April Fools’ Day is the best excuse for people to make their friends and family freak out for no reason. This year was no exception, and many large businesses and brands were in the holiday spirit to make their customers question their next big moves. Here are five of the best April Fools’ Day jokes played this year from both Athens locals and beyond.
1. Donkey Coffee and Espresso threatens to go out of business
The beloved coffee joint at 17 W. Washington St. scared its loyal customers into thinking it was going out of business Sunday.
“With a certain large corporation establishing a shop in uptown Athens this summer, every single one of our baristas has quit, and applied for a job there. We thank you all for the years of great times. ...
...
... April fools!!” Donkey Coffee wrote on its Instagram account.
2. Hidden Valley Ranch tries to start a makeup line
The popular ranch dressing company has apparently been teasing a makeup line the past few days. The products include an eyeshadow palette, lip products and a highlighter. The website says the products are “coming soon,” so maybe it will shock everyone by actually launching them. It seems as if it’s just a gag for now, though.
3. Snapchat trolls Facebook
Snapchat appears to be making a yearly tradition of poking fun at Facebook on April 1. This year, Snapchat introduced a filter poking fun at Russian bots. The filter uses a Cyrillic script text that puts the users face in a Facebook post. The likes on the fake post say “your mom,” to make fun of the social media platform’s older user base, and “a bot,” which appears to be a nod to the thousands of bots on Facebook with links to the Russian government that are thought to have influenced the 2016 presidential election.
4. Mayor Patterson made jokes about the things he could do in Athens
Mayor Steve Patterson took to Facebook to make jokes about Bong Hill, fest season and the Armory building. The jokes will definitely only make sense to Bobcats, which makes them that much more funny.
5. Netflix tried to own Seth Rogen
On Sunday, Netflix put out a fake news release saying the company owned the full “personal autonomy” of Seth Rogen.
“‘I have known Seth for many years’ said senior Netflix Development Executive Jareth Chumley. ‘After a wrap party in late 2017, Seth approached me and said something like ‘Jesus F---ing Christ Jarbear, I would sell my soul for a f---in enchilada right now.’ And so basically that was how the idea was born. In the end we settled on a price a little higher than a standard Chili’s To-Go entree, but I’ll be damned, not by that much,’” a news release put out by the streaming company stated.
The joke was extremely well thought out and brought laughs to many streaming fans across the country.
6. The Bird Arena T. rex joked about finding a new rink to call home
The person who regularly dresses up as a Tyrannosaurus rex for Ohio University hockey games said he would call "Coggin Ice Center" its new home. It appears he meant to spell Goggin Ice Center, which is at Miami University, but the person behind the account did use the hashtag #icantbelieveitypedthat, so maybe it was too much to handle.
7. Bobcat Barstool tried to redeem Logan Paul for laughs
The Bobcat Barstool account on Twitter tried to "claim" Logan Paul for OU but quickly clarified it was all an April Fools' joke. After the YouTube star's controversial few months, many Bobcats may not want to even mention to their friends that the Vine star attended OU at all.
