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April Fools' Day 2017 was a tricky one indeed. With so many bonkers headlines regularly flowing through our feeds these days, even the most hard-hitting news pages start to read like The Onion at times. So the challenge of coming up with something false yet believable and funny in today's climate is a pretty tall order. There were a few standouts from the TV world though, that managed to pull off some good fast ones.
Star Trek star George Takei, for example, took on the challenge of tricking his fans, who've followed along as he's become a politically active voice in the celeb community of late. He "revealed" that he was turning that talk into a walk by running against Devin Nunes for a Congressional seat in California, fit with an faux article interview about his detailed determination, to boot.
Well, the cat's out of the bag it seems. Let's do this! #Takei2018 https://t.co/Wf7qvV1eXj
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) April 1, 2017
The trouble was, people took him very, very seriously and started pounding his comments with notes of support. So, when he ultimately revealed it was a ploy to curry votes for Georgia's special election candidate Jon Ossoff, some fans were especially disappointed that he wasn't really running. Takei had to even issue an apology to fans for taking "top honors for 'most believable'" by getting their hopes up. Oh my!
Funny or Die, meanwhile, created an entire secret campaign website mocking what Vice President Mike Pence's propaganda materials might look like, if and when he assumes the presidency from Donald Trump. For some, it seemed a little too on the nose for comfort.
Exclusive video leaked by a White House staffer reveals Mike Pence's preparations to assume the role of President. pic.twitter.com/Uj6J9HrYPO
— Funny Or Die (@funnyordie) April 1, 2017
Meanwhile, Hulu looked to take up the Vine (RIP!) mantle by offering up a new service called Hu, which would offer up heavily abbreviated -- that is, 8 seconds long -- episodes of fan favorites. Those included Seinfeld...
...and Empire.
Trouble was ... this idea wasn't half bad, and some TV fans started wondering what their favorite small screen episodes might look like in hyper-drive like this. Why not?
Hu wasn't the only streaming service to deliver on not-totally-terrible new offerings for April Fool's, either. Roku came up with SnackSuggest, a binge craving guide for those long weekends spent in front of the couch -- think salami with The Sopranos, cheesecake and scones for Friends, pizza and day-old Chinese for Gilmore Girls, you get the idea. (Um, that kinda sounds awesome, actually.)
As for Netflix, well, they courted their repeat original star Will Arnett (BoJack Horseman and A Series of Unfortunate Events) to introduce Netflix Live! which would've been an all-access look at things like "Toasters toasting. Grass growing. Fans blowing." Of course, anyone's who's tuned into CSPAN while the vacuums are running would know that people have definitely watched weirder things.
Who do you think nailed April Fools' Day 2017? Let us know in the comments!