Another April Fool’s Day, another “April Fool’s prank gone wrong” viral story. You know the drill by now, but what made the story end in a feel-good moment was that not only did the “pranker” decide to honor his “prank” (read: a bald-faced lie) and give the guy P100,000, but a few other enterprising businesses did the same, just to ride on the wave of publicity. 

For having that logo emblazoned on your forehead for likely the rest of your life? Aba’y dapat lang!

And because the alternative is having an entrepreneur’s business go up in flames over backlash (yes, cancel culture can work on people who are only semi-famous), let’s look at how you can save face when your “brilliant” prank manages to backfire on you.

8. Apologize

The easiest, least painful thing to do, unless you do it after getting sued. Of course, the easiest way to avoid having pranks on April 1 backfire is to not do pranks on April 1, but because both prankers and prankees never learn, well, this is the next easiest thing to do: say you’re sorry, say you didn’t mean for people to take things seriously, and move on.

Pros: Fast, simple, and easy. Most of the time.

Cons: Apologizing the wrong way can make things worse. So when you decide to apologize, actually apologize and don’t half-@$$ it.

7. Make Actual Reparations

The “prank” was, that he was going to “give” 100K to someone who tattooed his company’s logo on their forehead — but no he wasn’t. While we’re not lawyers and we can’t speak to how binding this was, even under the guise of a “prank,” which again is just a nicer word for a literal lie, having him give the 100K he promised sure makes up for how badly the prank turned out to be.

He could even go further and have the tattoo erased on his own dime, but it’s fine. With new conspiracy theories coming out that the tattoo was already old and thus the whole controversy was purely manufactured for publicity, the business owner already got his money’s worth in getting his brand out there.

Pros: It turns bad publicity into good publicity, and makes him a man of his word.

Cons: Does this mean people can now deliberately “fall” for an obvious prank and reap the benefits of the aftermath?

[Editor’s Note: In the interest of disclosure, the author, while writing this 8List, has apparently discovered that he personally knows the owner of said business.]

6. Double Down

Now, let’s be clear first: “saving face” does not necessarily mean doing the right thing. A lot of people try to save face by doubling down on something clearly wrong and doubling down on insisting that this is a prank is exactly one way of doing that. It’s not as easy as apologizing because doubling down prolongs the issue, but the owner did indeed try this at first and only buckled when the backlash became too hot for him to handle.

But again, this could have all been a well-crafted hoax, so there’s always that possibility we’ve all been pranked.

Pros: It makes you look like you’re the type who’s willing to play hardball.

Cons: You might not be ready for what comes next.

5. Victim Blaming

Ahhh, now we go from “slightly harder” to “easy, but with powerful mixed results.” Inasmuch as we now call out victim blaming for the horrible practice that it is, we as a culture have always been notorious for it. That’s exactly why we have a saying that goes: walang manloloko kung walang magpapaloko.

In painting the person who fell for the prank a complete fool and saying that this is something the average person would absolutely not do, you will find that there are an alarmingly high number of people who will still agree with you. And sometimes, even when you’re dead wrong and being a terrible human being, that’s enough for your blackened soul.

Pros: You can control the narrative, even on some legal level.

Cons: This tactic is getting less and less popular by the day.

4. Playing The Victim

Want to really turn the tables on everyone? Say it’s not the guy with the terrible tattoo on his forehead thanks to you who is the aggrieved one, it’s actually you!

Imagine all the “woe is me” litanies one could launch into because the mean ol’ internet called you names over a prank that you know everyone now finds extra funny because someone actually went and fell for it. Talk about how these snap judgments on you and your personality and business are all painful to bear not just for you but more importantly for your family and friends who know you better than the mean ol’ internet thinks it does.

Pros: Congratulations! You’re 99% of the way to living long enough to see yourself become the villain!

Cons: Many people will wish you died a hero instead, and say it to you in a far less tactful way.

3. The Shaggy Defense

“Uhhhh… it wasn’t me.”

Just say you got hacked or something. And yes, this hacker was so elaborate, they created a whole prank on your own account with your branding and your word choices, left it on your post, and you never found out about it until it’s too late. A likely story.

“Uhhh… it wasn’t me.”

Pros: The issue will shockingly die out faster when you don’t offer anything beyond three words as an excuse. You’d be surprised how quickly we’d all move on to the next outrage bait.

Cons: Only Scooby Doo would fall for the Shaggy Defense. In a just world. But this world is far from just, so maybe this isn’t as much of a con as we thought it was.

2. Swear Never To Do It Again

If you’ve already apologized, maybe even do yourself one better and just swear off pranking on April 1 altogether. There are only ever two types of “pranks” in the age of the internet anyways:

1. The really harmful ones that land you in hot water, and
2. The really harmless ones that are actually kind of clever

If you can’t do clever, then you shouldn’t be doing pranks. It’s that simple.

Pros: Hooray! One less liar on the internet on April 1!

Cons: … unless saying they’ll never do it again is also a prank.

1. Vow To Do Better

And we don’t mean that as the last part of most canned apologies – we mean it as in, “vow to make better pranks in the future,” and deliver on it.

And yes, that includes the horribly harmful ones, if you really want to lean into being the villain of the hour. Some people end up getting away with it by really leaning into it, after all. Just ask [Editor’s Note: Politician’s name redacted.]

Pros: You might end up being must-see prank viewing!

Cons: You more likely are just really bad at pranking and should stop doing it right away. Please.

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