April Fools’ Day 2019 was a bit of a disappointment this year, as the traditional japes and fake stories were completely overshadowed by genuine happenings in the real world.
While the UK’s newspapers spoke of a new “poo emoji 50p” and a “permanent exit from Eurovision due to Brexit”, the real WTF headline news was elsewhere.
Take this for example...
1) Jim Carrey is in a Twitter spat with Benito Mussolini’s granddaughter
Yes, you read that right – the man who played Ace Ventura: Pet Detective stoked the ire of Alessandra Mussolini after he penned a drawing of her grandfather strung up after his death at the hands of a mob during World War II.
Now, sticking up for your grandparents is only natural and Carrey’s drawing is a bit graphic, but you do lose a little sympathy when said grandfather was a fascist dictator who buddied up with actual Hitler.
And, if that wasn’t depressing enough...
2) A comedian who plays a fictional character who accidentally became president is leading Ukraine’s real-life presidential race
Ukrainians have such little confidence in the country’s corruption-ridden political elite that they appear to be taking a punt on a comedian with no actual experience of politics.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy plays a schoolteacher-turned-president in a TV sitcom, who made fighting corruption a focus of his candidacy.
This has translated directly into real life and he is maintaining his strong lead against the incumbent president in the first round of elections, setting the stage for a run-off in three weeks.
Ukrainians hope he can offer a new approach to settling the grinding conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“This is only the first step toward a great victory,” Zelenskiy said after seeing the exit poll findings.
3) Dubstep can protect against mosquito bites
Love Dubstep? Hate mosquitos? Well, you’re in for a real treat. Turns out listening to Skrillex – and it has to be specifically Skrillex – can deter yellow fever mosquitos.
The scientists behind the study, published in the journal Acta Tropica, said: “In insects, low-frequency vibrations facilitate sexual interactions, whereas noise disrupts the perception of signals from conspecifics [members of the same species] and hosts.”
Which track? Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites. HuffPost UK is listening to this right now and we can confirm there is not a mosquito in sight.
Not officially, but still, what is actually going on?
On Monday morning, Gemma was a guest presenter on Good Morning Britain to discuss the day’s showbiz news in Richard Arnold’s absence, but couldn’t resist sharing her thoughts on Brexit while she was there.
“Theresa needs to make a decision,” Gemma said, revealing in the process she’s on first-name terms with the prime minister. “I voted out [and would do it again]. Theresa needs to lead our nation.
“Take a deep breath, Theresa May, make a deal and let’s move forward.”
To be fair to Gemma, British politics is such a complete shambles right now that anything is welcome. Speaking of which...
5) Elon Musk recorded a rap song about a gorilla
Not content with having the world’s leading electric car company under his belt, nor his SpaceX programme, Tesla founder Elon Musk has now decided to launch his music career.
Released under ‘Emo G Records’, the song — titled RIP Harambe — pays tribute to the gorilla shot dead at Cincinnati Zoo in 2016 after a toddler climbed into his enclosure.
Harambe then grew to become an internet sensation, spawning several memes, songs and jokes since his death, the Press Association reports.
The rap, which has been heavily autotuned, is freely available to listen to on music streaming website Soundcloud, with Musk taking to Twitter to share the track — following up with: “I’m disappointed that my record label failed”.
Listen to it here. Or not.
6) The Sausage of the North
When Heck Sausages announced its plan for a statue the size of Big Ben honouring the humble banger earlier today, everybody assumed it was a hoax.
Apparently it wasn’t.
Jamie Keeble, co-founder at Heck, told The Northern Echo: “Everyone was convinced it was an April Fool – I can confirm that we are definitely going ahead.
“As we are a democracy at Heck, we ran an online poll to see if our fans thought we should do it, and we definitely got the thumbs up.
“What better way to celebrate Yorkshire Food than with a giant sausage.”