WHOPPER OF A JOKE
Best of April Fool’s Day
Just as Christians may bemoan the secularization of Easter, prank aficionados may decry the normalization of April Fool’s Day. the cynic may complain that a holiday that once thrived on elaborate and often terror inducing pranks has now largely become an excuse for corporations and government agencies to pretend to be The Onion. But fear not, for the true spirit of April Fool’s Day lives on. Below, a curated list of the best pranks from April Fool’s 2018
PARENTS DISGUISE GRAPES AS EASTER EGGS
April Fool’s Day, of course, is occurring simultaneously with Easter Sunday. While Easter vigils appear to have been relatively prank-free, the same can’t be said for the traditional Sunday morning Easter egg hunts. Parents around the world wrapped grapes in foil, ensuring that children expecting a bite size piece of low-grade chocolate would instead be rewarded with bundles of unprocessed wine.
ARMED FORCES ACQUIRE INVISIBILITY CLOAK
Using a couple of cleverly photoshopped images, the Canadian Armed Forces claimed to be in possession of technology that allows them to conceal ships, aircraft and even individual service members. Since the Canadian government is terrified of actually fooling people, the military made sure to include a very obvious wink by naming the system F.O.O.L.S. (Fully Operative Obstructive LightRefraction System). And we’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether this is a very subtle protest on our perpetually underequipped military.
U.K. POLICE SAID THEY ARE ‘TOPPING UP THE BLUES’
This is a masterful piece of April foolery: Quick, simple and just dry enough to be believable. Tweeted out by the U.K.’s Lincolnshire Police, it shows an attendant filling up a police vehicles’ emergency lights with blue liquid — the joke being that all police lights are actually just translucent tanks of coloured water that need to be constantly maintained.
BURGER KING RELEASES CANDY HAMBURGER
A lot of companies put together winking jokes on April Fool’s Day in order to score some free advertising. But Burger King gets extra points for a prank that actually fooled people. A video featuring a purported Chocolate Whopper is convincingly shot, and isn’t too far out of step with a fast food industry that is constantly trying to raise the bar on ridiculous menu items. Recall that the all-meat KFC Double Down was once thought to be a prank.
PORNHUB CHANGES NAME TO HORNHUB
For anyone looking to celebrate Easter Sunday with a quick dose of erotica, they may have instead been confronted with videos of trumpets and tubas. For April 1, the X-rated megasite PornHub changed all its branding to “HornHub,” a website that ostensibly exists to showcase pictures and videos of brass instruments. The site even commissioned some sensual videos of trumpets, although we obviously won’t be linking to them here.
LEXUS DEBUTS SERVICE GENETICALLY MATCHING CUSTOMERS TO CARS
This isn’t just an exquisitely crafted prank from Lexus, it’s a miniature Black Mirror episode. The car company teamed up with 23andMe to launch the fake service “Genetic Select,” wherein customers submit a DNA sample in order to be paired with a vehicle tailored to their genetics. Options include a prescription windshield and tinted windows for redheads. Many viewers appear not to have known the video was a joke until the final seconds, when the car is shown to be started by licking the steering wheel.
COSMETICS COMPANY HUDA BEAUTY SELLS BAGS OF BEAUTY SAND
The U.S. cosmetics company Huda Beauty normally sells lashes, liquid matte, eyeshadow; normal beauty things. But over the weekend the company deftly satirized the more outlandish claims of the beauty industry. Their new product, dubbed a “natural revolution,” was nothing more than very expensive bags of beach sand to be rubbed on one’s face. In a world where raw water is a thing, beauty sand may not be that far off.
HOUSE-SITTING REQUEST POSTED FOR ROYALS
On the house-sitting website TrustedHousesitters.com, a subtle post for “MM & HW” seeks a “discreet and conscientious sitter” to watch a “large private estate in Kensington.” The poster identifies herself as an actress who left Toronto to “start a new life in England.” Prospective candidates are assured that “we may be able to arrange some form of family discount” if they wish to visit the Tower of London. The post appears to be the creation of TrustedHousesitters itself, although the possibility exists that it might be some heroic freelance hoaxster.
FRENCH GENDARMERIE ENLISTS EAGLES FOR TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT
For some reason, April Fool’s Day is known in French as Poisson D’Avril (fish of April). On Sunday, the French police unveiled their “poisson”: The enlistment of trained eagles to assist motorcycle cops in tracking down moving violations. “Stronger than drones!” claims an official statement.
EU TROLLED BRITS, ANNOUNCED BLUE PASSPORT
Late last year, Brexiteers across the United Kingdom celebrated the return of blue passports. After years of dwelling under the tyrannous thumb of EU-compliant burgundy passports, Brits could finally flash more pleasing coloured identification at border crossings. On Sunday, the U.K. office of the European Parliament satirized this colour enthusiasm with an announcement that all EU passports would similarly be going blue.