The Best and Worst April Fools Pranks We Saw Today

AI is rapidly enshittifying the world, from films to customer service. Now it’s come for April Fool’s Day, an occasion that humans have already enshittified pretty thoroughly. Nothing will ever beat early April Fool’s material.

Now? We mostly get hacky, unconvincing AI slop from brands big and small. If you’re gonna stage a hoax, make it plausible. Or make the joke obviously fake, but executed well enough that it still lands.

With those rough criteria established, here’s what we saw today, ranked from worst to best.

City of Sydney 

Less an April Fool’s gag and more a gag that happens to have been posted on April 1 – using a meme format that’s legally old enough to drive a car, no less. On the plus side: a real person! No AI!

Ikea

Färging terrible.

City of Yarra, Melbourne 

People have eyes. Eyes to spot AI, but also to look out the window of their local constituency and see the giant heritage-listed neon sign hasn’t been replaced overnight.

The Advertiser, Adelaide 

Trust a Murdoch paper to come up with this teenage-level quip about Lord Mayor Jane “JLo” Lomax-Smith removing the 49-year-old Spheres sculpture from Rundle Mall. Betoota this ain’t.

Jetstar

Stop giving Ryanair actual ideas.

Nick Reece, Lord Mayor of Melbourne

It’s giving “The Gulf of America” – ie a bloody unwelcome association.

Cheaper Buy Miles, Melbourne

A country mile. Walk a mile in their shoes. If anything, this gag just proves we need to update all the old idioms still using miles.

Frank Green

“We’re frank about this not being a prank.” Yeah, yeah. 

Tarts Anon, Melbourne

Yeah he’s a certified creep, but this Louis CK clip is too relevant not to reference. Also: shout-out to the most gullible comment section of 2026. 

Moustache, Gold Coast

Notwithstanding Brae’s famous oyster ice-cream, this isn’t tricking anyone but Tarts Anon fans.

Happyfield, Sydney

Don’t play with our hearts like this.

La Tortilleria, Melbourne

Nah. As a concept, Vegemite tortillas aren’t nearly as offensive as Doritos hot cross buns, an actual product we forced ourselves to taste last month.

Grill’d

Grill’d’s social media team deserves a raise for pulling punches from the press release that landed in several Broadsheet editors’ inboxes this morning. It claimed, “pop-up massage sessions are happening in actual Grill’d restaurants nationwide”. We just can’t see it, sorry.

Bunnings Warehouse

Again with the Vegemite. Why? Bunnings may have co-opted the sausage sizzle, but it doesn’t even sell food! Still: credit where credit’s due, for using actual people and mocking up an entire pallet of Vegemite buckets.

Yo-Chi

Points again for the live action video. But we’d unironically eat the hell out of this, like we did with the soy sauce ice-cream at dearly departed Melbourne shop Kenny Lover.

Bar Planet, Sydney

Write this down: you don’t need AI or a marketing budget to pull off a top-tier April Fool’s gag. Just $19.50 for a pack of Combantrin, and the conviction to follow through on the most disgostang joke of the year.

Single O, Sydney

This is it. The perfect Schrödinger’s April Fool’s gag. It’s simultaneously utterly ridiculous and entirely within the realm of things cafes actually do. It’s so good, we’re wondering if it might be an inverse of the City of Sydney’s attempt: a genuine post, accidentally shared on April Fool’s Day. And no, we won’t be investigating to find out.