What is this "Comprehensive LaTeX Artifact Novelty" thing?

Question

Today, looking for a package on the CTAN, this window popped up:

Is this for real? Or is it something else?

It is! Courtesy of Donald Fauntleroy Knuth, the Grand Wizard of TeX-arcana. :) — Paulo Cereda, Apr 01 '16 at 11:36
What a fool I am! AhAh :D That's why it has been migrated to tex.stackexchange: to have more fun (of me) :) LoL — Alessandro Cuttin, Apr 01 '16 at 11:37
Lol --- thank you for notifying :D -- and please do not downvote this post — , Apr 01 '16 at 11:38
@Naphaneal: And the other question got incredible 18 upvotes (this is ridiculous) — , Apr 01 '16 at 12:02
@ChristianHupfer you want to have a competition and see which one gets the most upvotes? :D — naphaneal, Apr 01 '16 at 12:26
@Naphaneal: No, I wonder why such questions get that much attention and a lot of other ones/answers get not even proper upvotes — , Apr 01 '16 at 12:27

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 01 '16 at 11:59

6

This is not an answer, but I just want to reveal something really, really amusing from this April Fools joke: the text refers to the acquisition of TeX by a company located at Shanghai, China. Now, the symbol portrayed in the right side of the message,

is, not surprisingly, a Chinese symbol for insanity. Clever, isn't it? :)

answered Apr 01 '16 at 11:59

Paulo Cereda

44,220

not the first. see http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb19-2/tb59hoax.pdf for another. (that one appeared on line, and was then published in the ntg maps with no warning! total consternation!) – barbara beeton Apr 01 '16 at 12:23
@barbarabeeton: Oh my! :) – Paulo Cereda Apr 01 '16 at 12:36

What is this "Comprehensive LaTeX Artifact Novelty" thing?

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