47-690: Woot is an e-commerce retailer. Woot may also refer to: Woot Woot (originally W00t ) is an American Internet retailer based in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, Texas . Founded by electronics wholesaler Matt Rutledge , it debuted on July 12, 2004. Woot's main website generally offers only one discounted product each day , often a piece of computer hardware or an electronic gadget. Other Woot sites offer daily deals for T-shirts, wine, children's items, and household goods. Two other sites offer various items. On June 30, 2010, Woot announced an agreement to be acquired by Amazon . Woot's original tagline
94-668: A "fool" is known by a few different names around the country, including "noodle", "gob", "gobby", or "noddy". One common prank is to carefully remove the cream from an Oreo , then replacing it with white toothpaste , and there are many similar pranks that replace an object (usually food) with another object that looks like the object but tastes different such as replacing sugar with salt or vanilla frosting with sour cream. As well as people playing pranks on one another on April Fools' Day, elaborate pranks have appeared on radio and television stations, newspapers, and websites, and have been performed by large corporations. In one famous prank in 1957,
141-510: A first-page article but not the top headline. In Poland, prima Aprilis ("First April" in Latin ) as a day of pranks is a centuries-long tradition. It is a day when many pranks are played: sometimes very sophisticated hoaxes are prepared by people, media (which often cooperate to make the "information" more credible), and even public institutions. Serious activities are usually avoided; every word said on 1 April could be untrue. The conviction for this
188-421: A hoax include: Books, films, telemovies and television episodes have used April Fools' Day as their title or inspiration. Examples include Bryce Courtenay 's novel April Fool's Day (1993), whose title refers to the day Courtenay's son died. The 1990s sitcom Roseanne featured an episode titled "April Fools' Day". This turned out to be intentionally misleading, as the episode was instead about Tax Day in
235-543: A humorous song or skit. This has since been replaced by a weekly video podcast. Photoshop contests among Woot forum users for prizes, including cash, free shipping on Woot orders, and the Monkey Prize (typically a random monkey-related item of little or no value) were other promotional events. Community members have contributed back to the site by offering Woot-related services. These include status checkers, Dashboard widgets , and Windows Sidebar widgets to report when
282-504: A matter of hours. During the January 25, 2011 selling, the website received a record 3.1 million requests, and the product was sold out within eight seconds. During April Fool's Day 2008, Woot staged a Woot-Off offering the same product repeatedly, except for a few brief periods when Woot sold Bags of Crap instead. Three years later on April Fools' Day, Woot staged a "Bag of Crap" flash game, which users were instructed to play in order to win
329-540: A paper lunch bag with a question mark has kept its unofficial name "Bag of Crap", (BOC) it was originally dubbed "Bag of Crap" during the early years of the site when a physical bag of some kind (notebook, iomega zipper bags, etc.) was sold with the 1–3 "craps" and was part of what you were buying. Today, the BOC contains at least three "crappy" items and one bag whose value and quality are not guaranteed, but sometimes expensive items are included. The BOC has been known to sell out in
376-412: A similar business model as the main site, others providing other retail-related services. These include: April Fool%27s Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes . Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved with these pranks, which may be revealed as such
423-893: A subtle reference to a fish is sometimes given as a clue to the fact that it is an April Fools' prank. Boulangeries, pâtisseries and chocolatiers in France sell chocolate fishes in their shop windows on the day. In Lebanon , an April Fool prank is revealed by saying كذبة أول نيسان (which translates to "First of April Lie") to the recipient. Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians and Swedes celebrate April Fools' Day ( aprilsnar in Danish; aprillipäivä in Finnish; aprilsnarr in Norwegian; aprilskämt in Swedish). Most news media outlets will publish exactly one false story on 1 April; for newspapers this will typically be
470-440: A vain cock, Chauntecleer, is tricked by a fox "Since March began, full thirty days and two," i.e. 32 days since March began, which is 1 April. However, it is not clear that Chaucer was referencing 1 April since the text of the "Nun's Priest's Tale" also states that the story takes place on the day when the sun is "in the sign of Taurus had y-rune Twenty degrees and one," which would not be 1 April. Modern scholars believe that there
517-490: A variety of costumes and walk around the city fooling around and pranking passersby. One of the traditions on April Fools' Day is to dress up the main city monument in funny clothes. Humorina even has its own logo—a cheerful sailor in a lifebelt —whose author was the artist Arkady Tsykun. During the festival, special souvenirs bearing the logo are printed and sold. Since 2010, April Fools' Day celebrations include an International Clown Festival, and both celebrated as one. In 2019,
