April Fools' starting to contaminate the whole year

On the first of April I was extra vigilant, as I always am, and scoffed when Google claimed they were going to colonize Mars and the BBC shouted headlines about the discovery of penguins that can fly.

Then yesterday, the second of April, I was sent a link to a story about a new game for the Wii system, available only in Japan, called Super Pii Pii brothers. As the name of the game suggests, the player puts on a strap-on style accessory and then uses the Wii controller to simulate the act of urination into various virtual toilets. According to the translated text on the box Pii Pii brothers "promotes good bathroom skills and allows women to experience for the first time the pleasure of urinating while standing."

As a leading chronicler of Japanese weirdness, I couldn't be more thrilled with what was going to be the latest, and possibly strangest, installment.

Of course I eventually realized it was an April Fools' Day prank that I had fallen for 24 hours later.

And therein lies the danger of the internet and this prankster holiday we have. It's April 3rd now and the Super Pii Pii prank (complete with corresponding Youtube video) is still live, and with no indication it was created on Tuesday.

In the future will more and more year-round Internet searchers be tricked into believing classic April Fools' jokes like Alabama changing the numerical value of Pi? Or the saga of Sidd Finch, the Buddhist-trained New York Met rookie with the 168 MPH fastball? Or the numerous April Fools' Day pranks that tricksters have been coming up with lately and disguising in the templates of legitimate websites?

Being that millions of people are still thoroughly fooled every year on April Fools' Day, I can see this becoming a problem.