April Fools' Day (also known as All Fools' Day) is a cultural holiday[1] celebrated on April 1st by pulling pranks, telling jokes, creating hoaxes, and other humorous things designed to trick people. The Scratch Community will often make joke projects and trick others on April Fools' Day. The Scratch Team as well sometimes creates April Fools' pranks on the Scratch Website.

Before the Text-based Games Forums were removed, they had (independent) pranks, too, similar to but not the same as the Main Forums.

On the Scratch Wiki, many articles are replaced with joke articles with links to the original version.

Common Pranks Done by Scratchers

Making a bait-and-switch project, in which project looks something appealing but then ends up as something different, usually a rickroll

Changing one's user icon to a Scratch Team member or a famous Scratcher's icon

Posting joke questions and suggestions in the Questions about Scratch and Suggestions forum.[2]

Official April Fools' Day Pranks

The Scratch Forums text at the top of the Scratch Forums was changed to say Scratch Forums - Still only $0.99 (USD) a post! .

text at the top of the Scratch Forums was changed to say . There was a "suggestion" to eliminate all capital letters and use chatspeak.[3]

Many April Fools' jokes on the website in 2011 were held early, on March 31, to have the pranks ready for Scratchers in early time zones.

Every user's icon changed to the rage face. There were many complaints. [4] [5]

KajTheModerator appeared, a Community Moderator that had 9003 ("over 9000") posts and supposedly joined the forums on April 1, 1999. On April 15, fullmoon announced that KajTheModerator retired from his position as Community Moderator to spend more time with his family.[6]

“ KajTheModerator has reported that he wants to spend more time with his family and has retired from the Scratch moderation team. We'll all miss him dearly. ” – fullmoon, Community Moderator

On April 1, several word censors were added in the forums and on the main site.

Every instance of "Scratch Team" was changed to "a bunch of fluffy kittens". Soon afterwards, it changed into "a bunch of fluffy kittehs".

Every instance of the word "you" in forum posts was changed to "pikachu". The Scratch Team member, Paddle2See, changed his signature to "Treat others as pikachu would like to be tricked ." (It was supposed to say "you" rather than "pikachu" but the prank forum filter changed it to "pikachu".) Several others changed their signatures as well.

Every instance of the words "April" or "Friday" in comments became capitalized and linked to the recent viral video, Friday.

Every instance of the word "awesome" in comments made a unicorn appear when clicked, or changes some text on a page to a pink, dazzling, sugarcoated style.

Starting on late March 31st and ending around 10:45 PM on April 1st Scratch Time:

Text-Based Games Forum

The Text-based Games Forum is renamed the "Text-Based Hunger Games Forum", with the TBGs forum being called "The District Square" and the RPGs forum being called "The Hob". TBGers were given the rank of "Citizen of Panem", New TBGers the rank of "Tribute", TBG Moderators the rank of "Capitol Gamemaker", and Scratch Team members the rank of "Capitol Cabinet". In addition, "TBG" was censored to "TBHG" and the following announcement was made at the top of the TBGs:

“ Announcement: This is not a parking garage. This is mahogany. Mahogany hamsters have been found in the Scratch Server Room. We’re currently attempting to reverse the damage caused by them, but they’re not too malicious. In the meantime, please try to enjoy the TBHG Forums despite the recent change. Game on! ” – The Gamemakers

All of this is in reference to the popular book and movie series The Hunger Games.

Scratch Forums

The mysterious KajTheModerator made another appearance on the Scratch Forums, with the brand new signature "trolololololol !!!". [7]

The Scratch Forums were renamed to the "Neigh Forums".

Members of the Scratch Team were ranked "Neigh Herd Leader", while Scratchers were given the rank "Pony", and New Scratchers "New Pony".

Community Moderators were changed to hold the rank "Pasture Monitor", and Retired Community Moderators "Retired Pasture Monitor".

Community Moderators were changed to hold the rank "Pasture Monitor", and Retired Community Moderators "Retired Pasture Monitor". The following announcement was made at the top of the forums:

Now 20% cooler!

The above was later changed to:

My Little Neigh Pony - Remixing is Magic

Word filters were added:

Every instance of "Scratch" was censored to "Neigh". This was removed after it was discovered it was interfering with links.

Instead, instances of "Scratcher" were censored to "Pony".

Instances of "everyone" and "everybody" were replaced with "everypony".

Instances of "somebody" and "someone" were replaced with "somepony".

Instances of "anybody" and "anyone" were replaced with "anypony".