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#1733106022579564-821: A wider audience than ever before. 28 December, the equivalent day in Spain and Hispanic America , is also the Christian day of celebration of the Day of the Holy Innocents . The Christian celebration is a religious holiday in its own right, but the tradition of pranks is not, though the latter is observed yearly. In some regions of Hispanic America after a prank is played, the cry is made, " Inocente palomita que te dejaste engañar " ("You innocent little dove that let yourself be fooled!"; not to be confused with another meaning of palomita , which means " popcorn " in some dialects). In Argentina,
611-419: Is a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, " Syn March was gon ". If so, the passage would have originally meant 32 days after March, i.e. 2 May. In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a poisson d'avril (April fool, literally "April's fish"), possibly the first reference to the celebration in France. Some historians suggest that April Fools' originated because, in
658-443: Is controversial. The mixed opinions of critics are epitomized in the reception to the 1957 BBC " spaghetti-tree hoax ", in reference to which newspapers were split over whether it was "a great joke or a terrible hoax on the public". April Fools' can be good for one's health because it encourages "jokes, hoaxes ... pranks, [and] belly laughs", and brings all the benefits of laughter. Many "best of" April Fools' Day lists showcase
705-409: Is generally offered for sale in its place. Woot sometimes sells refurbished items. In 2011, sales of 6,200 refurbished Motorola Xooms included a small number (about 100) that weren't refurbished properly and may have been sold with data from the devices' previous owners. Woot's main site previously featured a daily podcast by Matthew Shultz, that briefly described the item up for sale and included
752-546: Is often known as "April fish" ( poisson d'avril in French, aprilvis in Dutch or pesce d'aprile in Italian). Possible pranks include attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. This fish feature is prominently present on many late 19th- to early 20th-century French April Fools' Day postcards . Many newspapers also spread a false story on April Fish Day, and
799-511: Is risk that it will be misinterpreted as a joke and ignored – for example, when Google , known to play elaborate April Fools' Day hoaxes, announced the launch of Gmail with 1- gigabyte inboxes in 2004, an era when competing webmail services offered 4- megabytes or less, many dismissed it as a joke outright. On the other hand, sometimes stories intended as jokes are taken seriously. Either way, there can be adverse effects, such as confusion, misinformation, waste of resources (especially when
846-558: Is so strong that the Polish anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I , signed on 1 April 1683, was backdated to 31 March. However, for some in Poland prima April ends at noon of 1 April and prima April jokes after that hour are considered inappropriate and not classy. In many Spanish-speaking countries (and the Philippines), " Día de los Santos Inocentes " ( Holy Innocents Day ) is a festivity that
893-550: Is sometimes later revealed by shouting "April, April!" at the recipient, who becomes the "April fool". In Iran, it is called " Dorugh-e Sizdah " (lie of Thirteen) and people and media prank on 13 Farvardin ( Sizdah bedar ) that is equivalent of 1 April. It is a tradition that takes place 13 days after the Persian new year Nowruz . On this day, people go out and leave their houses and have fun outside mostly in natural parks. Pranks have reportedly been played on this holiday since 536 BC in
940-603: Is very similar to April Fools' Day, but is celebrated in late December (27, 28 or 29 depending on the location). Despite this, in Galicia April Fools' Day is also traditional, as accounted by Ramón Otero Pedrayo , as " Día dos enganos ", and the tradition is embedded in a traditional saying about this day being the day when donkeys go where they must not go . Turkey also has a custom of April Fools' pranks. Pranks and jokes are usually verbal and are revealed by shouting "Bir Nisan! / Nisan Bir!" (1 April!). April Fools' Day
987-570: Is widely celebrated in Odesa and has the special local name Humorina (in Ukrainian Гуморина, Humorina ) . This holiday arose in 1973. An April Fool prank is revealed by saying "Перше квітня — брехня всесвітня" (" Pershe kvitnya — brekhnya vsesvitnya " , translating as "First of April — worldwide lies") to the recipient. The festival includes a large parade in the city centre, free concerts, street fairs and performances. Festival participants dress up in
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#17331060225791034-463: The Achaemenid Empire . In Ireland, it was traditional to entrust the victim with an "important letter" to be given to a named person. That person would read the letter, then ask the victim to take it to someone else, and so on. The letter when opened contained the words "send the fool further". In Italy, France, Belgium and French-speaking areas of Switzerland and Canada, the 1 April tradition
