GoKawiilIf you're online at all in 2026, you know it can feel like April Fools' Day every day. You've almost certainly come across videos and content, often created with AI, and had to stop and ask yourself if what you're looking at is true or made up.
Some are obvious. You mean, there aren't really beds made of kittens, cotton candy and rubies? And I wasn't really offered a job guarding a spooky funeral home where I might hear tapping coming from the morgue freezer at 3 a.m.? (Both of these are TikTok videos, and the AI is scarily good -- and also just scary.)
As brands roll out their April Fools' Day jokes for this year, I keep thinking that in an AI-heavy world, the jokes seem less surprising, the faked-up art less novel. Here are some highlights from this year's list of April 1 corporate and tech jokes.
T-Mobile cologne
Can you smell me now? Wait, wrong cellphone company. T-Mobile
Want to smell like your cellphone? What does that even mean? Wireless tech giant T-Mobile's prank is Metro by T-Mobile CALLoGNE, combining call, as in phone call, with cologne. The company touts its April 1 joke as "the world's first luxury fragrance inspired by the unmistakable scent of a brand-new phone." Metro is T-Mobile's prepaid brand, formerly known as MetroPCS.
Timekettle British translation
They say the US and UK are two nations separated by a common language. You may already know some British phrases, including "boot" for what Americans call a car trunk, and "bonnet" for what we call the hood of a car. Timekettle makes AI-powered translation products, and its April 1 prank is a British-to-American language translation update for its translation devices. Cheerio, old chap.
Timekettle offers translation services, but the British English to American English version is a special April 1 joke. Timekettle
Whisker cat hair clothing
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