The Daily Pennsylvanian to Readers: Nobama for You
The Daily Pennsylvanian - yet again proving true the axiom that Ivy League Dailies have no senses of humor - wants to make sure that you do not enjoy April Fool's Day. After campus pranksters began placing tickets to a "secret" Obama event scheduled for April 1 in Easter eggs scattered around campus, the newspaper's "journalists" decided that most students probably wouldn't be able tell the whole thing was a joke and that they therefore had to "break" the "story."
For some, April Fools' Day has come early -- despite the "Obama" eggs scattered around campus and the flyers posted on Locust Walk saying otherwise, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will not be speaking at Irvine Auditorium tomorrow night."
I guess the DP was worried that some incredibly gullible hopemongers in the student body would fall for the prank, which obviously would have been tragic. God forbid kids who believe everything they ever see or read should have to suffer the non-existent consequences of their non-actions.
Still, the DP was too lazy to do any follow-up: who was behind the hoax? What did students think of the hoax? Etcetera.
As our tipster wrote, "I don't know whether to laugh or cry."
Happy April Fool's, folks.
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Read more: april fools, barack obama, daily pennsylvanian, Penn, pranks
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April 1st, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Wow, this is an unusually vitriolic post, especially considering that Ivygate routinely “reports” on far more trivial matters. I think that, especially with Obama actually in Philadelphia at the moment, that it was a legitimate story.
Oh, and as for “too lazy for a follow-up,” um… today’s lead story was a follow-up. It discussed who planned the hoax, and what students thought of it, just as you asked. Seems to me that you’re too lazy to do even a second of research beyond what was in your tip.
http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2008/04/01/News/Students.Planned.Barack.Obama.Hoax-3294573.shtml
April 1st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
If this is a post about how uninteresting and unnewsworthy the Penn hoax story is, then IvyGate needs to police its own better…the link to this story (the follow-up, actually) on Ragtime calls the prank “brilliant” without irony, providing a link and thereby encouraging readers to check out the article’s interesting content.
Anyway, sounds pretty newsworthy to me.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
IvyGate is completely moronic.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:29 pm
English, motherfucker, do you speak it?
Ivygate is complaining that the DP (hehe) blew the cover of the prank. In other words, ruining an April Fools prank is pretty humorless and also indicates a lack of other news to cover.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Ivy Admissions are out!
I want reports on the worst Facebook groups already made, where kids of celebs and politicians are going, and stats!
Now Dance!
April 1st, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I do like IvyGate, I really do. But it’s not the end all blog on Ivy League ongoings as I thought it once was. A lot of the announcements and ongoings on the schools of late haven’t been covered, which surprises me.
Maybe re: Admissions they’re just waiting for each school to announce their stats.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:50 pm
What’s with the random hate?
April 1st, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I didn’t see the fliers, but from what I heard, it was a REALLY well-orchestrated prank. One of my friends even found one of the tickets, and said it was a legitimate Annenberg ticket, with one of those shiny authentication things and everything. I don’t think one would have to be an idiot to have fallen for this.
(I admit I entertained a brief thought that the Obama thing WAS real, and it was outed as part of the DP’s annual April Fool’s day issue, but from my admittedly very cursory glance, the rest of the issue seemed legit, and they rarely post the joke issue on April 1 anyway.)