The Internet’s best April Fools Hoaxes

Yesterday was April 1, better known as April Fool’s Day. While the Internet is full of hoaxes, rumors, memes and jokes on any given day, it’s common sense to be skeptical of anything you find online on the 1.  Often, companies get in on the fun by releasing fake products or sharing bizarre, untrue news, not to mention fake articles about movies, music and celebrities. So what exactly were some of the biggest and best April Fools jokes that the Internet had to offer this year?

Pet-based hoaxes: There were an abundance of fake products and news based around pets and animals this year, including Ikea KÄT: the world’s “first cat-proof sofa” which is made of cardboard, Microsoft Office for cats, Groupon’s dog-barking e-course — a six-week online class that will teach you to speak to your dog), and Redbox’s ‘Petbox,’ a mini DVD kiosk that churns out pet-themed movies for your pet (similar to Hulu’s ‘Hulu for Pets’ prank). Obviously, companies know the Internet is used first and foremost for cat pictures and have tailored their April Fool’s pranks accordingly.

April Fool’s apps: From Domino’s driverless pizza delivery service — an innovation that hungover college students everywhere are eagerly anticipating — to the Uber/Tinder matchup service that matches you with the perfect Uber driver, the growing app industry is the perfect opportunity to take all the outrageous things you wish you could use your phone for and market it real, even if only for a day. Other fake app “releases” include Hailo Piggy Back, which is like Uber, but with piggy-back rides and Trulia’s roommate rating app, which despite how it could create some beef between roomies, could actually come in handy.

Other notable, and fake releases: Inventions of such ridiculous things like the “selfie-shoe,” much like the selfie stick but one you attach to your shoe; Google panda, a Siri-like search feature that takes on the guise of a stuffed, animatronic panda; and a jell-o mold of Kim Kardashian’s ass. Because, you know, why would you eat jell-o in any other shape?

However, the Internet did have some cool things to offer too, like Google pac-maps — a feature that allows you to play Pac-Man on any Google map or Amazon retro, in which the site takes on the display of what it looked like 16 years ago.