"facepalm" was censored to "facehoof".

"Kaj" was censored to "Discord".

"yes" was censored to "eeyup."

"computer" was censored to "toaster".

"troll" was censored to "parasprite" and "trolling" to "paraspriting".

"only" was censored to "ponly"

"nobody" was censored to "nopony"

All the modifications to the Scratch Forums are in reference to the television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the brony internet phenomenon surrounding it.

A rumor was spread on the Announcements saying Scratch 2.0 would be renamed to "Neigh".[8]

Scratch Team Blog

On the main site, an announcement was made:

Scratch 2.0 will have a new name: Neigh! Read about it on our blog!

This linked to a blog post[dead link] about how Scratch 2.0 will be called Neigh and will have a pony mascot.

Scratch Wiki

In accordance with the forums, the Scratch Wiki changed its name to "Neigh Wiki", and featured the Neigh logo on the homepage.

The featured article shown on the main page was an excerpt from the main page itself, but the "read less" link pointed to this article.

With the approaching release of Scratch 2.0, most of the jokes were about Pico, one of the new default sprites.

Main Site

The images on the right side of the Front Page were all changed to a picture of Pico

There was a site announcement saying "Unfortunately, we are experiencing technical difficulties due to a rogue sprite." The words "rogue sprite" linked to a project

The Popular Tags were changed to "Pico, Pico is great, Pico is so awesome, Pico rules, I love Pico, Pico is much better than that old cat, Pico!!"

Any instance of "_bloop_" was shown as a picture of Pico's head, like how "_meow_" turns into the Scratch Cat.[9]

Scratch Forums

The Scratch Forums title text at the top of the Scratch Forums was changed to say Pico's Scratch Forums .

title text at the top of the Scratch Forums was changed to say . The same text "Unfortunately, we are experiencing technical difficulties due to a rogue sprite" with the same link appeared as a forum announcement.

"and" was censored to "(Bloop!)", and then "(Bloop!!)"

"the" was censored to "(Pico Rules!)", and then "(Pico Rules!!)"

Several ways some Scratchers found to get around the censor were later censored as well: "th3" turned into "(Pico rules - do not get smart!!)" "4nd" turned into "(Bloop - very tricky!!)" "th[b][/b]e" turned into "(Pico still rules!!)"



Scratch 2.0 Blog

A post was made on the 2.0 blog featuring pictures of Pico and the word "BLOOP!".[10]

The 2014 theme was LOLCATZ. A new language was added to the menu, Meow!, and kept as an easter egg.[11] Much of the text was put in capital letters and changed. For example, the What's Happening? section was changed to "WHAT'S HAPPENIN RIGHT MEOW?". Love-its were changed to "paws", posts to "meows", and all of the forums were renamed. Most of the blocks in the project editor were renamed to include "meow" as well.

There was also a fake announcement from the Scratch Mentors in the featured bar. The project can be viewed here.

The new sign.

The semicolon was brought back to the bottom of every page on the Scratch Website. A giant semicolon emoji could also be created by typing _;_. The giant semicolon no longer appears, but a normally-sized one does.

Until Scratch 3.0 was released, Some of this prank could be recovered by selecting "Meow" as a user's selected language. This showed most changes made on April Fools' Day, including changes to block names in the Scratch editor.

The theme of 2015 was "Edible Scratch". Starting March 31, 2015 at about 1:45 PM, the Front Page had 3 food-themed featured products and a large notification asking to try out Edible Scratch. If one clicked "see how", then it would take one to the bottom of the screen with the language that would be a new option under English called Edible Scratch. It also included new icons for Love-Its and Favorites, which were bananas and strawberries, respectively. The "What's happening?" was changed to "What's Cookin'?". One could comment " _pizza_ _apple_ _eggplant_ _taco_ _broccoli_ and _sushi_ " and they would turn into those emojis.[12] "Studios" was changed to "Cookbooks". "Scratch News" was changed to "Eaters' Digest". "See inside" was changed to "See Ingredients". "Explore" became "Graze", and "Create" became "Cook". In "My Stuff", there were lots of changes: "All Projects" was "All Meals", "Shared Meals", "My Cookbooks", etc. The buttons "New Project" and "New Studio" became "New Recipe" and "New Cookbook" and the remix tree became the mixing bowl. "Comments" became "Food for thought".

Until Scratch 3.0 was released, A remnant of this prank could be accessed by selecting "Edible Scratch" in the language bar. The emojis are still available for use.

