The best (and worst) April Fool's pranks we've seen in the UAE this year

We’ve given each one a believability rating…

For some reason, that we can’t be bothered to Google (/perform the professionally obliged level of research), every year on April 1 — we’re bombarded with a blizzard of deliberately ‘fake news’ stories, attempting to take us for a ride around the spaghetti tree.

The April Fool’s tradition grew exponentially with the advent of social media, and now almost all of our favourite brands are in on the act, trolling us mercilessly with semi-plausible nonsense whilst they giggle to themselves about our collective naivety, from the comfort of their IG feeds.

The key to top tier cognitive catfishing, is finding a ruse that sits in that very narrow sweet spot between being utterly ludicrous and ‘eh actually I could kind of see that’.

These are some of our favourite April Fools efforts spotted this year. And remember trust nobody on April 1.

1. The Salon in the Sky — by The Salon Dubai

10 points if you immediately knew this was a wind-up but were also slightly sad that it actually wasn’t legit. Because seriously, how amazing would this be? Wheely amazing. Wheely, wheely amazing.

Believability rating: 8/10

2. The Palm Gymeirah by Gymnation UAE

It’s a prank bro. This one flexes on the suggestion that we can expect both an entirely new manmade island and a new gym. And whilst we are in Dubai where ‘the impossible’ is a standard subheading of engineering briefs, and brands go big on sponsorship deals, the level of photoshop craft combined with the cost implications, and the fact that the integrity of the whole fool is built upon the the location of a new gym, ultimately burpees the game away.

Believability rating: 3/10

3. Fries McFlurry by McDonald’s

“Eww gross” he says, with a mouthful of chip-based ice cream “really strange flavour” he continues, returning for a second mouthful “actually grows on you” *slurps noisily* “take my money”. This is the Twiglet paradox, disliking the original taste yet returning for more and eventually performing a full opinion handbrake turn and enjoying it. That’s exactly how we imagine this completely fictitious flavour experience would go down. As long as the ice cream machine wasn’t broken of course, which it almost certainly would be.

Believability rating: 5

4. Kids choose their school hours by the KHDA

The Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has got form when it comes to social media mischievousness, so we were expecting a deliciously barbed April Fool’s entry from them, and were not disappointed. Their announcement that during Ramadan schools would start ‘whenever’ and end ‘soon after that’, neatly mimics the grudging syllabic grunts of a teenager. It was never meant to be believable (lest they give any excuse for kids to actually turn up late), but as always, it was amusing.

Believability rating: 3

5. Emirates Airline launches a world-food delivery app

As far as committing to the con, with production value, name punnery and marketing gusto, Emirates might just win the day here. Aside from the fact that we really are not enthused by the idea of downloading and setting up a new food delivery app, we can’t help but feel their time would be better spent FINISHING THE PREMIUM ECONOMY SEAT INSTALLATION.

6. McGett a Wedding by McGettigan’s

I once went to a wedding reception in a Harvester in the UK and sneer if you like, but you know what? It actually wasn’t the worst. Which makes this year’s tomfoolery from Irish Pub chain, McGettigan’s — setting themselves up as a wedding venue — not quite as much of a dystopian plotline as it might otherwise have been. The problem is, it just doesn’t feel ludicrous enough to merit a McPatt on the back if indeed it did fool anybody. We’re living in a world with NFTs and where Post Malone and Crocs shoes have collaborated on an apparel line.

Believability rating: 5

7. A species of Cheebulll cross breed turns up at the Stray Dog Centre

Yes this clearly made up species that purports to be a cross between a cheetah and a (we guess) a bulldog (I mean the origin story to that thought is just *shivers* but anyway), appeared on the Stray Dog Centre’s IG feed and to be honest we are a little sad that it’s not a real thing. Look at those immaculate Kardashian brows. Stunning. In a land of exotic pets, this would have been somewhat more believable if they hadn’t left the deliberately smoking gun of “looking for their foolever home” in the caption.

Believability rating: 5

8. Adult-only soft-play by Tr88house

Any parent will tell you that whilst soft play looks fun, and for kids it often is fun, once you’re past 30 and your back essentially operates as its own voodoo doll — it’s actually not that fun. Source: Trying to extract my four year old from a perspex tunnel. Still the idea, a mix of ball pit nostalgia and hedonistic abandon, is attractive enough to have sold some of our readers (and members of our team, @Elise) the lie.

Believability rating: 8

9. Sir David Attenborough will be the guest star at the next Bongo’s Bingo

Obscure 90s boyband members? Sure. Former Blue Peter presenters? Why not. A British national treasure, documentary maker, Knight of the Realm and king of voiceovers — feels like the distress call of a lesser-effort blag. Plus they’re known for giving lifesize cardboard cutouts (which this clearly is) away as prizes.

Believability rating: 2

10. Giant inflatable duck tours by Rove Hotels

Full deep fake props for Photoshop skills here — this looks pretty genuine. And again, telling fact from fiction is difficult in a region where there was genuinely at one stage, a serious plan in place to drag icebergs from Antarctica to cool the summer waters of the Gulf. Our main issues with this gigantic duck idea though, stem from the impracticality of it all. We get the ‘why?’, it just feels like zero ducks were given about the ‘how?’ and ‘would anybody want to?’

Believability rating: 3

Images: Instagram