April Cools' Club

9 min read Original article ↗
A cartoon-style drawing of a shepherd dog on a skateboard, wearing sunglasses and a white shirt saying “April Cools'”

The April Cools' Club Manifesto

It started with an idea.

An idea to make April Fools a day that's more than just a worldwide cringefest. An idea that quickly attracted sympathizers. We got started with a small group of people in 2022, but in the following years, anyone can participate!

The idea is pretty simple: on April Fools' Day (also known as “April 1st”), a participant produces genuine content that's very different from their normal produced content. It could be a different format, a different topic, a different style, anything. The constraints are:

  1. It is something they normally wouldn't do.
  2. It is totally genuine: no irony to it.
  3. It is up to their usual standards of quality.

For example, some might normally post complex software engineering content to their blog. But this April Fools' Day, they are publishing an essay on microscopy, how they got into it, and what it means to them, complete with a gallery of their favorite microscopy photos.

Or, if someone typically writes text, they could make a video instead. Or show off their hobby (like juggling, or cooking, or creative writing, …)

Anything that makes the creator proud, but would be totally unexpected to their audience.

We figure that this is a great way to be excited about a much broader range of things, things you normally don't get a chance to, and it'll be surprising and enriching for readers (or watchers, or listeners). The spirit of April Fools' Day without any of the cringe.

Want to contribute? See the FAQ below for instructions.

Our projects

2025

2024

  • A New Hope

    A letter to and about the things that made me what I am.

    Amogh Lele

  • Some easy recipes

    Some quick and easy recipes that my family like eating

    Robin Wilson

  • The Tale of Daniel

    Is 'Daniel' the oldest name still popular today?

    Hillel Wayne

  • How I became a gardener

    About one and a half years ago, we moved to a place with a decently-sized garden. Initially confused about whether to do anything with it, let alone what to do with it, I somehow ended up slowly becoming a gardener. Despite my total and utter cluelessness, now we have raised beds.

    Lars Hupel

  • Books, Games and Movies

    I love books, games and movies. So I thought why not show off some of my favorites?

    Schmiddi

  • Decaf is good, actually

    Decaf has a bad reputation. How did it get this reputation, and should it still?

    Nicole Tietz-Sokolskaya

  • Yeah, I Skate(board)

    I skateboard, so that automatically makes me cool, right? Right??

    Ersei Saggi

  • A tour of my screenshots folder

    I've collected Minecraft screenshots for 5 years and it's time they did something other than sit on my hard drive

    Harsh Shandilya

  • Kratky in the basement

    I've been curious about hydroponic gardening for a long time, and over the winter I managed to raise my first successful crop of lettuce!

    Brian Hicks

  • Takerufuji made history

    This March we witnessed history of sumo. What Takerufuji did what seemed impossible.

    Ekaitz Zarraga

  • Can it Creami?

    The history and design of the ultimate ice cream machine

    Vivian Qu

2023

2022

  • Marathon food

    I will give you tips to eat while running, and also talk about different marathon foods I have tried, and what I like or dislike about them

    Felienne Hermans

  • Cocktails

    Cocktails as craftsmanship, and an ode to the variety of ingredients and techniques that can turn any flavor into a beverage

    Jeremy Kun

  • On Error

    What science, art, and humor have to say about what error is and how it should make you feel

    Ben Brubaker

  • Midaregami

    A translation of the first five poems of the Midaregami, a historic (and extremely good) compilation of poetry. Three of them have never been seen in English before!

    ttto

  • You Should Charge More

    How to use social graphs to price different types of freelance services

    Marianne Bellotti

Add yours? Read on.

FAQs

Is this a joke?
Do you think we registered a novelty domain and had an artist draw a logo as a joke?
Who are you?
The initial idea is courtesy of Hillel Wayne, who recruited a bunch of people to participate early 2022. This website is maintained by Lars Hupel.
How can I participate?
Do you have an idea that fits the spirit of the April Cools' Day? Excellent. Get creating, and once you're done, send a pull request to the repository of this website. Alternatively, poke Lars on Mastodon or Hillel on Bluesky.
Where is your privacy policy?
This page is hosted on GitHub Pages. We do not store any cookies. We do not store any data. Although we'd happily take an article about cookies.