AS IT IS 2016-04-02 Google's 'Minion' Joke Not So Funny

AS IT IS 2016-04-02 Google's 'Minion¹' Joke Not So Funny

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Friday was April Fools’ Day. Google’s search engine has become famous for its April Fools' tricks over the years.

This year, however, one trick Google played did not have many people laughing.

The company added a button to its email service, Gmail. The button enabled users to send out a GIF of a minion. Minions² first appeared in the 2010 movie “Despicable Me.”

The small, yellow creatures starred in their own film last year.?

In Google’s GIF, a minion dropped a microphone. The GIF was meant to be a humorous, “end of discussion” comeback to long email messages.

Sending the minion GIF would then mute - or silence the alert sound - for future messages. The “send” button for the minion was placed next to Gmail’s normal blue “send” button.

The service soon received messages from angry users. Many had accidentally added the minion GIF to important business messages to their employer and co-workers.

People also commented on social media about the not-so-funny April Fools' trick.

Google Inc. apologized and cancelled the minion feature. The company said that because of a technical problem, the GIF “caused more headaches than laughs.”

But not all of Google’s April Fools' jokes caused anger. Some were more light-hearted.

Google Nederlands, for example, posted a video of the company’s new self-driving bicycles. The video says that people could get work done while riding a bicycle. It adds that young children could go anywhere they want on a self-driving bicycle.

Words in This Story

GIF - n. short for Graphics³ Interchange Format⁴

microphone - n. a device into which people speak to record their voices or to make them sound louder

mute - v. to make (something, such as a television) silent

1 minion   

n.宠仆；宠爱之人

参考例句：

• At worst some egregious minion had conducted a childish private enterprise.这最多也不过是一批低能的小人物自己干的无聊把戏而已。
• She delegated the job to one of her minions.她把这份工作委派给她的一个手下。

2 minions   

n.奴颜婢膝的仆从( minion的名词复数 )；走狗；宠儿；受人崇拜者

参考例句：

• She delegated the job to one of her minions. 她把这份工作委派给她的一个手下。 来自辞典例句
• I have been a slave to the vicious-those whom I served were his minions. 我当过那帮坏人的奴隶，我伺候的都是他的爪牙。 来自辞典例句

3 graphics   

n.制图法，制图学；图形显示

参考例句：

• You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
• Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。

4 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。