#They always forget…

[darcyolsson]

in loving memory of tumblr's april fools' pranks 💐 2014 - 2024

icymi, tumblr used to do an elaborate april fool's prank every year, but this year they suddenly stopped. here's a somewhat detailed recap of everything they did over the decade:

2013 - mishapocalypse (honourable mention): tumblr staff didn’t start doing april fools until 2014, but the mishapocalypse happened on tumblr in 2013 and i feel like this list would be incomplete without it

2014 - tumblrpro: upon opening your dash you were greeted by an “inspirational” video, that ended with the option to get “tumblrpro (for free)”. all it did was put a top hat on your icon.

2015 - tumblr executivesuite/coppy: a copying machine appeared in the corner of your dash. it would offer tips on how to use tumblr, like clippy the paperclip used to do in microsoft word. as the day went on, it slowly broke down and died right in front of your eyes. many people hated him (but not me). you could also make a (small) spreadsheet. @executivesuite2016 is the official blog.

2016 - this is decision/lizard election/tumblrdecides: a parody of the 2016 US elections. there were 4 lizards (well, one of them turned out to be a salamander in a scandal) to vote for. the dash looked different and there was a live news report with election updates, as well as an election blog for each lizard. they all had their own slogans and you would get an "i voted" button after you voted that would get slapped next to your icon. there were built-in functions to make an election poster for your favourite lizard and to create a text post that supported your lizard of choice that autogenerated a statement for all your followers to read. imo tumblr’s april fools peak. @thisisdecision2016-blog is the official blog, @mop-2016-blog @wretchedtooth @timefordeborah-blog were candidates. rick also had a blog (rick-official) but that now seems to have vanished because he ended up dropping out of the election. mop won, if you're curious. by far the most elaborate prank tumblr ever did.

2017 - horse friend: a tamagotchi-inspired game where you had to take care of a little horse in the corner of your screen. it came with a randomly generated name, and you had to feed and clean up after it. if you didnt take good care of it, it died. you could then hatch (yes, hatch) a new one. there was also an option to look at the names of all your dead horses. this is now available to buy in the tumblr shop. @horse-friends is the official blog.

2018 - tumblcoin: a parody of cryptocurrency (this was the year bitcoin took off). you could ‘invest’ in tumblcoin, with which you could in turn buy things with to spice up your dash, including last year’s horse friend, coppy from 2015, and a frame for around your icon. you could share the amount of tumblcoin you owned in an automatically generated gif post which would be tagged #tbc2018 and #tumblcoin. @tumblcoin is the official blog.

2019 - @memories: this blog still functions the way it did on april fools itself! it's like mad libs, where it takes post templates and then adds in tags you use a lot and users you frequently interact with on your main blog. like a personalized shitpost bot.

2020 - group chat prank/@storybot: it was so hard to find info on this because it was contained entirely in the now-defunct group chat function, which no one used. i had to go through the notes of this post for information because no one cared enough to actually write anything explaining it. turns out, you could write a story with your mutuals by adding storybot to your group chat. it also kept working after april fools (well, up until the group chats were deleted) just like memories. many people missed out on it entirely because they did not use the group chat function.

2021 - tumblcryptids: tumblr allowed you to adopt “non-fungible tumblcryptids”, a parody of NFTs. clicking a button that said "Summon thy Tumblrcryptid" would spawn an image of a little blob-shaped creature with a short description, which would always read "Hi! My name is [randomly generated name]. I love [thing most people like]. I hate [thing most people dislike]. Like my parent, I can't get enough of #[tag from your main blog]." you could share them in a post, which would automatically add the tag #NFTumblcryptids to your post. and yes, people on the piss on the poor website freaked out about it because they thought they were real NFTs harming the environment. @tumblcryptidadoptioncenter is the official blog.

2022 - click-a-thon: when you clicked a light switch on your dashboard, a bunch of colourful things showed up, like a sponge you could move around, an "engagament meter", clickable buttons, and a “Summon Crab!” button, which would summon a crab when you clicked it. you could. the crabs, like horse friend, are still available in the tumblr store as of 2025. here's some screenshots. there were various ways to share your crab activities, which would all get tagged #april fools 2022. the prank was presented as a marketing technique created by Brick Whartley, a fictional businessman character created by tumblr, who (afaik) originated in a post on the official blog of the 2018 april fools prank, albeit originally in a different role. around this time he also started functioning as the mascot for tumblr's shop ( @emporium )

2023 - abstract reactions (emoji reacts): buttons were added to every post that allowed you to add emoji reactions, many of them based on tumblr inside jokes (horse as a reference to horse plinko/horse friend, vanilla for the vanilla extract meme, pikaman, bug for bug race, and brick whartley, who wasn't a meme but staff really wanted him to be). if one specific emoji was used a certain amount of times it would add an effect to the post, eg many cheese emoji reacts would cover the post in cheese. this was also attributed to Brick Whartley ("his" blog @brickwhartley also documented the day)

2024 - boop-o-meter: allowed you to “boop” other users who had opted in to the booping, like facebook’s poke feature back in the day. depending on how long you held the button, you would either boop, super boop, or evil boop. on the dashboard there was a counter for both how many times you had booped others and how many times others had booped you, as well as how many boops were given side-wide. when booping someone, an image of a cat paw appeared. you would get badges (which can still be used) for booping 1, 100 and 1000 times. if you gave/received more than 999 boops, the counter would switch to showing a three-letter word (see this post for specifics). this was brought back for halloween 2024 (as BOOp-o-meter. get it), with a ghost, skeleton and mummy paw. no official blog, but here's an official recap for april first from staff. i believe this was the only april fools prank that was mobile user friendly.