1081-590: The BBC broadcast a film in their Panorama current affairs series purporting to show Swiss farmers picking freshly-grown spaghetti, in what they called the Swiss spaghetti harvest . The BBC was soon flooded with requests to purchase a spaghetti plant, forcing them to declare the film a hoax on the news the next day. With the advent of the Internet and readily available global news services, April Fools' pranks can catch and embarrass
1128-528: The Genesis flood narrative . In a 1908 edition of the Harper's Weekly , cartoonist Bertha R. McDonald wrote: Some authorities gravely go back with it to the time of Noah and the ark . The London Public Advertiser of March 13, 1769, prints the following paragraph concerning this theory: "The mistake of Noah sending the dove out of the ark before the water had abated, on the first day of April, and to perpetuate
1175-577: The "Day of the Innocent Children" or "Day of the Stupid Children". It used to be a day where parents, grandparents, and teachers would fool the children in some way. But the celebration of this day has died out in favour of April Fools' Day. Nevertheless, on the Spanish island of Menorca , Dia d'enganyar ("Fooling day") is celebrated on 1 April because Menorca was a British possession during part of
1222-477: The 18th century. In Brazil, the " Dia da mentira " ("Day of the lie") is also celebrated on 1 April due to the Portuguese influence. In many English-speaking countries, mainly Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, it is a custom to say "pinch and a punch for the first of the month" or an alternative, typically by children. The victim might respond with "a flick and a kick for being so quick", and
1269-466: The Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on 25 March in most European towns, with a holiday that in some areas of France, specifically, ended on 1 April, and those who celebrated New Year's Eve on 1 January made fun of those who celebrated on other dates by the invention of April Fools' Day. The use of 1 January as New Year's Day became common in France only in the mid-16th century, and that date
1316-465: The United States, occurring on 15 April. The 19th episode of the first season of SpongeBob SquarePants , "Fools In April", also centers around a plot that takes place on April Fools' Day. Every year on 1 April, video game developer Mojang releases an April Fool's Day snapshot (an altered version of the game) for Minecraft: Java Edition (a version of Minecraft available on computers). Over
1363-644: The attacker might reply with "a punch in the eye for being so sly". Another custom in Britain and North America is to say " rabbit rabbit " upon waking on the first day of a month, for good luck. Similar events documented by other Misplaced Pages languages also exist such as Poisson d'avril (France) and in the US the International day of the joke event which is assigned the first Sunday in May. The practice of April Fool pranks and hoaxes
1410-418: The best examples of how the day is celebrated. Various April Fools' campaigns have been praised for their innovation, creativity, writing, and general effort. Negative views describe April Fools' hoaxes as "creepy and manipulative", "rude" and "a little bit nasty", as well as based on Schadenfreude and deceit. When genuine news or a genuinely important order or warning is issued on April Fools' Day, there
1457-419: The cuckoo". The traditional prank is to ask someone to deliver a sealed message that supposedly requests help of some sort. In fact, the message reads " Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile. " The recipient, upon reading it, will explain they can only help if they first contact another person, and they send the victim to this next person with an identical message, with the same result. In England
Woot (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
1504-610: The current product remains. However, Woot never gives the exact quantity available until after the item has sold out. Beginning with the " gamma " launch of the Neuros MPEG 4 Recorder on February 9, 2005, Woot has occasionally partnered with another company to launch a new product with a one-day exclusive Woot sale. Starting in August 2004, Woot began occasionally offering a blind grab bag officially called "Random Crap", in lieu of typical product sales. While today its accompanying picture of
1551-529: The festival was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Odesa Film Studio and all events were held with an emphasis on cinema. In the UK, an April Fool prank is sometimes later revealed by shouting "April fool!" at the recipient, who becomes the "April fool". A study in the 1950s, by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie , found that in the UK, and in countries whose traditions derived from the UK, this continues to be
1598-468: The following day. The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon one's neighbour has been relatively common in the world historically. Although many theories have been proposed, the exact origin of April Fools' Day is not exactly known. A disputed association between 1 April and foolishness is in Geoffrey Chaucer 's The Canterbury Tales (1392). In the " Nun's Priest's Tale ",
1645-495: The hoax concerns people in danger) and even legal or commercial consequences. In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic , various organizations and people warned not to observing April Fools' Day, as a mark of respect due to the large amount of tragic deaths that COVID-19 had caused up to that point, the wish to provide truthful information to counter any misinformation about the virus, and to pre-empt any attempts to incorporate
