April Fools’ Day 2026: the best and cringiest pranks

1 week ago 8

Welcome to the worst day on the internet! As Chaim Gartenberg pointed out years ago, brands and a holiday dedicated to hoaxes are rarely a winning combo. If you’re a company with any kind of social media, internet, or AI chatbot presence in 2026, you really, truly only have four options on April Fools’ Day:

Don’t do an April Fools’ joke. Put the time and energy into doing something productive that will materially benefit the world (or, less idealistically, your business) instead. Or just don’t do anything. Abstaining entirely would still be a net positive over the drain of resources and mental energy.
Do an April Fools’ “joke,” but actually follow through on your stunt. This is arguably not a prank since you’ve actually created a video game skin or a real product that people can buy — but it doesn’t really hurt anyone.
Do an April Fools’ joke, but be extremely clear from the start that this is a dumb joke and you have no intention of doing the thing that you are “humorously” pretending to do. Does this defeat the purpose of doing an April Fools’ joke because you’re not “fooling” anyone anymore? Absolutely. (Please see my first two points.)
Lie to your customers, successfully tricking them into believing you are making some product, rebranding, or service you are not. By doing so, you will almost certainly annoy everyone once your deceit is made plain for the extremely small gain of pointless PR. The aphorism goes that there is no such thing as bad publicity; the seemingly endless line of companies willing to make fools out of themselves has proven this false time and time again.

If you see anything that particularly sticks out for good, bad, or just unusual reasons, send it to us.

April Fools’ 2026: Connor Storrie’s big butt dialing problem.
This four-minute Verizon short (there’s also a thirty second version if you can’t wait that long) starring Storrie and directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple) pays off their appearance at the Vanity Fair Oscar party by raising awareness about the Heated Rivalry star’s mobile phone struggles.
April Fools’ 2026: Stream Deck Plus Lever.
While today’s update adding MCP hooks for AI bots to press virtual Steam Deck buttons is more real than the lever, Elgato is releasing this free Slotius plugin today for “purely entertainment” reasons — you can’t win a jackpot, but you can spin the reels.
April Fools’ 2026: Who’s that pokémon?
In celebration of April Fools Day, Pokopia is running a small, one day only event where pokémon will impersonate each other and ask you to figure out who they’re pretending to be. Also: you can snag one of those wacky waving inflatable tube thingies that looks like a Sudowoodo.
Image: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, Game Freak, and Omega Force
April Fools’ 2026: A backpack for the Macintosh and a stylish holster for the Newton.
1/3Image: WaterField Designs
April Fools’ 2026: Pocketpair’s joke that never ends.
The Palworld developer continues to insist that its dating sim spinoff is indeed a real game that you’ll be able to play. There’s even a new video to prove it. And while the game doesn’t have a release date, the studio says it’s coming “soon… we promise.”
Mini to Micro.
For April Fools’ Day, The New York Times is sharing a “Micro Crossword,” which has just three boxes to fill in. The NYT is also launching April Fools’ Day-themed versions of other puzzles, too, including a maximalist Connections.
1/4Image: The New York Times