There were three studios where people could submit projects relating to Scratch's April Fools' Day themes:

Selected Scratchers were allowed to curate including the Scratch Team and Scratch Design Studio Curators.

On April Fools' Day 2016, the "Advanced Topics" category of the Scratch Forums was renamed to "Advanced Off-topics" in response to the growing inability of Advanced Topics users to keep a focused discussion, which had become a community joke at the time. Five new emojis were added, which were the camera, map, suitcase, binoculars, and compass, to go along with the theme of Scratch Cat leaving on a trip. The semicolon emoji was re-added, and when a user's mouse hovered over the emoji, "semicolon confetti" came out. The semicolon was also added to the bottom of every page. The Scratch Team created a bot that responded with randomized "meows", "purrs", and "licks" whenever a user posted a comment on the profile of ScratchCat. The theme for the SDS starting on April Fools' was "The Last SDS," and Scratchers made projects and pretended that it was the last SDS.



Scratchers were able to submit projects on where they thought the Scratch Cat might be, what form of transportation the Scratch Cat used, and created postcards to send to the Scratch cat. People could inform their guesses through clues posted on ScratchCat's profile. Scratchers could submit their projects to three main April Fools' Day studios:

Also on April Fools' Day, some Scratchers pranked the Scratch Team back by changing their icon to a Scratch Team member's icon.

This is the first 2.0 prank that did not have a direct theme.

On a particular April Fools' studio page, giant black snowflakes fall down in a zig-zag manner—even after the April Fools' Day has ended. In the bottom-left corner of some pages, a semicolon appeared. Many Scratchers attempted to "trick" the ST into thinking it was Christmas. The main target was Scratch Team member Paddle2See.[citation needed] New mascots like charles were created. ScratchCat and Scratch-Bat started to respond automatically to comments again on their profiles. Two new studios were also created, Create Your Own Mascot and Mascots in Training. As an easter egg, the Scratch Team added an Illuminati emoji, but later replaced it with the words "triangle eye.".

Easter eggs were hidden throughout the Scratch website. These included special responses when the following queries were entered into Scratch's search bar.

Query Variations Surprise response upside down upsidedown All search results would (and their associated text) would appear upside down gravity The page would automatically smoothly scroll to the bottom secret surprise secret surprises, secretsurprise, secretsurprises Confetti would fly out rainbow rainbows The background color of the search page, as well as the text color of the titles of studios and projects, would cycle through different hues. =^..^= The page would appear as if no results were found, except the text "Nothing found" was replaced by "*boop*", then, on the next line, "=^..^=".

When one were to comment _ksllxmfcai_, the triangular symbol of the Illuminati would instead be rendered. This was added for the 2017 April Fools' but was removed later and replaced with the text "triangle eye". The semicolon at the bottom of the page returned from past April Fools' days, and on the homepage exclusively, an additional entry labelled "Surprise" was added to the Community subsection. When clicked, this would increase a counter by 1 by making a POST request to a new Scratch API endpoint /surprise .

Additionally, the Scratch Wiki sported a semicolon at the bottom of every page that used the older, dark-blue, navigation bar.

Various pranks were done by the Scratch Team that year.

A link named "Cats...?" was added to the Footer under About. It displayed some fake cat facts along with an image of a cat when clicked on. The cat image and the fact varied every time the link was clicked on.

Studios "Silly Tutorials" and "See inside" were featured in the Featured Studios section.

A studio named "Bloop" became the new Scratch Design Studio. The description of that studio repeatedly said "bloop".

A tutorial named "Teach Scratch to Your Cat" was added to the editor. It showed cats "using" Scratch.

Easter eggs were hidden throughout the Scratch website. These included special responses when the following queries were entered into Scratch's Search Bar.

Query Variations Surprise response rainbow color, rainbows The header that says "Search" would cycle through the colors of the rainbow egg There would be normal search results but with egg-shaped project thumbnails, names, and usernames of their creators fisheye A 2D clown fish picture on a white background would appear behind the results tutorial Any search with the word tutorial in it A picture of a cat would appear behind the search results. spin whirl, turn The whole page would spin once ghost The search results would fade into view music piano Hovering over the search results would cause notes to play brightness The page would start out very bright and then darken

In the Account Settings, three new options were added; All the world's a stage, Noisy blocks and Top secret checkbox​.

