Amidst replica codpieces and John Campbell's forthcoming turn on Dancing With the Stars, this year's bumper crop of April fools' jokes rivalled even the healthiest of spaghetti trees.
Breaking news. @JohnJCampbell is the first contestant confirmed on Dancing with the Stars 2015. Embargoed till 7pm. pic.twitter.com/nuz8qFYaKo
— Campbell Live (@CampbellLiveNZ) March 31, 2015
As Radio New Zealand didn't do an April Fools' prank of its own ('Royal family to move primary residence to Dunedin'; 'Full transcripts of all broadcasts can now be texted straight to your cellphone in real time!'; 'Grant Elliott to appear on new $5, $10, $20 and $50 notes'), here are some of the web's best.
AUT students can now learn from some of history's brightest (quite literally) after the university's announcement of holographic lectures.
'The revolutionary new lectures will give students the option to learn from a list of famous faces including Gandhi, Einstein and Tupac' (who will apparently be sharing the 2016 teaching of '217012: Professional Wine Studies' and '167537: Japanese Religions and the Samurai' between them).
For students at the other end of the country, the outlook is a little more bleak: Otago's tamed ways, says student rag Critic, have led to the cancellation of the annual Hyde Street party.
Dunedin's Hyde St Key Party (2015) Photo: Critic / SUPPLIED
'"Obviously the ethos of Hyde has been lost," stated mature student and past Hyde attendee. "In my day, if you didn't wake up naked in a police cell, you hadn't done it right."'
The University of Oxford's student paper Cherwell took things up a gear by announcing its new Vice-Chancellor...
Jeremy Clarkson named as Andrew Hamilton's successor | http://t.co/myOZ9o1f1L
— Cherwell (@Cherwell_Online) March 31, 2015
...while at Cambridge they went for a more subtle approach.
Oh this is good RT @paulcoxon: So many people are falling for this :D #AprilFools pic.twitter.com/zFkwZIm3Ch
— Jules Mattsson (@julesmattsson) April 1, 2015
The 'P D Avril' there refers to the French for April fool's pranks: 'un poisson d'avril' - in Marlborough, therefore, they've brought you this great big (April) crayfish:
Have you seen this great idea? Developers want to build a hotel in the form of a crayfish on the Kaikoura waterfront! pic.twitter.com/u3c8dKjZWy
— Marlborough Express (@MarlboroughMEX) March 31, 2015
The cray hotel 'would include over 200 rooms over five floors and two restaurants, all with access via a boat ramp in the tail.'
It isn't the only hotel-based piece making the rounds.
While our Auckland newsroom spent the last day of March scratching their heads over Wellington's proposed leaning tower (apparently an entirely earnest proposal for the city that almost had its own Wellywood sign), British paper The Telegraph had their own slant on leaning towers: their Travel section reported that Pisa's own example was to be transformed into a luxury hotel.
The leaning tower of Pisa. Photo: 123rf
Jury's out on whether that one's just taking the Pisa.
It wasn't just media outlets and universities taking a spin on comedy gifs and 'surely not' headlines: brands threw their hats into the mix, including a valiant effort from supermarket Pak'n'Save today.
Supermarket chain @PAKnSAVE is emulating Barkers grooming and shopping strategy with Pak 'n Shave store http://t.co/sFNy3wTLWX
— The Register (@the_register) March 31, 2015
Special mention also goes out to Air New Zealand's All Blacks clip...
...and to the fellows down at BMW, who made one woman's day when she decided to take their "April Fools' Day special" on the cover of the Herald at face value - they promised a new BMW to the first person who took their car and the front-page coupon to their Newmarket dealership.
She walked away without her 15-year-old Nissan station wagon, and with a brand new BMW 1 Series. Not such an April fool after all.
Tianna Marsh with her new car. Photo: Supplied
We finish with an April fools' joke from the Guardian, which made at least one kiwi tweeter's heart skip a beat, and we'd love to believe was true:
Love sticking it to the Aussies "@FoodCornish: Lamington invented in New Zealand, new research proves 'beyond doubt' http://t.co/LLmse3tIjt"
— Lauraine Jacobs (@LauraineJacobs) April 1, 2014
Until next year! (We'll keep our fingers crossed on the currency change.)
