When it comes to the Internet, you have to be pretty damn clever to fake out its users. Even with billions online, it’s uncanny how the Web polices itself whether it be bad grammar or April Fool’s Day hoaxes, even when they aren’t on April 1.

But on Wednesday, well-known pranksters the Yes Men got more than their share of people to believe what they were selling. They first set up a fake Web site for Shell Oil that looks remarkably accurate called ArcticReady.com. On the site, visitors are encouraged to share ideas for a new ad campaign related to drilling in the Arctic. They filled the photo gallery with images that made it appear users had pranked them using ironic phrases like “You can’t run an SUV on cute” stamped on a photo of a baby fox. There were direct ones as well like “So children, the is the ad campaign that got me fired — ex ad manager.”

They took it a step further with a Twitter account under the name @ShellisPrepared that spit out dozens of tweets related to the fake mishap. And in what have got to be some of the more meta events in Internet history, people fell for it.

Here are some of our favorite responses to the hoax.

This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2012.

Jeff Balke is a writer, editor, photographer, tech expert and native Houstonian. He has written for a wide range of publications and co-authored the official 50th anniversary book for the Houston Rockets.