1692-456: The manufacturer or through the online user community on the Woot forums. Following its acquisition by Amazon, Woot's business model was heavily modified to sell a selection of products across different categories, moving away from its foundational business to better complement its Amazon partnership. The selection within a category varies and if a product sells out early enough in the day, a new product
1739-401: The memory of this deliverance it was thought proper, whoever forgot so remarkable a circumstance, to punish them by sending them upon some sleeveless errand similar to that ineffectual message upon which the bird was sent by the patriarch." Source: In Armenian culture , an April Fool prank is revealed by saying ապրիլ մեկ! ( april mek ) which means 1 April. In Germany, an April Fool prank
1786-436: The next product is listed; there are also webcasts and other methods to monitor the site's status. The site occasionally deviates from the one-product-per-day model for a "Woot-Off". A Woot-Off lasts for an unannounced length, usually 24–72 hours. During a Woot-Off, products usually sell out quickly, and when one product sells out, it is replaced within a minute or two by a new product. A percentage bar shows how much stock of
1833-433: The one-deal-a-day business model. Customers could buy up to three of the sale item, although the site occasionally limited product quantity to one per customer. Products are never announced beforehand. This sales model means that defective products cannot be replaced, only refunded. The company also does not provide customer support for the products it sells; in case of issues, customers are advised to seek support either from
1880-540: The practice, with the custom ceasing at noon, after which time it is no longer acceptable to play pranks. Thus a person playing a prank after midday is considered the "April fool" themselves. In Scotland, April Fools' Day was originally called " Huntigowk Day ". The name is a corruption of "hunt the gowk ", gowk being Scots for a cuckoo or a foolish person; alternative terms in Gaelic would be Là na Gocaireachd , "gowking day", or Là Ruith na Cuthaige , "the day of running
1927-405: The prankster says, " ¡Que la inocencia te valga! " which roughly translates as advice to not be as gullible as the victim of the prank. In Spain, it is common to say just " ¡Inocente! " (which in Spanish can mean "innocent" or "gullible"). In Colombia, the term is used as " Pásala por Inocentes ", which roughly means: "Let it go; today it's Innocent's Day." In Belgium, this day is also known as
Woot (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
1974-622: The privilege of buying Bags of Crap. On April 1, 2011, eight thousand Bags of Crap were sold. Later in the day, once the Bag of Crap selling period was over, a Woot admin said that there were over seven million attempts to get the Bags of Crap. Debuting on March 10, 2010, Woot ran limited one-hour versions of the Woot-Off called Happy Hour. These events were promoted solely via Twitter, and did not appear on woot.com's front page. Happy Hour didn't quite work out and
2021-441: The virus into potential pranks. For example, Google decided not to do its traditional April Fools’ jokes that year. Because the pandemic was still ongoing a year later in 2021, Google also decided not to do pranks that year. In Thailand , the police warned ahead of April Fools' in 2021 that posting or sharing fake news online could lead to maximum of five years imprisonment. Other examples of genuine news on 1 April mistaken as
2068-405: Was "One Day, One Deal" and is now "Don't work to find deals. Let the deals find you". Originally, Woot offered one product per day until its stock of that item was sold out, or until the product was replaced at midnight Central Time with the next offering. If a product sold out during its run, the next item would not appear until midnight, except during Woot-Off promotions. Woot was a forerunner in
2115-531: Was established as the start of the calendar year. In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the celebration as "Fooles holy day", the first British reference. On 1 April 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to "see the Lions washed". Although no biblical scholar or historian is known to have mentioned a relationship, some have expressed the belief that the origins of April Fools' Day may go back to
2162-599: Was not adopted officially until 1564, by the Edict of Roussillon , as called for during the Council of Trent in 1563. However, there are issues with this theory because there is an unambiguous reference to April Fools' Day in a 1561 poem by Flemish poet Eduard de Dene of a nobleman who sent his servant on foolish errands on 1 April, predating the change. April Fools' Day was also an established tradition in Great Britain before 1 January
2209-496: Was put on an indefinite hold by August 2011. On June 30, 2010, Woot was sold to Amazon for a reported sum of $ 110 million. The CEO, Matt Rutledge, sent an E-mail to employees stressing that Woot would continue to operate as per usual. However, in June 2014, he crowdsourced a new website called Meh to become the successor of Woot, citing dissatisfaction with changes made by Amazon. Woot has created several spin-off sites, some following
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