THE PERFECT APRIL Fool’s prank is a tricky thing to pull off.
It requires the right mix of humour and believability – a la the BBC’s 1957 ’spaghetti tree’ hoax.
While some business and news organisations might not have been quite believable (did anyone think Argos was going to launch a Mars mission?) others have been bang on the money.
Some of you may even have believed that your comment privileges on TheJournal.ie were about to be rescinded for a time this morning.
Here are some of the Irish efforts that really hit the mark this year…
Supermarket chain Lidl opened bidding with this effort going up on their Twitter page yesterday. This attempt at cashing in on the trend for health foods comes close to being believable – although that photo-shopped Kale in the background is a bit of a give away.
The fast-food establishment has been having a bit of a tussle with American chain McDonald’s in recent times over their name – and they’ve incorporated that into their April Fool’s this year.
Now renamed ‘McDonaghs’, the press release from the company makes a few heavy-handed references to their situation – saying that the name change is inspired ‘Ronan McDonagh’, the family beef farmer who was the inspiration for the restaurant.
The Dublin venue probably set a few pulses racing with the announcement that recently departed One Direction member Zayn Malik is set to play a solo acoustic gig at the start of July. Tickets are supposedly currently available from Ticketmaster and support is set to be provided by Brian McFadden.
Suuuuure.
In keeping with the ‘One Direction’ theme, the Irish Post announced very unwelcome news for fans of the band.
Their one Irish member, Niall Horan, is set to quit according to the UK-based publication. Apparently, a ‘source close to the band’ has said that:
Niall feels a bit awkward because there’s now just an empty space between himself and the other boys when they pose for fans.
Irish Water flavoured ice lollies? Controversial. The company’s Twitter post wasn’t up long before there was plenty of reaction to it.
Centra’s chicken roll is something of a stalwart in the nation’s culinary habits. The ‘sad news’ that they would be withdrawing the product would have been something of a blow.
They quickly realised that certain things shouldn’t be joked about – and issued another Tweet telling their customers that the chicken roll is going nowhere any time soon.
The State broadcaster made its effort with this suitably Waterford Whisperer-esque headline.
The broadcaster linked their April Fool’s prank with the commemoration of 1916 next year. According to them, parents having children during 2016 will be eligible for a celebration payment of €100 – as long as they call their child Pearse, Clarke or MacDonagh.
The photo website posted some rather incongruous looking pictures on its Twitter page this morning.
Did Barack Obama actually play golf at Gorse Hill when he was over here?
You might have heard that you’re going to have to start paying to post comments on TheJournal.ie. It’s a bright new dawn ahead – just a coincidence this got announced today.
Have you been hit with any particularly good April Fool’s hoaxes this year? Let us know in the comments.
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