This Fish Hoax Gets You Slimed

February 7, 2005
Outdoor Humor
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Okay, I will admit it…there is nothing better than a good April fool’s joke. And yes, I realize that April is still a mere 7 weeks away…but when I came across this story it was just too good to wait on. It seems that a mischievous outdoors writer several years back started an urban legend that has taken on a legion of believers.

The hoax:

Catfish slime was purported to have hallucinogenic properties and was becoming the new craze with select college students. In fact, the students were calling themselves “slimers” and were known to pay as much as $200 for a fresh catch.

Of course this was all nonsense, but a good believable story has a way of taking legs…and that is exactly what this story did. Today, five years later, it is still a popular urban legend among many folks who unwittingly keep the silliness alive.

So what’s in store for this year’s joke? Well, apparently the party responsible for creating this bit of nonsense has something new in store for the first day of April. I guess we will all need to wait and see what it turns out to be this year…but sometimes a good joke takes months to set up.

Perhaps one of the best practical jokes I heard lately was a father who played a good joke on his kids. The set up came with him throwing in a VCR tape and recording the morning programming on one of those days when there were massive school closings due to winter weather. Well, imagine the surprise and amazement on the morning of April 1st when the school closings were scrawled along the bottom of the TV screen. The kids got so excited and called their friends with the prospect that they would have a day off school…only to quickly learn it was all a terrible prank. Sometimes it’s the preparation in advance that allows a good joke to materialize.

So jokesters start thinking…April will be here before you know it!!