Goes Back to the ‘90s
Is there anything more pathetic now than the Internet of the 1990s? It looked like complete crap, took about four hours to load one page, and every computer had a pair of rabbit ears that you had to keep fiddling with. I’m not even kidding! (Or am I?) Anyway, Hulu was feeling nostalgic for the days of Geocities and Sliders, and reconfigured their home page to look as if it came straight out of that era. Fire up those dial-up modems and RealPlayers, kids! Ugh. Just ask your parents.

2. ABC.com Goes Fool-On Wacky
Someone went nuts with the Photoshop over at ABC.com, where just about every version of their shows got the Wacky Packages treatment. There’s Mr. Sunsheen, White Castle, and Bieber with You. These are not real! Do not spend several hours searching for them in your TiVo listings. You will just end up feeling dumb, and the cycle of self-loathing will start anew. (Not that I did that.)

3. Animal Planet Signs the Bronx Zoo Cobra
The Bronx Zoo Cobra may no longer be on the run, but he so captured the hearts of Twitterers with his wildly popular feed that Marjorie Kaplan, president of Animal Planet and Science Networks, extended an invitation to star in his own series: "We have a triple threat on our hands. @BronxZoosCobra is relatable, audacious and venomous, and you don't turn your back on a snake like that!" Totally had you going there for a second, didn’t she? I mean, a snake show on Animal Planet. Could you even imagine? Mercy.

4. Ryan Seacrest Loves Making Funnies!
A year ago, star of Community and Talk Soup Joel McHale hijacked his E! Entertainment co-worker’s website, turning RyanSeacrest.com into JoelMcHale.com and covering it in pictures of himself. This year another snake-in-the-grass got in on the action -- you guessed it -- it’s celeb du moment the Bronx Zoo Cobra who took over, with an all-snake homepage.

5. Black Friday
Perhaps a better takeover gag was the one over at FunnyorDie.com, who have transformed themselves into the world’s most comprehensive repository of all things Rebecca Black. We, we, we, we so...need a drink.