2025 - @fandom is running some polls, i guess

[cork-run]

the names of certain mob-involved trans women have been changed

[blu3b3rryj4mp1r3]

where they got their names from =)

[justanimaniac]

Stupid doodles

[kcrabb88]

I feel like we really lost something when we started looking at writing as a reader-centric product meant to appeal to the desires of a specific audience rather than a writer-centric approach of someone writes whatever particular thing particular compels them/whatever weird thing the demons in their head want to talk about, and people out there who are also compelled, and/or relate, find that writing. A lot of discussions of writing really center around what readers want rather than a writer's exploration. Sometimes as a reader I don't know what I want. I click on a fic or pick up a book I'm not sure about but that looks interesting, and I love it. Reading what I expect to get is it's own joy, but we always need to expand our horizons and not get mad at creators for not always writing what we want/expect.

[narrenstrich]

[artificialhaunts]

Neil is one of my favorite Tumblr holidays! Happy 19th buddy!

[reidspng]

"Look at the sky, Martin... It's looking back."

[12doomed]

[gorebonk]

UNETHICAL LAB DASHBOARD

💉 Ihatehappyhealthypeople Follow

The subjects are literally being so loud today tf

🕶️ degree_in_idgaf Follow

Maybe it's because you haven't fed them in three weeks???

(300 notes)

🦠 ttbaby Follow

I was literally born yesterday and I think it's offensive that people use this as an insult

🧑‍🔬 microscopicdick Follow

Bro missed everything 😭😭😭

(2 notes)

🥼 thedeviouschemist Follow

What y'all think will happen if I mix nitrogen and sulfur mustard lol

🥼 thedeviouschemist Follow

hopital

(27 notes)

🩻 frankenslay Follow

(1.2k notes)

🧪 no1labrat Follow

These idiots literally give me cheese for anything, their puzzles are so easy and I've already figured out not to touch the electric shock button with ease

🧬 hazardous-queer Follow

Don't let them steal your testicles.

🧪no1labrat Follow

What

🧬 hazardous-queer Follow

What

(11k notes)

🔬 pavlov-official Follow

The stimuli is working

🩺 sillysciencecentral Follow

Okay tmi,,, and the patients?

🧠 Beckslab Follow

(20k notes)

🐀 pharmaceutical-faggot Follow

It's always what's the subject doing and never how's the subject doing

🫀 re-animator Follow

I mean they do mental assessments on subjects. That is a pretty significant thing that happens. Like I understand where you're coming from here but they very much do ask how the subjects doing.

(568 notes)

🗂️ Imprisonedcore Follow

Thought I'd give you guys an idea of my cell!! 🗞️📦🚿📹

(7 notes)

💊 ijustworkhere Follow

Some fuckass creature escaped the lab and mauled my coworkers again

🥽 Sciencesteve Follow

God forbid women do anything

💊 ijustworkhere Follow

People died, Steven

(67 notes)

⚗️ alphys-fan4life Follow

I hate halloween at the lab, what do you mean you're a horrific mutation? You've been that all year

(2.4k notes)

[lemongogo]

life of regret

[kytsos]

giant celestial agatha and her tiny (human) sized wife (ponyo inspired)

[acewithapaintbrush]

I understand everyone's frustrations about the Lilo & Stitch live action remake, it pretty much dumps on everything that made the animation great. But I hope amidst all that anger and frustration we don't forget that the lead actor is a little girl who, as far as I can tell, is the perfect Lilo not just in front of but behind the camera as well and who is probably living her absolute dream right now

Air your grievances about the movie itself, the way it changed the story, the way it massacred the characters and the lessons and is just plain bad and unnecessary as loudly and as vocally as you want so that hopefully Disney finally gets a fucking clue. But also keep Maia herself out of it because one day she might read this stuff

[friedunicornstudio]

We painted a new Shiranui zodiac piece this year featuring all the brush god constellations!

(Shiranui themself is in front of the Hanagami, but we did paint them. They're still there. It counts)

[castledevil]

MATT MURDOCK / DAREDEVIL

Daredevil: Born Again (2025) 01x07 "Art for Art's Sake"

[claypigeonpottery]

painted some of this with my fingers.

for authenticity?

no. I didn't want to wash my brushes