Ah, April 1st, the one day each year that turns the world into a gang of schoolyard pranksters. And, judging by the proliferation of April Fools' Day jokes swirling about the celebrisphere, nobody gets into the mischievous spirit more than famous people do.
Justin Bieber took over the comedy site Funny or Die this morning. The coup came with an official press release and a video from Bieber himself, bearing the announcement "Now it's Bieber or Die. Anything that's not Bieber dies." The superstar teen's fans have some trickery up their sleeves as well. They'd discussed a collective Twitter move to unfollow Justin for the day. But it seems they lack resolve: so far his follower count - hovering around 1.6 million -- has only gone up.
Elsewhere on the Internet, Coldplay announced the launch of an exclusive fragrance called Angst. The fake ad came with a shirtless photo of singer Chris Martin, who wrote: "This is something we've wanted to do for a long time. People like to smell nice and we thought we could help them out." The fragrance is made from sangre (blood), sudor (sweat) and lagrimas (tears) -- all of which, the band was careful to point out, are "fair trade" ingredients.
All-caps Internet exclaimer Diddy punked his Twitter audience with a fake engagement announcement. It seems he fooled so many people he was forced to fess up immediately. He apologized, claiming April 1st is his one opportunity to "be a celebrity blog and spread lies." (How dare he!)
So You Think You Can Dance executive producer, Nigel Lythgoe, had a little April 1st fun as well. After announcing an upcoming season comprised of all-star former contestants, Lythgoe hit Twitter to share his list of names. His prank? "I am delighted to name our third "All-Star" she is brilliant at, Tap, Broadway, Jazz and Hip Hop. She only agreed this morning- PAULA ABDUL."
Also on the SYTYCD front, co-host Brooke Burke fooled fans with a pregnancy hoax, the "news" of which was posted on her website and quickly passed around the web. Burke's own mother got wind of the rumor and called her daughter's office for all the pranky details, which prompted the site to come clean. The headline now reads: " APRIL FOOLS!! Brooke Burke Won't Be Dancing with Baby #5."
Sometimes celebs even play pranks on each other, as evidenced by Joel McHale's "hacking" of Ryan Seacrest's Twitter account. The tweet takeover began with the Community star and The Soup host announcing: "I'm Joel McHale. I've taken over Ryan's Twitter and his treehouse. Anyone know how to bake cookies?" He continued - seemingly with American Idol host's blessing, as E! confirmed the hack -- for several hours, culminating in a wisecrack about Seacrest's height. McHale-as-Seacrest tweeted: "Know the difference between me and Ryan? About 2 feet 3 inches. That should be obvious."
Fans of celebrities embraced the trickster spirit of the day as well. Alyssa Milano received a slew of Twitter replies this morning...all from herself! Her followers banded together and changed their profile images to Milano's photo. Alyssa found the prank hilarious, calling out her "unbelievable Twitter family."
And what's Punk'd master Ashton Kutcher been up to on this holy day of shenanigans? So far it seems he's being a perfect angel. "My goal today," he declared on Twitter, "is to make a new friend."
That leaves poor MTV reality-TV star, Whitney Port, who turned to the internet for some inspiration on how to spend her April Fools Day. She Tweeted her dilemma, asking "who can I prank today? and what should I do?" Help a girl out if you can.