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April Fools' Day: The best online gags of 2015

John Oliver urges his 'Last Week Tonight' viewers to boycott April Fools' Day.
John Oliver urges his 'Last Week Tonight' viewers to boycott April Fools' Day.

Be careful out there, folks. Anything you read this morning could be a lie.

For example: Grammy Award winner Sam Smith “is straight.” BMW is producing mouth guards. Simon Cowell is going to appear on bank notes. And the Fiat 500 is getting smaller, thanks to the Fiat 499.

Here are some of the best April Fools' Day gags we’ve seen online so far.

WestJet #SmartSeats

WestJet has done it again. This time, the airline is announcing a new way to board its planes: SmartSeats.

Your seats in the boarding lounge are also your seats on the plane.

It might be a joke, but we actually like the idea.

Google Maps’ Pac-Man

April Fools’ often brings out the goofy side of a tech titan such as Google.

This year, we can play Pac-Man on Google Maps. Simply go to Google Maps, find an urban area with plenty of roads, and click the Pac-Mac icon on the bottom left of the screen. You’ll never look at your neighbourhood the same way again. (Good luck getting any work done today.)

Dominos' driverless delivery droid

Decades ago, some offices had "mail robots" puttering around the hallways delivering mail. (Fans of FX's The Americans will be very familiar with them.) So in the year 2015, why are we still paying people to bring us our pizza? This driverless pizza bot may not have come right up to your door, but at least you don't have to tip it.

(Seriously, they're developing driverless cars. Let's make this one happen.)

Selfie Shoes

Selfie sticks are so 2014.

“No matter where you go, you’ll always be camera-ready. Just insert your phone into the port at the front of either your right or left shoe, raise it to the perfect angle and click the internal button with a tap of your toe to take the photo. With the Selfie Shoes, you no longer have to use your arm, so now both hands are free to be in the photo,” Miz Mooz, the company behind the shoes,wrote on YouTube.

...and a selfie car

Yes, two selfie-related products, because taking pictures of yourself is just that funny. To be fair, the amount of selfies taken by people driving a car is fairly alarming, so maybe there would be a market for a Honda that does most of the work for you. And at least the commercial says you should put it in park first.

Zayn Malik’s wallet found — in Orangeville

Folks at the Orangeville Banner are teasing One Direction fans with this April Fools’ story.

According to the story, an Orangeville woman found Malik’s wallet — containing both British pounds and Canadian currency — on Main Street earlier this week. After she reached out to the former boy-bander on Twitter, Malik, who has been hiding out in Dufferin Country since splitting with his famous group, picked it up in person, left her the money, and then announced that he’d probably have to leave the area for Owen Sound now that he’s been spotted near his Mono mansion.

Backwards Google

Google can’t let April 1st pass without tinkering with its front page. This year, everything’s backwards.

Change your perspective.”

Also from Google: the #ChromeSelfie.

Google Chrome users respond to news stories with selfies — without exiting Chrome and opening the camera.

“Turns out that the best way to communicate in the future is simply to strike a pose.”

Sympathy Pregnancy Jeans for Men

Maternity jeans are the most comfortable pants ever. Sorry, men, these aren’t real. But maybe they should be? (Lots of stretch room if you overdo it at the buffet.)

Dragons are real

Nature.com published a study acknowledging the very real possibility of dragons’ existence. (The best way to fool people is by using graphs.)

The study concludes with a warning:

“Climatic conditions are rapidly reaching an optimum for breeding dragons, and it is only a matter of time before the neurotransfer spell loses its efficacy completely. Further research into fireproof protective clothing is highly recommended — as is an avoidance of honorific titles.”

Old-school Amazon

Shop like it’s 1999!

Warning: Amazon’s retro-designed site will likely make you feel old.

PlayStation Flow

Isn’t it about time gaming went underwater?

Business cards that take photographs

From the company that introduced LCD video business cards last year comes the photo-taking business card.

Once again, Jukebox has imagined something we actually want.

Hinge for Toddlers

Finding a playdate has never been so easy.

Australia is on the move

According to science blog Veritasium, we should expect Australia to reach the Northern Hemisphere by 2055, thanks to a change in the Earth’s tilt.

Revisiting epic gags from April Fools' Days past

Oh, April Fools’ Day. The day when no one can be trusted, and pranks often backfire.

In fact, Richard Branson’s prank on a coworker in the ‘90s landed him in jail. (Break-and-enters are never funny. Not even at your friend’s house on April 1st.)

We prefer Branson’s 2014 prank: the announcement for a Virgin Atlantic Glass-Bottomed Place.

Here are some epic gags that are worth revisiting this morning.

Chip Wilson’s dock project

We’re not sure if this one is funny or just downright irritating. Lululemon founder Chip Wilson recently posted a development notice on his Vancouver property, warning his neighbours that he was about to build an 8,000-square-foot heliport dock. The development would also include pylon heights of about 3 metres above high tide.

Of course, the posting was timed to coincide with April Fools’ Day, with the engineering firm behind the project listed as “A. Foolisch Engineering.” The phone number on the posting forwards concerned neighbours to an answering machine message that says that no one is available until April 1st.

WestJet’s annual pranks

Confession: We really only look forward to April Fools’ Day just to see what WestJet is going to faux-promise us every year.

Last year, the airline announced it was converting to metric time.

In 2013, it introduced its #FurryFamily program, in which any and every animal was welcome to fly — without a kennel — in the cabin.

And in 2012, it introduced child-free cabins.

LCD video business cards

Last year, we were wishing this prank was reality: LCD business cards from Canadian company Jukebox.

According to Jukebox, “To our surprise most people thought it was real and our customer service department couldn’t handle the call volume of people wanting to purchase this.”

The TTC’s “Personal Car”

Also last year, the Toronto Transit Commission announced it was introducing a “personal car” in which passengers can do whatever they want on their commute home, including “wear bulky backpacks, eat a meal, put their feet on the seats, play loud music, block doors and, yes, clip their nails.”

Essentially, the TTC was condoning the very behaviour most transit riders cannot stand.

Fortunately, for Totontonians with Metropasses, the car was only available until noon on April 1.

Headdit

Reddit unveiled a new way to use the popular website: navigating it with facial expressions.

Bonus: There was also cat mode.

Taco Liberty Bell

On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell announced that it purchased the iconic Liberty Bell and renamed it the “Taco Liberty Bell.”

After a few hours of confusion and outrage from the public, Taco Bell issued a second press release, confessing to the April Fools’ joke — the bell was never for sale in the first place — and promising to donate $50,000 to the Liberty Bell’s upkeep.

Swiss Spaghetti Harvest of 1957

Let us never forget this epic prank. Ever.

On April Fools’ Day in 1957, the British news show Panorama broadcast a three-minute segement about a “bumper spaghetti harvest” in southern Switzerland. Hundreds of people called the BBC, asking how they, too, could grow spaghetti trees.

The BBC’s response:  ”Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

Good news, prank-lovers: Apparently April Fools’ Day pranks can be good for you, as they help build bonds in relationships.

John Oliver, however, would prefer we all just boycott it. Watch his anti-April Fools’ Day rant below.

What’s the best April Fools’ Day prank you’ve seen/been part of? Leave your response in the comments below.