April Fools 2004 - The Death of Aaron Fechter


This is one for the history books! Although the past jokes were fun and all, none of them ever lit the message board on fire like this one did back in 2004. It pushed the limits of taste and decency, tugged at everyone's heart strings, and kinda made a bit of a mess and got out of my hands rather quickly. Like, to the point where people were e-mailing him and making some phone calls. I probably should have made some preparations before I just randomly posted this, but hey - hindsight is 20/20 right? LOL

I remember the fans on the forum were all-over the place with their reactions. Some people were upset by the fact that this might even be joked about. Others jumped directly into the drama and played it up as truth. Most people had the fail-safe reaction of "well this is obviously an April Fools joke... but if it's not then I feel really bad". That was my favorite reaction in all honesty, and only helped to encourage my bad behavior.

As short and dumb as this gag was, there was quite a bit of planning and prep that went into it. To make it even remotely believable I had to Photoshop some evidence, such as the obituary. I also made up a fake article regarding the future of Creative Engineering and what was to become of the building's inner-contents (like the animatronics being melted down for industrial use by the city of Orlando). And then it ended with a blurb about where the contents would be auctioned off at, with a "continued on page.." that left off any pertinent info. Classic!

This one made it into a future gag as well. But the original "documents" can be viewed right here: Obituary, CEI Article.