We’re always happy to give a wide berth to people pulling April Fools pranks, but even so it’s pushing it to do it on March 27. If you go that early, you need to be side-splittingly funny or earn our disdain until we’ve forgotten all about it.
The Funded’s Adeo Ressi is now confirming that the shutdown notice he posted last week is part of an April Fools joke. He was unavailable for comment, he says, because he was “in remote Utah at a wedding.” Weddings are always an excuse for being offline, I guess, so we’re forgiving The Funded for going dark on the situation. And a wedding in Utah must be fascinating. But as to the hilarity of the joke itself, well that’s up to The Funded’s users to decide.
We enjoyed last year’s April Fools joke that involved the launching of a new site that let venture capitalists review founders that pitched them (from First Round Capital).
From: Michael Arrington
Date: March 30, 2009 10:21:26 AM PDT
To: Adeo Ressi
Cc: erick schonfeld
Subject: Re: FYIsomething funny would be nice.
On Mar 30, 2009, at 9:28 AM, Adeo Ressi wrote:
Erick and Michael,
The message was a weekend prank for April Fools’s Day that was leaked to the media by Member saying that the site was shutting down “following a lawsuit.” There are no more threats than usual, and there was no mention of a lawsuit… The site is not shutting down.
In fact, the prank notice said that we would end reviews because we concluded all investors are great. We chose the weekend because of the low traffic levels, and we thought people would laugh at the claim that all investors are great. Instead, people just assumed the worst.
Ironically, I have been in remote Utah at a wedding, so I have not been able to send emails or update the site… An update is forthcoming, and I’ll need a better prank next year… Any ideas?
I will be the first of many commenters posting “not funny”.
Not the smartest move i’ve seen. Better luck next year i guess.
Epic FAIL.
“The message was a weekend prank for April Fools’s Day that was leaked to the media by Member saying that the site was shutting down “following a lawsuit.”
Just don’t get how it was ‘leaked’ since it was a pop up on the site.
I guess he never knew how serious people took the site. When i saw all investors being great I knew it was a joke. At least he got a write up in Techcrunch 2 times in one week
Someone (I am assuming a Member), wrote tips @ techcrunch and actually said that the site was shutting down “following a lawsuit.”
Hey I didn’t know about this site, looks good, especially the controversial stories. It’s just funny to see how they work.
He says “Ironically, I have been in remote Utah at a wedding”. Where is the irony in that?
I was thinking the exact same thing. In my estimation, 90% of the population doesn’t know what irony is.
Really? That’s kind of ironic.
@ Martin – Not really. Most ppl are dumb, so it makes sense they wouldn’t know what ironic means.
Wait, do YOU know what ironic means?
The irony is that (1) not being able to reply to rumors that the site was taken down as a result of a lawsuit (2) fueled the speculation that the site was taken down by a lawsuit.
A lawsuit was never mentioned, just assumed.
It’s ironic that ppl thought the site was shut down due to a lawsuit. Fine.
But how is it ironic that you were at a remote wedding in Utah? If anything, it was UNFORTUNATE you were there and couldn’t reply in time. It’s not ironic.
stupid.
The Funded proved that they’re no Google when it comes to practical jokes. I hope they emailed investors and anyone else who has a financial tie to them before they did this.
Good try though. Good hustle. Maybe next year.
http://www.twit...r.com/dankalmar
corny and way to obvious it was fake
April Fools jokes are hard, and by doing one you’re putting yourself out there. The problem with this one is he was really trying to fool press v. be as funny as possible, all to get traffic. that’s fine, but a better approach would have been to aim for humor imo.
Crappy company crappy joke….
indeed
Weddings in remote Utah are just as boring as anywhere else, plus plenty of connectivity available there. Just admit when your dumb jokes are a complete fail. Please deadpool yourself already.
Actually, there was connectivity, but it was very bad. I had to hike up a hill to send a text message, which only worked after repeated attempts. Just an FYI.
I live in Utah, and outside of the geographic area of the Wasatch Front (SLC, Provo, Ogden), Utah is pretty desolate and unpopulated. There is a town about every 50 miles, and those are usually one exit with a gas station and a few homes that they are calling a town…it makes for really poor connectivity.
yeah, this wasn’t funny at all.
I thought the Facebook Master’s Degree was the first April Fool’s joke – still wonder if a joke or real
Yeah, that whole date thing? That’s important.
The idea that TheFunded would end functionality for CEOs to rate venture funds because we decisively concluded that “all investors are great” was a source of laughter around the table…
The fact that people just assumed that the site was sued and shut down was not funny, however.
It was the first sentence and it was a heavy-handed giveaway. Investors are Great? And that didn’t tip anyone off? Come on guys…
What would be funny is if they were sued on April 1 for real and had to shut down. Now that would be ironic!
Lay off of these guys some. It was obviously fake from the beginning. It wasn’t super funny, but I was wasn’t bored while I read message. That’s something