All the world's a stage caused the graphic effects, "brightness," "ghost" and "color," to affect the whole editor including blocks, palette​, stage, background and sprites. When the ghost effect was applied completely, the whole editor would disappear and the only thing left would be a blue background. Blocks and buttons could still be dragged, clicked and edited but they were all invisible.

caused the graphic effects, "brightness," "ghost" and "color," to affect the whole editor including blocks, palette​, stage, background and sprites. When the ghost effect was applied completely, the whole editor would disappear and the only thing left would be a blue background. Blocks and buttons could still be dragged, clicked and edited but they were all invisible. Noisy blocks made the blocks produce sound when snapped together.

made the blocks produce sound when snapped together. The Top secret checkbox would instantly uncheck itself when the changes were saved to the account settings.

A link called 'Mystery' was added to the footer. It showed a random image of a cat (or in some cases, a dog) along with a random question it seemed to ask.

A new tutorial, "How to Find a Sprite", was added.

All hat blocks in the editor turned into cat blocks. Rolling the mouse over the cat block's ear would cause the ear to move and the cat block to blink.

New options were added to the editor under the edit drop down. Mystery mode (which darkened the editor and made sprites have shadows when a light was shined on them) and Wobbly dragging. The latter sparked a Scratch Trend revolving around "Wobble cat".[13]

Joke emojis were also added back.

The semicolon was brought back to the bottom of every page.

The Scratch mascot's auto responder's from earlier years had returned.

Wiki (since 2014)

Starting in 2014, the homepage and some of the Scratch Wiki articles were replaced with satirical and parodic content often joking about the subject of the article and Scratch itself. There are also many references to popular culture and running gags about the Scratch Team (portrayed as cats wanting to take over the world) gaining energy units. For example, the Sprite article was replaced with content about soda and the Game Tree article about a tree which video games hang on. This prank repeats every year. To prevent anyone from taking content on the page seriously and causing damage, a disclaimer is added to the beginning and the original page is listed at the bottom.

All of the joke content can be accessed and edited here.

Additionally, the semicolon has appeared at the bottom of every page on April Fools' Day since 2019.[14]

Other Pranks

On March 14th 2012, (Pi Day as it is 3/14/2012 in the Gregorian date system), all instances of "pi" became "3.14159265..." on the forums.[15]

Images

2010

The 2010 April Fools' prank on the Scratch forums.

2011

The image that all user icons were changed to.

One of KajTheModerator's '9003' posts.

A member of the Scratch Team's title is "a bunch of fluffy kittehs"

An example of the text change.

Another example of the text change.

2012

The Text-Based Hunger Games Forums.

The four TBHG ranks; Mod, New TBGer, TBGer, and Scratch Team (from top to bottom).

The word censoring of "Scratch" to "Neigh".

The Neigh Forums ranks: New Scratcher, Scratcher, Retired Mod, Mod, and Scratch Team (from top to bottom).

An example of the word censoring.

The announcement on the Scratch Forums saying "Now 20% cooler".

The second announcement on the forums: "My Little Neigh Pony - Remixing is Magic".

The program's supposed new logo.

The Neigh Pony.

2013

The word censoring.

The "Pico's Scratch Forums".

The replaced images at the right of the Front Page.

The Popular Tags on the Front Page.

The nefarious blog post on the Scratch 2.0 blog.

The announcement talking about the rogue sprite.

2014

The editor with all of the blocks named "meow".

The Front Page, LOLCATZ style.

The Scratch "DISCUSHUN FORUMS".

The Statistics Page.

The pawing system which replaced love-its.

The project instructions and notes.

The Un-Scratch Wiki.

The About page

The return of the infamous semicolon

2015

Front Page

The new emoticons

The project bar

Gobo and Gobo's Friends in food form (drawn by designerd[16])

2016

The "Advanced Off-topics"

The confetti effect of the semicolon emoji

The semicolon at the bottom of a page.

An example conversation on @ScratchCat's profile

The new emoticons

@ScratchCat's userpage header

2017

The snowflakes in the #PrankTheST2K17 studio

The Scratch News on the wiki

The top of the wiki homepage

2018

The surprise link in the footer

The upside down search page when "upside down" is searched

The confetti on the search page when "secret surprise" is searched

The snowflakes in the #PrankTheST2K18 studio

2019

The thumbnail for the "Teach Scratch to Your Cat" tutorial

One of the fake cat facts accessed by clicking "Cats?" on the footer

The screen that would display on typing "egg" into the search bar

2020

The Mystery Mode when activated

The "cat blocks" that replaced the hat blocks

Wobbly sprite dragging (click on image to see)