It’s that time of the year where people are actually careful and cautious about what they read online…
Pity really that it only last for 24 hours. But given the fact that we see some people genuinely falling for these, it seems there’s at least a few out there who omit this day from the “hmmm… really?” calendar as well.
We list the funniest and most viral April Fool’s jokes that hit the Interwebs in 2019.
As always, we start with the tech world’s most notorious pranksters, Google. Okay, over the last few years, Google’s entries haven’t likely managed to fool many people, since they’ve evolved into what are essentially comedy skits designed just to entertain instead of trick. And this year it’s Google Tulip, where according to scientists from the Internet’s number one search engine, we have now created a technology that allows us to interact with our tulips. Just pop it next to your Google Home and ask to ‘talk to your tulip’.
Turns out they really like water and sunshine. Who would have thought? It did remind us of one of Google’s previous attempts when they claimed people could talk to their pets…
Glasses USA had adventure junkies everywhere fooled when they announced a partnership with Victorinox Swiss Army to create the Survival RX Glasses, which were essentially a pair of glasses with a corkscrew and pair of scissors built into the frames.
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For us, this would have been invaluable around 15 years ago. Hours wasted finding bricks in an endless heap of plastic colour. Seriously though, why isn’t Lego’s Find My Brick app a thing yet?
Yorkshire Tea’s entry was short and sweet … Yorkshire Tea Spreadable. “Like normal tea, only thicker.”
Dating app Tinder announced that it was going to “bring the honesty back to dating” by introducing a height verification tool so the more vertically challenged gentleman would no longer be able to lie about his height. It worked – claimed the dating app – by asking male users to stand next to a “commercial” building and take a photo, at which point Tinder’s state-of-the-art algorithms would determine if the gent was lying about his height.
According to Tinder, those deemed to be telling the truth would get a “truther” badge.
This story was quite popular, possibly because sneaky Tinder released the “news” on Friday, a whole 3 days before April 1st. However, it wasn’t a real feature. And exactly what is wrong with being short anyway?
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Most streaming services now have some sort of Skip Recap feature that many of us are in no doubt entirely grateful for. But what about a ‘Skip the Sex button’? For when you’re watching a show with your parents, or worse, your in-laws, and some inevitably uncomfortable sex scene begins?
Don’t worry, just click ‘Skip the Sex’, and BBC’s iPlayer will just skip it out. Awkward moment avoided. Sadly though, it’s just a joke. But seriously, we do actually need this.
You wish.
For our UK readers, if you were expecting 50p coins adorned with the poo and heart emojis to start appearing in your change, then you probably read The Sun’s April Fool’s joke that claimed the Royal Mint had just commissioned the release of 6 emoji themed coins into circulation. Despite probably being one of The Sun’s most accurate reports of the year (kidding, not kidding) it was just a joke.
After all, the author of the piece was called Penny Drops.
We know a few of you fell for this one, and if you really believe The Rock and Aquaman had signed up for developmental roles in the All Blacks team, then you really were completely duped.
Besides, Johnson is too busy giving away free money to people for sharing a Facebook post to play professional rugby.
According to FreshDirect, this milk “alternative” that harnesses the flavour and nutritional value of cauliflower is like “clouds that have been pureed.”
Another one for our UK readers, the British Transport Police announced fines for smelly snacks on trains. Another joke that really should be a thing.
How many of these did you see, and did you fall for any? (And would you admit it if you did?)