Celebrity

Hollywood's April Fools' Day jokes: Ranking the good, the bad, and the ugly

By

Updated on April 5, 2021 12:12AM EDT

As they are wont to do on the first day of April, celebrities and brand accounts have been pulling pranks across the internet in celebration of April Fools' Day.

While some of the jokes can be fun, others often elicit eye-rolls, or cross a bridge too far.

Here are the jokes that stood out this year, the good, bad, and ugly.

The Good

Rick and Morty Babies

The drama of a surprise midnight drop! The production value, making it feel like a whole new episode! The expert casting of the children who voice those characters! Rick and Morty managed to do a prank that felt engaging rather than enraging. Bring those kids back for season 5.

Space Jam drops a trailer

One of the worst things within the movie trailer industrial complex are short trailers advertising longer trailers, but Space Jam: A New Legacy has changed the game. Reminding us of the zaniness of old Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner shorts, they keep things as advertised and drop a literal trailer on Wile E. Coyote's head. Certainly attention-grabbing enough to burn the news that the real movie trailer comes Saturday into the minds of viewers.

Good work Leah Remini

Much appreciation goes to Leah Remini for rocketing right through her set-up, punchline. Who wants to be held in suspense on a day like this. Oh, you thought she got fillers? Read the caption! There's some unintentional hilarity in there as well with her shouting out the makeup artist from Saturday Night Live for some prosthetic work that one can now easily mimic just by using the Pillowface filter on Instagram.

The Bad

Bianca Del Rio books a new gig

This one is on the margin, but we believe the Drag Race queen of mean can do better. Sucker us into believing the winners season of All Stars is a go, only to dash our hopes and dreams. Also, the joke would make more sense as an EW exclusive.

Granddaughter to The Crocodile Hunter meets her first croc

Here's the thing: this corny joke had the potential to be brilliant had it turned out to be SponCon. Otherwise, one wonders about all the money and prep work that went into posting a solid dad joke. We recommend securing the bag first, so those clogs come for free next time.

Cat-toon Network

Meh. Any cat joke on the internet has probably already been done before (and done better). At least the grating sounds serve as a reminder of how annoying April Fools Jokes can be. Hoping for a punnier joke next April.

The Ugly

Michael Strahan closes the gap

April Fools' Day is a singular day of the year. There's no eve for it. It's not like a birthday, where you can convince people to spend the week celebrating it. Making people wait multiple days to hear you make an obvious April Fools' Day joke is cruel and unusual punishment. We're glad the Good Morning America host kept his signature look.

Tori Spelling is likely not expecting

Sadly, it seems every year another celebrity goes for the fake pregnancy joke not realizing how it comes off to the many prospective parents dealing with infertility and/or child loss. There's a chance Tori Spelling could be serious about the pregnancy, but her friend and hairstylist Laura Rugetti seemed to have confirmed the post was a misbegotten attempt at humor, jokingly asking the actress in an Instagram story, "Did you not tell me something this morning?"

DJ Quik massively misfires

How is anyone supposed to take a post as specific as "I'm on my way to the hospital. Someone just shot into my car 7-10 times on the freeway. I got hit twice. Pray for me," as a joke? The West Coast hip-hop pioneer has been in the game long enough to know fans take those claims super seriously. While fans were happy to hear he's fine, the "joke" is even bleaker considering April Fools' Day falls right next to the anniversary of Nipsey Hussle's murder.

Related content: