G'Morning Everyone!
With everything wrapped up, we've compiled a round-up of all the April Fools "Answers" from this year's /r/AskFakeHistorians.
To try and keep the preamble brief, a big thanks to everyone who participated and wrote some really hilarious stuff, especially the non-flairs who took a stab at things! Also we'd like to thank the question askers who mostly took the jokes in the spirit of the day. Please though, consider reasking them again for real!
Everything should now have the April Fools Flair, and writers should be editing their posts to make very clear it is a joke as well, but if you see something missing that, or something not listed here, please let us know!
On final note on /r/AskFakeHistorians. It is a real subreddit, and all of these are x-posted there. What the future holds for it, we shall see.
So without further ado:
The incredible history of Battleship, the Ancient game of the Emperor by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
The great Chinese folk hero Chyouyan Mai-klang, who took down Hans Gruber by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
Socrates? Actually two little persons in an overcoat! by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
McDonald's "MAC with Your Mac" and the rise of the MAC-10 /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
April Fools and pre-Internet message board culture by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
The death of Alexander the Great, and the long cultural legacy of Beirut by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
The Airborne Sacred Band by u/Iphikrates
The left wing-right wing dichotomy comes from ancient Greek bird signs by u/Iphikrates
Sparta and Athens held competitive fashion shows during the Peloponnesian War by u/Iphikrates
The Unheard Tale of the Swiss Dwarven Resistance of WWII by /u/Gankom
The wild Roman wedding by /u/cleopatra_philopater
Sappho and Alcaeus' role in the creation of the diss track, or why I cited Eminem and Snoop Dogg by /u/cleopatra_philopater
The history of the Chamutzi family and the Hanukkah reenactment by u/hannahstohelit
The epidemic of medieval Jewish women in short jean skirts by u/hannahstohelit
The Nazi geniuses of the Blumen program by u/hannahstohelit
Yutz of Lebendig-Begraben and the vending machine coffin by u/hannahstohelit
The First Opium War was part of an informal Anglo-Kokandi conspiracy to obtain rhubarb by /u/EnclavedMicrostate
How Saint Peter and other earlier popes founded Switzerland, ate Buffalo Chicken, had fight clubs, and got around in a popemobile by /u/IlluminatiRex
The Red Terror: 1783-1792 by /u/poob1x
Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Life of Being a Wealthy Celebrity with Coca-Cola and Hennessy, by /u/Facepoundr
The Colon Key is Actually a Reference to the Actual Colon, from Egypt to Modern Day, by /u/Facepoundr
Early Roman Christians & Philip K. Dick, or: How I Learned to Love the Blinding Rays of Pink Light From Outer Space by /u/drylaw
The Rockin' Dracula Cape From Hell, or: How Vlad Dracul gave Rick Wakeman the Fashion Power to Prog /u/drylaw
The Campaign For Real Ale, or, how four men defictionalised beer in 1971, by u/crrpit
Moths are the Real Fascists, or how HMS Cockapoo won the war, by u/crrpit.
Why did colonial Americans build so many pyramids? by u/crrpit
Even Roman Britain knew that you have to always respect the Will of the Sheep-Eel in politics by u/crrpit
Floating pleasure palaces: Recreation Ships of WWII by /u/thefourthmaninaboat
Banditry and Cannabis in the 17th Century by /u/poob1x
Robin Hood, Troll Tolls, and the Magna Carta by /u/LordHussyPants
Jim Jones's fundraising methods by /u/cordis_melum
The biblical history of Kiribati, the island of sacrifice that no Jedi historian will tell you about by /u/ghostofherzl
The dramaturgical sideline of 17th century Welsh mystic Gwyneth ferch Paltrow by /u/cdesmoulins
Feudal floor candy and how the Plantagenets invented cooking by /u/cdesmoulins
Dropbears are secretly dinosaurs by /u/hillsonghoods
Look Out, I think Jacob Jacob Likes You by /u/poob1x
The true history of the "Shakespeare Scheme" by /u/UrAccountabilibuddy
Bavaria and Earthican TV programming by /u/UncleShagworthy
Hitler's Garfield collection by /u/TheYellowCat
Rasputin, the Greatest Russian Love Machine by /u/lappy482
RSI injuries in Ancient Rome by /u/franziska_kafka
Trolls and state formation in Scandanavia by /u/King_of_Men
Maggie Thatcher's hair and feminist critiques by /u/Joseon1
Ancient Art and idea of "good" or "bad" /u/DarkAvenger12
On the lack of an American Marshal, aside from Marshall by /u/AdmiralAkbar1
The Hans of China, a Germanic scourge by /u/ReaperReader
Australia, Middle Earth, and the 'local lingo' by /u/funkyedwardgibbon
Nazis and cate memes by /u/heyheymse
The mod team wants to make one particular shout-out, to what was particularly the consensus favorite of the non-flaired contributors, namely /u/TheYellowCat whose piece about Hitler and Garfield which had a number of us cracking up. Well done!
This year's AFD joke was pretty good! Removed; opinion.
I got a kick out of this year's AFD joke. Removed; no personal anecdotes.
This year's AFD joke was a thing that happened. Removed; 20 year rule.
Thanks to the mods for keeping this sub tidy and to everyone who wrote jokes this year. :)
Edit: Fix last sentence.
Georgy " I mostly won't be around today so needed to prep in advance" Zhukov has managed an amazing level of output!
This might've just been one of the funniest April Fools jokes this year. Well done to all.
I want to especially call out the "Committee to Reconsider the Effectiveness of the Patriarchy" gag that was slipped into the Shakespeare Scheme post
It's pretty uncommon for me to actually laugh out loud at stuff on the internet, but that one broke me
Props to everyone for making this a great April Fools' Day!
All of you did a really fantastic job! Massive props to everyone!
I wish you had not done this. It made the sub very difficult to read over the past two days.
Oh man, I read the Battleship one completely uncritically. I had no idea until now. You got me good.
To the person who wrote about the MAC 10 it was the first thing I read that day and you got me good. The idea of a MAC with your Mac seemed crazy enough to be true. I only realised 2 hours later what day it was. Thanks for the laughs!
I have to say that I really appreciate that despite this being one of the most dry and serious subreddits out there (and for good reason), I really appreciate the mod team getting into the spirit of this one day and letting loose.
Nothing quite like someone who knows what thay're talking about using that knowledge to help them say the most outlandish stuff for laughs!
Luckily I caught the warning of the pending April Fool tradition and prepared myself. Unfortunately, I did see some interesting questions with quite compelling answers, but I was so paranoid that I didn't want to read anything as, for quite a few topics, I was not able to tell if the answer were in jest or not! Here and there there were a few obvious cases - well written and beautifully argued - that spelled out their satire, but in other cases I just could not get invested in case I were convinced of pure fiction!
You forgot mine in the master list! https://reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/b85d9e/_/ejw9u9s/?context=1
All of these are now archived on archive.org