VIDEO: April Fools' Day and the Disruptive Nature of Internet Culture
April Fools' Day occupies a special place in the heart of internet culture—a day when tech titans like Google and YouTube roll out elaborate pranks involving digital maps to unleash our inner Pokémon masters and viral #ButterFails.
The gags this year extend beyond the human realm to include the humiliation of our feline counterparts. Ben Huh and the team at Cheezburger—the online humor site that became famous for it's viral cat memes—has teamed up with clothing site Betabrand to launch a cat garment line complete with hipster-inspired tees, crop tops, and a Silence of the Lambs-esque human skin onesie.
And while the entertaining photoshops of cats in clothes is for now an April Fools' stunt, Cheezburger has intimated that if the site sparks enough interest, they might produce an actual line of kitten couture.
So just why do tech companies embrace April Fools' Day shenanigans so enthusiastically and expend countless man-hours crafting intricate hoaxes that are likely to be forgotten within a day? The answer could lie in the disruptive culture of the internet—a culture that perfectly compliments the mischievous nature of All Fools' Day.
In 2012, Reason TV producer Zach Weissmueller interviewed Ben Huh about the nature and morals of the internet and why the ability of individuals to create their own content (even if that content is feline crop tops) is a good thing for society. You can watch the full interview below:
