Google's April Fools' Day Joke Goes Horribly Wrong

April Fool's Day is an objectively terrible "holiday," especially for those of us in the news business.

Because what more do we need in this age of so much misinformation flying around at light speed — even from those vying for the highest office in the land — than a day dedicated to even more misinformation flying around at light speed?

We here at Patch are on our Ps and Qs today, trying our darndest to parse what's real and what isn't out there in this wild world. Our Carly Baldwin in New Jersey, for example, had to ask police three times if a goat was actually on the loose in South Brunswick today. (It was.)

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We also promise no fake news stories designed to trick our readers into believing something outrageous. Because, really, stunts like that have much more risk than reward.

Just ask Google.

One of the world's largest tech companies tried a little scheme of its own this morning in the form of a new feature to its wildly popular Gmail platform. Next to the blue "send" button at the bottom of the email window, Google placed an orange "send + mic drop" button.

The button did two things: automatically added an animated .gif of a Minion dropping a mic and instantly removed you from an email thread, saving you the headache of those seemingly endless streams of group messages.

One thing it didn't do: amuse people.

"Thanks to Mic Drop I just lost my job," wrote Allan Pashby on the Gmail help forum. He continued:

I am a writer and had a deadline to meet. I sent my articles to my boss and never heard back from her. I inadvertently sent the email using the 'Mic Drop' send button.There were corrections that needed to be made on my articles and I never received her replies. My boss took offense to the Mic Drop animation and assumed that I didn't reply to her because I thought her input was petty (hence the Mic Drop). I just woke up to a very angry voicemail from her which is how I found out about this 'hilarious' prank.

Similar stories poured in. Matthew Alba says he may have been cost a potential job:

So I've been going back with a potential employer all week and last night sent a critical follow up email and accidentally clicked "Send + Mic Drop"

Not only am I mortified of the mistake, but this could potentially cost me my dream job.

Who am Google may I speak to about this?

This was a horrible, horrible idea with potentially irreparable damages for me.

Please let me know what can be done.

I'll gladly show anyone the emails so you can see for yourself.

Google got the hint, but the damage had already been done.

"Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year," the company has now appended to the top of their blog post announcing Mic Drop. "Due to a bug, the Mic Drop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We’re truly sorry. The feature has been turned off. If you are still seeing it, please reload your Gmail page."

So if your joke today falls flat, just remember: Even one of the most powerful companies in the world has trouble pulling off the right April Fool's gag.

Stay vigilant out there today.

Image via Google