Buffalo’s best April Fools pranksters: Shyguy Shawn, Nick Barnett

Photo courtesy of Shyguy Shawn's Facebook page

blog by Ben Tsujimoto • April 02, 2012 @ 9:07am

April 1 is generally a day of small, outrageous pranks that most people take with a grain of salt. “Oh, you’re a late winner of Mega Millions? No one believes you.” Then, there are also larger, better planned April Fools Day jokes that convince—at least temporarily—of something rather ridiculous. Here were the two best in Buffalo Sunday.

“The Epic Photoshop”

Shyguy Shawn (@shyguyshawn), Kiss 98.5 radio host, cleverly “Photoshop”-ed a sign on Maple Road that claimed a Sonic Drive-in was planning to move in to Buffalo and open July 4. Cyber freakouts ensued.

Just over five hours later, Shyguy Shawn admitted—via another digitally-altered sign—that the joke was an April Fools. His caption of “u mad bro?” was priceless.

Regardless, the damage was done. The initial photo garnered 1,378 Facebook likes, 175 shares and 237 comments—many of which proved just how gullible people can be.

Humorously, a real-life photo was taken by Facebook commenter Ess Eastmer to uncover the joke, yet still people—in droves—blindly believed.

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“Barnett’s bold-faced tweet”

Buffalo Bills middle linebacker Nick Barnett (@nickbarnett), who signed a three year, $12 million deal to come to Buffalo last summer, released a sorrowful announcement via Twitter yesterday.

The tweet fooled teammate and fellow linebacker Kelvin Sheppard, a youngster from LSU who just completed his first NFL season. Needless to say, Barnett’s stunt briefly startled a few, but it didn’t have nearly the impact as the potential for a Sonic to come to Buffalo.

TAGGED: april fools, april fools day, buffalo bills, buffalo jokes, kiss 98.5, nick barnett, shyguy shawn, sonic to buffalo

Ben Tsujimoto

Comments

Stephanie Haefner April 02, 2012 @ 12:02pm

Yeah…I was one of those that saw the pic, got excited, and shared it on Facebook. But almost right after, while examining the photo again, trying to figure out where this was in Amherst, I realized the sign didn’t look right. It just looked fake. :( Bummer. Sonic has some tasty tots! LOL! We always find one when we’re away on vacation!
Ben Tsujimoto April 02, 2012 @ 12:18pm

It was a decently done Photoshop—enough to fool most people at a quick glance. Plus, it must have been tough to contain all that immediate excitement!

I’ve never been to a Sonic, but it’d be a nice addition to Buffalo’s food scene, even if admitting that is a bit of an abandonment of the local-first mentality.

I’m down for a massive Cherry Limeade on any day over 75 degrees though, so they’d have me there.