YouTube Plans April Fools ‘Shut Down’

YouTube is planning to shut down for April Fools.

After eight years of hosting a user-generated video site, YouTube is saying so long … and thanks for all the videos. The site is posting a video announcing a search the “winner” of the “eight year contest,” and says it’s planning to start the next contest in 2023.

Don’t panic, it’s just a prank. YouTube is planning to act like it’s shutting down on April 1, 2013.

The video shows footage of YouTube’s offices where several thousand employees are reviewing every video ever made on the site, including interviews with YouTube stars iJustine, and the subjects of “David after the Dentist”, and “Charlie Bit My Finger.” The video’s host, Tim Liston, says it will take ten years to review everything and determine a winner. The winner will be said to be given the prize of an MP3 player that can be strapped to their sleeves, and an extra $500 toward the continuation of their creative efforts.

YouTube is going all out this time.

Previous YouTube pranks included the infamous “Rick Roll,” in which every video posted on the home page was redirected to the music video for Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” and turning everything upside down, including the videos and text.

Of course, if YouTube really did shut down, the consequences would be a biblical disaster; Human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria. Okay, that was from Ghostbusters.

However, without YouTube, we would lose all of those tutorial videos on video- and photo-editing, knitting, and cooking, such comedic hilarity as Smosh, Shane Dawson, and Wheezy Waiter, and all of those music videos that MTV never plays any more.

We are happy to report that YouTube is doing quite well and has no reason to shut down, now with over (imagine Dr. Evil from Austin Powers with his pinky to his mouth) one billion active users.

What do you think of YouTube’s video announcing the April Fools prank?