Google resorts to toilet humor for April Fools’ Day joke

We all love to hate April Fools’ Day jokes by Internet companies, and this year Google has not disappointed, with two painful, but somewhat amusing gags.

The first is the announcement of a “free in-home wireless broadband service”. The The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is supposedly a self-installed, ad-supported online service that is to be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.

From Google co-founder and President Larry Page:

“We’ve got that whole organizing-the-world’s-information thing more or less under control. What’s interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you - not to mention from you,” said Page, who according to the announcement is a longtime supporter of so-called “dark porcelain” research and development.

And this from Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of Search Products and User Experience:

“I couldn’t be more excited about, and am only slightly grossed out by, this remarkable new product. I firmly believe TiSP will be a breakthrough product, particularly for those users who, like Larry himself, do much of their best thinking in the bathroom.”

The announcement invited ”interested consumers, contractually obligated partners and deeply skeptical and quietly competitive backbiters” to learn more about TiSP at http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html.

Google’s other April Fools’ Day gag was the announcement of Gmail Paper, where Gmail users would be able to request paper print outs of their email. As the Gmail Paper page explains:

“Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back.”

First of all, what I want to know is who on Earth comes up with this stuff? Does Google have an April Fools’ Days committee that workshops these ideas? Does someone’s KPI rely on whether people get a laugh from these terrible, terrible gags?

No matter what the critics say, I for one applaud Google’s efforts to keep the spirit of April Fools’ Day gags alive and well, and for this year being extra brave and going for the toilet angle.

After all, toilet gags always get laughs, don’t they?