Five worst April Fool’s Day jokes from ‘gold-plated £50,000 vape’ to ‘sizzling beer’

April Fool’s Day media jokes catch out readers every year and its time has come again. The most famous pranks include Big Ben going digital with new name ‘Digital Dave’ so tourists could read it more easily and a hoax volcano eruption in Alaska.

This year was no different with companies vying for coverage of their fake products. Some of the better pranks included Emmerdale introducing AI pets to their iconic Yorkshire village, Terry’s Chocolate Orange launching a toothpaste and Ant and Dec starting their own decking firm.

However, there were lacklustre attempts that had the Daily Star newsroom letting out a collective sigh as they were added to our April Fool’s Day live blog. We’ve put together a list of this year’s worst offending hoaxes.

Take your bed to work

If The Odd Company thought they were going to catch anyone out with this “product”, they must have been sleep walking. The “City Napper” costs £350 and is a sure-fire way to enrage already grumpy commuters jammed onto the Tube next to an actual mattress.

The idea behind the product is for commuters to take back valuable minutes of sleep on the commute. The Odd Company said: “With the average commute lasting 28 minutes, British workers spend over 242 hours a year simply getting to work.

“So what better use of time than taking a porta-nap? Remote workers have the blessing of bringing work to bed, so now it’s time to bring your bed to work. Thanks to The Odd Company, painful goodbyes to our beds are a thing of the past.”
I think I’ll go back to bed.

Daily Star says: Ha? As if we needed another reason to gate fellow commuters and as soon as you saw the pics you knew it was a (bad) joke.

Golden vape

Vapists are already the bane of every hardworking Brits life. They fill the air we share with overly sweet smells while claiming it is better than smoking – but still force us all to inhale potentially dangerous substances.

So, we must pay our respects to the folks at Riot Lab who have made one the e-cigarette even more annoying by introducing the idea of encasing it in gold. The makey-uppy product costs £50,000 and includes the irritatingly viral Dubai chocolate flavour.

Riot Lab said: “The product is an extension of its Connex Range and comes in elegant 24 Karat Gold casing and is priced at an eye-watering £50,000. Flavours include Dubai Chocolate – one of the world’s most decadent flavour trends right now – and Yubari King Melon one of the planets most expensive fruits with one selling for a record-breaking $37,000 dollars last year.”

Daily Star says: The less said the better. Never fun to push something that could both kill and bankrupt you. And linking anything to Dubai is a nail in your vape-ridden coffin.

Hot beer

There is nothing like the “ahhh” exhaled after taking a nice, refreshing drink of hot beer after a long week of work… said no-one ever. That’s why everybody favourite corporate punk beer producers BrewDog decided to joke about making a bevvy even worse than their sickly range of IPAs.

The brand hailed the hoax as a creation to rival the wheel: “BEER. BUT. HOT. The wheel. The internet. Squirty cream. Three of man’s greatest inventions. And now, we have a fourth. Introducing Hot Beer. Like the Cold Beer you know and love. Except really, really hot.”

Daily Star says: Just when you thought everyone’s* favourite company Brewdog couldn’t get any worse, there’s this. They need to go back to the drawing board.

*no one’s

Waffle holes

Like punching fog, this joke is just hard to grasp. Birds Eye sold the starchy product as the answer to the age-old question – what happens to the holes in my potato waffle? A question no one has ever asked. Ever.

For years, people have assumed the holes vanish into the void, others whispering about a top-secret underground waffle facility. Birds Eye produces over one million of their iconic potato waffles every day, which means there are 7 billion waffle holes unaccounted for… so where are they?

At last, Birds Eye have unveiled the hole truth on this closely guarded secret. Described as “bite-sized bliss,” the Potato Waffholes are golden, crispy, and moreish.

Daily Star says: They should have left this mystery unsolved.

Chicken wing De-Boner

Last and might well be least is the De-Boner. The Currys product aimed to make messy chicken wings a thing of the past with the world’s first fully automated chicken wing de-boning machine.

Developed by Philips (God knows how they got involved), the De-Boner strips meat off cooked chicken wings in seconds, making the process effortless and mess-free. The tech features rotational claws that strip the meat clean, and precision chopping blades that perfectly slice the tender meat into bite-sized pieces.

Powered by batteries and portable, it’s sold as innovative solution to a classic problem.

Daily Star says: Not much meat on the bone of this kooky invention.

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.