April 01, 2024
@ocnjtikiboat/Instagram
Pau Hana, the Ocean City tiki boat bar, was among the many businesses that posted pranks on April Fools' Day. The company claimed it was bringing a Wawa to the waters between Ocean City and Somers Point.
In the famous words of George W. Bush: "Fool me once, shame on...shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
And yet, every year, there's a wave of bogus news on April Fools' Day that tries to take advantage of our gullibility and short attention spans. Maybe it's effective because the actual news is routinely insane enough to make silly things seem plausible, especially on a Monday morning. Maybe it's a useful test of media literacy that demonstrates how easy it is to be duped by sly marketers for a few seconds until the punch line hits.
For whatever reason, the Jersey Shore is going all in on April Fools' Day this year. Multiple pranks came across our radar this morning that gave us a good laugh.
Pau Hana, the floating tiki bar tour boat in Ocean City, revealed it had entered a collaboration with Wawa to bring a roving store to the waters between Ocean City and Somers Point.
Over at Wildwood Video Archive, a website that covers all things Wildwood, the writers published a story about how the "S" will be removed from the landmark Wildwoods beach ball sign on the boardwalk.
"The Wildwoods is a collective name for a group for all of these resort towns, though many people assume that the entire island is just called 'Wildwood,'" the story says. "Since so many people have been confused by this, the resort towns have come together and have decided to drop the final 's' to just say 'Wildwood.'”
They even fabricated a 4-1 vote held by all the towns, with Diamond Beach going against the others.
In a more transparent prank, Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City made a "breaking news" video in which the white sphere on top of the 60-story building had rolled away after someone hit a jackpot.
Breaking news 📢
— Ocean Casino Resort (@TheOceanAC) April 1, 2024
The iconic Ocean sphere is missing! We're sharing some of the last sightings around AC. Please drop a comment where you think it could be. All help is welcomed! pic.twitter.com/2Ywyo64b4k
"This was the first thing I saw on my feed when I woke up and believed it for a split second," a commenter wrote, joining many others who had similar reactions.
Oddly enough, cutting through the noise of pranks can be a challenge for businesses making legitimate announcements on April Fools' Day. Twenty years ago, Google famously launched Gmail — which now has more than a billion users — on April 1. Since the 1 gigabyte of free storage the company offered was so groundbreaking at the time, many people assumed the whole thing was a joke.
In Philadelphia, ice cream brand Milk Jawn played on the sadness of Phillies fans still mourning the loss of Dollar Dog Night. They announced a new "Glizzy Split" sundae that combines hot dogs and their usual toppings with vanilla ice cream. This is disgusting, and thankfully not real.
Then there was an absolutely cruel post on X, formerly Twitter, from the Eagles Nation account that said DeVonta Smith was traded to the Cowboys. The post is displayed in a way that cuts off the April Fools bit at the end. The irony is that the Eagles and Cowboys traded picks in the 2021 NFL draft to enable Philadelphia to select Smith before the Giants could.
BREAKING: The #Eagles have traded DeVonta Smith to the #Cowboys in exchange for a 2nd-round pick, and a conditional 3rd-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
— Eagles Nation (@PHLEaglesNation) April 1, 2024
The conditional pick can develop into a 1st-round pick if the Cowboys make the NFC Championship for the first time in 28… pic.twitter.com/0WPxIEK0ZD
The best of the bunch today might be from the Empire State Building, which said it's opening a jungle-themed Rainforest Cafe that would become the world's tallest. (The Philadelphia Mills mall, formerly Franklin Mills, used to have one of these that sadly closed — but there's still a Rainforest Cafe on the boardwalk in Atlantic City).
BREAKING: We're excited to announce the launch of the World's Highest Rainforest Cafe right here at the Empire State Building
— Empire State Building (@EmpireStateBldg) April 1, 2024
Check out our inaugural menu here: https://t.co/jDm0g3t7ca pic.twitter.com/QBPmQaJay9
The moral of the story is to read carefully while scrolling social media today.
