It's harder and harder each year to think of something creative enough to do on April Fools and to get everyone to bite. I had 2 targets this year, and I got them booth - good!
Yes, the $10,000 purse and the mandatory attendance to all SCJB events was a joke, but be assured, the Top 10 list is no joke.
So a couple of weeks ago I got a text from Art Saenz's wife. She said since Dennis and Jim (the current #1 and #2 on the list) weren't going to the first event this year in Parker next weekend and going to Bike Week in Phoenix instead, she suggested for April Fools day, I change Rule #3 so it states you must attend all SCJB events, rather than just 2 events. This was a great start to a good idea, but it needed more. So with that idea, I added in the anonymous sponsor of the $10,000 purse to really twist their arm if they don't show up. I had Jake in on it and used him as the supplier of the said sponsor just to throw a little bit more of a belief into it all. I had to do my research as well to name drop the production company of Street Outlaws. So this was a few days in the making.
Here is the thread that was created on SCJB:
http://www.socaljetboats.com/scjb-top-10-list/scjb-top-10-list-$10-000-purse!/
Here is the post that was created on IG, then shared to FB and the SCJB FB Group:
It was shared by @hotboat_usa, @jetboat_memes, and @rivercrimes on Instagram. It got 14 Shares on Facebook with 2,210 people reached. The Instagram tag of @riveroutlawz is actually legit. I kinda threw that in there last minute. That is going to be the instagram page for this top 10 list. Also, a website is in the works (
www.riveroutlawz.com coming soon!)
From the time I dropped the news on SCJB, FB, and IG, it was 12 minutes until I got this text from Jim Penner:
Following that, 23 minutes after the post I got a call from Dennis - who had totally fallen for it, but Jim told him it was an April fools joke. Dennis said he went through a ton of emotions, including anger and sadness lol.
So at this point, it was mission accomplished. Both of them freaked out because they knew they were off the list due to going to Bike Week next weekend and not the first event in Parker, which would make them ineligible for the list.
But why stop there? Jim and Dennis agreed to play along for the rest of the day and see how much commotion we could stir up in the boating community over this. As I am sure a lot of you noticed, I was on top of this thing most of the day deleting any posts where anyone would even suggest it was April fools day - just to keep it interesting. What was funny is that there was a lot of people who thought they were the only wise one who caught it as an April fools joke because all other posts suggesting it was April fools joke were removed. It was disappointing how many people, even though they knew it was a joke, were so eager and quick to spoil the fun for everyone else. It's April fools - let the fools be fooled! This has been the case every year. It's not just on my posts - it was on every April Fools joke I came across on the internet. So, maybe next year we should all keep that in mind and just play along!
I did get one text that was pretty epic. If you read between the lines so to speak - it's a total jab back at me for the April Fools joke - Good one on you Pat!
And this one from Bostick was pretty good too.
And if you are curious - here are some of the past April Fools jokes I have done over the years..
In 2010, I said the site was being sued for using unlicensed code and was being shut down - and I actually shut the site down!
http://www.socaljetboats.com/the-no-wake-zone/april-fools-2010/One year I turned the entire front page backwards, took a few of you awhile to even notice it.
This one was tough on the eyes. This was back in 2007. I turned the entire site pink, with this header image. It upset quite a few people as you can imagine.
Not many caught this one last year, but I made JetBoatsPlus a banner advertiser. This was the banner. (They were raided by the police and arrested for being a chop shop in Havasu)
