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From the daring to the daft: 2019's April Fools jokes rated

By Andy Walker

1 Apr 2019

Lies. Dishonesty. Deceit. April Fools Day is one of the most vile 24 hours on the calendar for those innocents browsing the web looking for the latest, honest, news.

From the daring to the daft: 2019's April Fools jokes rated

Sure, if you’re a bright enough spark, you’ll be able to tell the fact from the fiction. But sometimes, even we have a problem telling the difference.

With that said, here are our favourite, and not so favourite April Fools Day jokes rated based on effort and ingenuity.

Local firms and media

The Springboks to be renamed the ‘Zebras’

Going the sport route for international fake news day isn’t the worst choice. It’s actually a pretty safe bet.

eNCA reported on Monday that the Springboks — South Africa’s national rugby team — will be renamed to the Zebras, a name change I think would be pretty great.

That said, talk about minimal effort guys. Appointing former President Jacob Zuma as the team’s new coach, or moving all home games to Australia citing the conditions of the pitches in South Africa, would’ve been much more… cruel.

Rating: A deep Monday sigh.

Eskom Prime

Playing off the load shedding fear? Bold move, MyBroadband. Still, Eskom Prime does have a nice ring to it, and paying some R9500 more per month to keep the lights on probably appeals to the South African elite.

Complete with video, infographic, and hilariously honest “reporting”, this is probably the most misleading piece we’ve read today. Bravo.

Rating: hilarious, but coffee-spittingly scary for some.

International firms and media

Google Tulip

Okay. You can all go home now. Google Netherlands has won April Fools Day 2019.

By poking fun at the country’s fascination with tulips, and Google’s love for shoving its Assistant into practically everything, the company has created “Google Tulip” which translates the needs, wants, and sass of your tulip into natural language.

Not only is this the cutest idea ever, Google takes a moment to parody its own product videos in a beautifully self-aware way. Also, sassy tulips don’t do much harm either.

Rating: Okay Google. Well done.

Dogtiki

Why wouldn’t you want your dog to have a vacation? After all, they spend all day at home waiting for you to get back. You think that isn’t stressful for the poor pup? And you wonder why all your shoes lay mangled on your floor when you finally get back? Pff.

Contiki has a solution, well, if it wasn’t an April Fools joke, that is.

Dogtiki is Contiki for dogs. Amazing right? Travelling dogs and puppies, “local sniffs” and dog hotels, “wag swag”? How is this not a real thing?

Unfortunately, it isn’t, and the world is a sadder place for it.

Thanks for breaking our hearts, Contiki.

Rating: You gave us wag swag, then took it all away.

IATA’s gives Mars’ airport a code

There are two ways to prank readers with an April Fools Day gag: deceive them entirely or teach them a valuable lesson.

For the International Air Transport Association, it went with the latter.

Airport of #Mars get assigned an #IATA code RED: https://t.co/JUfxNatYba #IATAcodeRED pic.twitter.com/kb4KxVUK6P
— IATA (@IATA) April 1, 2019

Tweeting on Monday that it has assigned an airport code for Mars, the organisation linked to an informative piece about how airport and airline codes are given.

This, of course, might not be an April Fools Day joke in the future. Commercial space flight to Mars is definitely closer to realisation than the Springboks’ changing their name to the Dassies.

Rating: Silly, but one for air travel lovers.

Think we’re done with this piece? Think again. We’ll be adding more daft and daring pranks to this here list in the coming hours. So stay tuned.

About Andy Walker

Camper by day, run-and-gunner by night, Andy is editor at Memeburn and prefers his toast like his coffee -- dark and crunchy. Specialising in spotting the next big Instagram cat star, Andy also dabbles in smartphone and game reviews over on Gearburn.