Wikipedia:April Fools' Main Page/Today's Featured Picture/Archive 2012

Please use this page for discussions surrounding the creation of "Today's Featured Picture" for April Fool's day 2012

Areas of work needed to complete the front page are:

Ground rules for this activity along with a list or participants may be found on the Main talk page.

The Mission[edit]

In order to get a funny/unusual Featured picture onto the front page, it must be both a great picture and be used in a Wikipedia article.

Action Items[edit]

What picture? We need to nominate some and vote on them.
Whatever we choose has to be used in an actual Wikipedia article. Can we write an article that NEEDS a WikiWorld cartoon? Maybe Greg Williams (who draws them for us) is sufficiently notable that we could write a short Bio article on him and illustrate it with a WikiWorld cartoon? Maybe WikiWorld in itself is notable (it's a bit of a self-ref...but maybe that's OK considering that we only need it to get the image accepted).
If we choose to use a WikiWorld cartoon - maybe we want Greg to draw us one especially for the day?
We have to usher it through the nomination process and make sure it actually does get onto the front page on April 1st.

Rules[edit]

The images must be a Featured Picture
Pictures appear on the main page only once, so they cannot have been used on the Main Page before. Note that because Featured Pictures has a long backlog, there is a gap of over a year between a picture being promoted and it appearing on the Main Page, from which the April Fool's image can be selected.
It is not too risqué (more so than any other picture that would be used on the front page). Any image which would be skipped over for TFP in the usual course of affairs cannot be used for April Fool's. So File:DefecatingSeagull.jpg and File:Indecency2.jpg (for example) are not eligible.

Proposed Images[edit]

Flat Earth Map. suggested by Found5dollar.
Hadji Ali demonstrating controlled regurgitation, suggested by Crisco 1492.
Plan 9 from Outer Space (Worst movie ever) poster. suggested by Found5dollar.
Photomontage. suggested by Found5dollar.
A Tartary vegetable growing a lamb, suggested by Crisco 1492.

I think the flat earth one will invite accusations of liberal bias (or at least anti-Christian bias) if we feature that (not we're dissing flat earth theory, but that we're making fun of silly Christians). The regurgitation one just made me laugh, so that's the leading candidate so far. —howcheng {chat} 17:47, 21 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is the regurgitation too risqué for the main page? It is more grotesque than the defecating seagull in my opinion. As a silly Christian, I'm personally not offended by the flat earth image which pokes fun at the Christians of 100 years ago but I do see your point that it probably would offend some people. Royal broil 05:43, 22 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Regurgitation is not scatological. What makes the picture is that he doesn't look like he's vomiting in distress and it doesn't look disgusting in any way; in fact he kind of looks like a fountain. So at first you think he's just spitting out water, and then you find out he's actually regurgitating. —howcheng {chat} 06:13, 22 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Suggesting an 'anti-Christian' bias seems a bit of a stretch to me. People of all cultures believed strange things many years ago, denying this picture outright would seem like reverse discrimination in my opinion. The flat earth also seems more appropriate for our April Fools type humor. Jujutacular (talk) 02:30, 29 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I was bored during lunch today so i looked for more immages that might be good for April Fools. I found 2 more. Poster for Plan 9 from Outter Space voted as the worst movie ever made, and a photomontage which has things in places they could never be.--Found5dollar (talk) 19:20, 29 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, Plan 9. That movie was SO bad it was good. The joke would be about the movie not the image which is fine with me. The photomontage is excellent too. These two are my favorites so far. Royal broil 01:23, 1 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The best joke for me is the flat earth map. I see no anti-Christian bias in an old image like this one. Unless, of course, we still take the thesis seriously... Alvesgaspar (talk) 12:06, 1 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
How would we get a good blurb for the photomontage? It's used mainly on articles about digital manipulation... which is a giveaway. Oooh, another of my noms! Crisco 1492 (talk) 15:20, 1 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"An example of a photographic technique which enables multiple objects to appear in a single image" or something along those lines? That said, I lend my support to the Flat Earth Map, which best fits into the ethos of being real, but hard to believe. -- CountdownCrispy 12:04, 10 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support regurgitation picture, with secondary preference for the photomontage. Mind you, we could make a deal about Bela Lugosi coming back from the dead to play in a movie about intergalactically-spawned zombies... Crisco 1492 (talk) 15:00, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Should we have an official vote on which image to chose?--Found5dollar (talk) 15:22, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Lamb added. I like this one too. Crisco 1492 (talk) 16:12, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I really like the Flat Earth one, that could have a brilliant caption. I'll have at writing one at some point. My second preference would be the regurgitation. The other two aren't really that interesting or amusing - plan 9 is only funny if you've seen it, and the montage is so clearly fake it wouldn't convince anyone. Modest Genius ^talk 16:45, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I was about to come in thinking about the upcoming April Fool's to suggest the Flat-Earth picture, but apparently someone beat me to it. It's a really neat picture, and would do well on the front page in any other day, but I find particularly fitting for April 1rst. Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 19:46, 24 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The silliness of a vegetable growing a lamb is perfect for april fool's IMO. Its what the day is all aboutLihaas (talk) 07:58, 25 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The lamb one is my new favorite. I plan to write the POTD blurb later tonight (about 05:00 UTC or so). —howcheng {chat} 18:08, 30 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Picture of the day

A drawing of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (Agnus scythicus), a zoophyte of Central Asia. Botanist Henry Lee described it as both a true animal and a living plant, although he did allow for the possibility that the lamb was the fruit of the plant. The lamb was believed to have blood, bones, and flesh like that of a normal lamb. It was connected to the earth by a stem similar to an umbilical cord that propped the lamb up above ground. The cord could flex downward allowing the lamb to feed on the grass and plants surrounding it. Once the plants within reach were eaten, the lamb died, at which point its cotton-like wool would be harvested and used to make textiles.Artist: Unknown, after Johann Zahn

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