Feeling a Little Foolish?

April is the month of fools, and it is also National Humor Month, and perhaps more than ever we could use a little laughter. In honor of April Fool's Day, here is the Museum of Hoaxes list of the Top 100 April Fool's Pranks of All Time. They also provide a list of today's best pranks, including my personal favorite Gmail autopilot, which would respond to your mail for you. Museum of Hoaxes is one of my personal favorite time-waster web sites. PC World provides links to the day's best techno-foolery.

Comedy fans have a number of places (besides the ubiquitous YouTube) that they can go on the web to satisfy their desire for a funny fix. For fans of particular types of comedy, here are locations of a few best comedy bits online. David Letterman's Top 10 List Archive, Jay Leno's Headlines, the Darwin Awards (for those who improve the gene pool by creatively departing from it), and here are some of everybody's favorite Dumb Criminals stories. Here is the Onion's all-too believable-at-times fake news site, while for those who prefer their fake news a little farther off the radar, the Weekly World News has stories just for you. (Check out the latest about the Fiji Mermaid seeking FAFSA aid.) Whether or not you use an RSS reader, you may find it worthwhile to check in on Humorfeed every so often. The feeds "feeders" gather in funny material from around the web suitable to a variety of tastes. And since you're connected to the College, you'll find things to laugh at on CollegeHumor. (Check out Your Essay Translated and Your Professor's PowerPoint Presentation.)

While not for everybody, John Hodgeman's (PC in the Mac/PC commercials) comedy, with its witty pseudo-intellectualism and genuine humanity can be both very funny and surprisingly insightful. Here is his 16-minute TED lecture: A brief digression on matters of lost time. (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and the TED Talks, available for free on the web, are from an annual conference which brings together 50 talented and innovative thinkers in all different fields of knowledge and challenges them to give the "18 minute talk of their lives". The results are extraordinary.)

Like your humor in illustrated form? Check out the online portion of the Library of Congress' display: Herblock's History (Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millenium), Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index (searchable by topic -- check out Twitter -- or artist), the CartoonBank at the New Yorker (which is a commerce site, but both the Free link and the Recession Proof link are worth a look for no cost)

Make 'Em Laugh is a PBS site about comedy that includes tributes (and funny stories) about some of the greatest comedians of all times as well as five of the greatest viral videos and an interview with Michael McKean talking about This is Spinal Tap. The American Comedy Archives at Emerson College include both transcripts and videos of some interviews with famous comics and comedy writers. A few years ago, the American Film Institute put together a list 100 Years...100 Laughs, selecting the best in film comedy. You can check out the list and see if you agree.

And somewhere in all of this, you ought to find a little to laugh about.