The cat's out of the bag! ;)

If you click it right u get perm derelict protect! ^.^

Just /p me!

That is my doing I think

To me, it really looked like one of those strange viruses from the 90's, so, when I saw it, I imedeatly turned off all aplications, ran a virus scanner and quickly backed up all of the files on my computer: that was an impuslive responce. After nothing saw anything, I used a program to proprly clean my computter, and, when that didn't find anything, I turned it off, reset it, and turned it back on. After that, it was the first time I started up internet again, and found the cat still lurking (as this website was the one opened when I closed chrome)

Then I should let you know I have a history of hallucinating and imagining things, so I thought it might be that. I didn't see it again for a while, and started doubting myself, (and closed internet again.) I wondered if I had been hallucinating more things in the past, and started thinking of calling my therapist again. But, as I started up internet again it still apeared. (In case you don't know: People with hallucinations don't see them when they are aware of the fact that they might be hallucinating - you never see something and think "I might be hallucinating this.")
That is the point I turned on another internet page, and found out it was EMC specific, then Tom had to remind me it is april the first.

I, to say it mildly, did not laugh...

We here at the Universal Institute of Humor are saddened by this news. Please know that, even as we speak, methods of restoring a "sense of humor" to those with a crippling deficiency of it are being researched within our labs. It is our lifelong mission to ensure happiness and amusement for all of mankind, and we remain steadfastly committed to this goal.

To help us better serve the comedic needs of the public, please take a moment to complete this quick survey. We eagerly await your results!

The results are in your /mail

(sorry, sorry, sorry.... I SO could not resist this one! I shall now bow my head in shame for 1 minute).

I thought that too, at first. Then I googled the issue. I found nothing. I then went to the status updates on EMC, and saw many people discussing it, including a staff member. It very much seemed to be an EMC only thing, which was confirmed after looking at the date of today.

I do wonder how some people can not have noticed this immediately. I saw it within seconds, and I was on my phone with very low brightness and had only woken up a few minutes prior to that...

I am holy Fred! Hear me meow!

Can we keep Fred permanetly? Its actually kinda cute.

+1

That's great, I hadn't expected it to work so well for anyone. It's unfortunate you did not laugh.

For some explanation, allow me to introduce you to Larry, the British Prime Minister’s cat.

It is widely believed the incumbent Prime Minister of the time will disappear one day, and Larry will take their place... forever. He already has the backing of the United States.





His arch-nemesis is Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary’s cat. Palmerston is a killer, unlike Larry, and Larry’s pacifistic ways lead us to believe that he is a force for good whereas Palmerston is evil.

Both of them appear to be under the manipulation of some omnipotent force. Either way, the cats take over, and it is unclear why there is such conflict over how things are to be done.

That brings us to Fred. Fred is the cat God. He is a force for chaos and enjoys watching Larry and Palmerston’s struggle for power, knowing that whoever wins, Fred is the real winner regardless. He has several other similar fights happening across the globe. He is the reason why there is no longer any life on Mars, and he turned Jupiter into a gas giant because he felt like it. Sometimes, he reveals himself to humans in the one place they never want to look - the corner of their eye.

I have known about these cats and their God for several years, and I am glad that so many of you have seen the light. Fred bless.

It's better than the flashing tabs "prank" years back. Good on you for making it less obvious lol

^
That sounds like I would have had a headache, had I experience that...

I think you, and, reading Keph's post, most people, misunderstood what I was trying to say: I didn't not laugh despite of the effect it had on me, but exactly because of the effect it had on me. Making an entire backup of your computter and especially looking up the phone number of your therapist and worrying about maybe not being able to sustain mentally stable, doesn't take mere seconds: it takes hours. Hours in which I as closer to crying than laughing.

Because of my mental issues, these types of "pranks" will probably never be funny of me, and, most of the time, that's fine. My friends know you shouldn't do stuff like this to me, so it doesn't effect me and, despite me not understanding why people like it, I understand some people do, and I will never ask them to stop enjoying it.
Jet, this was not a joke made to a specific individual who the makers know will enjoy it, this was a joke pulled on a group of people of indeterminend size, and of which the makers of the joke know bairly any personally. I told my story, but you don't know if there is an individual in the group who has been seveirly traumatized by a cat, and whom this joke had given flashbacks, which neither would have been any fun.
My point was is that, when making a joke like this, you should think of the worst eperience someone might have because of it. Not just focuss on who will laugh, but also look at who might cry. I honestly think that pulling a this type of joke on a group of people you don't know can never truly be a resposible thing to do, where "this type of joke" refers to jokes where people worrying or generally are being uneased is "the joke working well." You just don't know how some people are going to react, and you're not there to see it going wrong, and immedeatly jump in to help them when you do so.

I can almost feel someone now thinking "You must be soooo fun at parties." And, indeed, I am not, but that is solley because I don't much care about things being fun. I will probably always prefer something that is interesting over something that is fun, and when something I like isn't interesting it's often heartwarming or wholsome. I'm not the type of person who likes typical jokes, and I cannot force myself into liking something I don't. Additionally: I feel like I, just like everyone else, should say it when something someone else did acivly hurt them. That isn't ruining the fun, that is telling people that there never was any. If you feel like someone telling you they've been hurt by something you liked is them "ruining the fun," I honstly don't know what to say.
Of course, this comes from someone whose friends basically all have trauma or other severe mental issues, but I don't think that my perspective invalidates my point, quite the opposite, in fact.

Thanks for this explanation. I'm sorry I didn't take your bad experience seriously in my previous post. I thought it might have been storified or exaggerated, but I guess that's not something you would do.