April Fool’s Day round-up: From drug-detecting chickens to Aldi’s new dating show
With the window for April Fool’s Day pranks now closed, we round up some of the more creative and canny jokes.
Search and rescue sheep deployed on Dartmoor
Anyone getting into trouble while hiking on the Bank Holiday could be aided by a rescue sheep, Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team announced.
They are equipped with hi-vis bandanas and bells around their necks so casualties can hear them coming.
“They’re the perfect animal to be searching,” team vet Ashley said.
“They’re already domesticated, there’s plenty of them, they’re adapted to our hill conditions, they come with their own jackets, you don’t need to carry food and water for them, they’re very easily trained.”
Detect estate agents’ BS
The BS detector app from real estate company Purplebricks promises to alert you to any lies from estate agents.
Using AI lie detector technology, it will give a warning “bleep” when it hears suspicious speech patterns.
Drug-detecting chickens
Swiss Police announced the newest weapon in their war on drugs: sniffer chickens.
The new flock of “Drogenspürhuhn”, or drug-detecting chickens, joined the squad after a successful testing phase, according to police.
Cheaper to train and keep than dogs, the chickens also lay a daily egg, police said, contributing to their cost-effectiveness.
Service cats
Putting the cat amongst the chickens, Zurich police also announced felines would be joining their canine unit.
“After [a period of] long planning, intensive selection, and many hours of training, today the time has come [to announce] we are supplementing our service dogs with service cats,” the Zurich City Police said.
“Their quiet velvet paws and compact body mass are ideal for use in confined spaces, but also for house searches and peaceful Mantrailing,” they said.
Sending toilet paper to Uranus
Sustainable toilet paper company Who Gives A Crap is launching a toilet roll into space – all the way to Uranus.
“With billionaires chucking cars into space and taking their midlife crises to the moon, we thought it was time to do something truly meaningful,” the company said.
The 3.2 billion kilometre journey will take about nine years and names for the spacecraft are being crowdsourced on Instagram – current frontrunners are High Plyer and C.R.A.P. (Cosmic Roll Aerospace Program).
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Ant and Dec’s career move
The duo claimed to be hanging up their TV hats to focus on culinary ventures – including a “tell-all recipe book” and a pop-up restaurant.
“I believe that food has the power to bring people together and create cherished memories, that’s how my family feel when I make them beans on toast,” Ant said.
Dec said Ant would make a “brilliant pot washer” and he “adores” cooking as he gets to “snack on the ingredients (mostly cheese) as I go”.
Aldi launches dating show
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Love Aisleland is the latest reality dating show looking for contestants, if Aldi is to be believed.
The supermarket chain invited potential applicants to tell them why they deserved to find love in the aisles.
But in a follow-up post – after midday, when the opportunity for playing April Fool’s jokes traditionally expires – the company said it was cancelling the show as it had not been shown to the legal team.
It added: “Because of this, our boss has now confirmed the show cannot go ahead and that although we give off the vibe that we love court cases, they are incredibly costly and going forward with this plan would not be ‘within our best interests’.”
Where canines and cardio collide
London gym chain Gymbox is launching a workout class for you and you four-legged friend: Gymbarx.
“With more and more Londoners looking for new ways to treat their pets, it made perfect sense to not only let dogs visit Gymbox but to create their very own fitness class,” Gymbox brand and marketing director Rory McEntee said.
Expect downward dog stretches before moving into fence jumps, “furpees” and leash pulls, ending with tennis ball track sprints and a “hair of the dog” HIIT finisher.