How the April Fools' Day On The Web Archive Works

Updated

April Fools' Day On The Web (aprilfoolsdayontheweb.com) is a running record of internet pranks, organized by year and going back to 2004. Each joke is captured as a screenshot when it's submitted, so entries survive after the original page is taken down. You can browse the current year's jokes, jump into the historical archive, or open a single screenshot to see exactly what a company or creator published on April 1.

What the site collects

The site's stated purpose is to preserve pranks that "vanish" after April 1. Its scope is broad: jokes from company websites, social media accounts, and individual creators. For 2026, the page shows several layers of organization:

  • Featured jokes — a hand-picked set of highlights for the year
  • Top 20 highest rated jokes — ranked by a score shown next to each entry
  • All 2026 jokes — the full list for the year
  • The archive — earlier years, back to 2004

Each entry pairs a short description with a screenshot link. For example, the 2026 featured list includes Pizza Hut Canada's "Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pizza" post on X, the Minecraft Wiki's fake AI chatbot, and xkcd's set of alternate reading modes. The top-20 list adds submission timestamps and scores, such as pc.net's "Super Ultrabox 2600" at 39 and bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net's rename to "Pokopedia" at 24.

How to find a prank from a specific year

  1. Open aprilfoolsdayontheweb.com.
  2. Choose the current year's list if you want this year's jokes, or select The archive to move to earlier years.
  3. Pick the year you want. The archive is organized by year going back to 2004.
  4. Scan the entries for the site or creator you're looking for, then open its screenshot link to see the original joke.

The expected result is a screenshot of the prank as it appeared, not a live page — which matters because most of these jokes are removed shortly after April 1.

What the screenshots are for

The screenshot is the core of the archive. Because pranks are usually temporary, a link to the original URL would break within days. Capturing the page at submission time turns a one-day joke into something you can still check months or years later. That makes the site useful for:

  • Verifying what a company actually published on a given April 1
  • Comparing how a brand's pranks changed over the years
  • Finding examples of a specific prank format, such as fake product launches or site redesigns

Limits to keep in mind

  • Coverage depends on submissions. The site asks users to submit jokes, so the archive reflects what was reported, not every prank that happened. A missing entry doesn't mean the prank didn't exist.
  • Ratings are community scores. The top-20 ranking reflects votes on the site, not an objective measure of quality.
  • Screenshots, not archives. You see the captured image, so interactive elements of the original joke won't work.
  • The current year's page changes. Featured picks and rankings for 2026 reflect what had been submitted and voted on at the time you view it.

If you want to check whether a specific company pulled an April Fools' prank in a given year, start with the archive for that year and search the entry list by site name. If it isn't there, the prank may simply not have been submitted.