Background

On April 1st, 2018, various websites and online services released gag videos, products and features in honor of April Fools’ Day.

Developments

Google

The official Google YouTube channel released a video titled "Introducing Bad Joke Detector," highlighting a satirical feature for the application Files Go that would scan jokes saved to a smart phone and remove them to free up space (shown below).

Google Maps

Google Maps enabled a "Where's Waldo" game allowed users to search for Walso while using the Google Maps desktop or mobile application.

Google Israel

Google Israel released a video promoting the satirical "Google Cloud Hummus API" (shown below).

Google Japan

The Google Japan YouTube channel released a fake promotional video for a “physical handwriting version of the GBoard virtual keyboard" (shown below).

Burger King

The fast-food chain Burger King tweeted a video for the fictional "chocolate Whopper," a burger covered in chocolate sauce and served in a chocolate cake bun (shown below).

Reddit

On April 1st, Reddit updated the hover text for the Reddit logo to display the message "🐍 ssssoon." That day, several Reddit admins posted ASCII art of a snake, a badger and a mushroom.^[1] Meanwhile, the /r/sneksnek^[4] subreddit was launched, which many Redditors speculated was related to the April Fools' event, causing various subreddits to shut down as part of a "snek blackout."^[5]

On April 2nd, an update was made to an /r/aprilfools^[2] "Megathread" about the Reddit event, noting that the official Reddit April Fools' prank update was scheduled to launch with the /r/circleoftrust^[6] later that day. Shortly after, the /r/circleoftrust subreddit was opened to the public, allowing users to invite others into their "circle of trust" by providing a unique pass phrase. Many speculated that the game was designed to be some sort of non-zero sum game similar to the prisoner's dilemma.

Amazon

The Amazon Publishing Twitter feed tweeted a video announcing a new service to physically deliver "Your favorite authors to your front door" (shown below).

Netflix

Netflix published a satirical press release announcing that actor Seth Rogen signed a "lifetime deal" granting the company "full ownership of his personal autonomy."^[3]

Discord

The Discord YouTube channel uploaded a promotional video for the fake messaging feature to message a random person with the tag "@someone" (shown below).

Snapchat

Snapchat unveiled a filter that places a Facebook-style decoration around a photo along with text displayed with a Cyrillic script font, which many interpreted as a joke mocking reports about the role Facebook played in the Russian Interference in the 2017 Presidential Election.

Rick and Morty

Adult Swim released a video titled Bushworld Adventures featuring a Rick and Morty parody cartoon by animator Michael Cusack (shown below).

Search Interest

External References