Faux News Alert: Elon Musk Arrested, Queen Grabs Oligarch Yachts And Other April Fool's Antics

T.S. Eliot once opined that April was the cruelest month, and for the gullible among us, April 1 is the cruelest day of that month — especially if you fall for the off-kilter fake news stories permeating the internet on this day.

Musk In Cuffs? The website ThisSongIsSick.com tried to tickle social media’s funny bone with the headline “Elon Musk Arrested at Tesla Gigafactory Rave in Berlin.” The article claimed the Tesla TSLA chieftain was arrested at a happening involving “thousands of attendees.”

“Police have confiscated a massive sound system that Elon claimed, in a stupor, came from Mars,” the jokey article said. “The police were not able to make sense of the statement, and they have given no further comment on whether or not the sound system was in fact made from alien technology. They did confirm, however, that it bumped louder than anything they’d ever heard before.”

The Queen Crowns The Oligarchs: The British news outlet The Guardian found some April Fool’s fun in the sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle with a faux news on Queen Elizabeth II seizing the confiscated yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs.

“The case prompted the Conservative MP and former submariner Shiv R M’Timbers to suggest this was exactly the sort of super yacht that could be used by Buckingham Palace,” the Guardian stated. “''We might as well put these boats to some good use,’ he said. ‘After all, the royals have a rich history of taking things that don’t belong to them, and never giving them back! But don’t quote me on that.’

SPAC Smack: In what might be the first April Fool’s gag related to a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Hedgeye Risk Management, a Stamford, Connecticut-headquartered independent investment research, posted a press statement on its website claiming it would be merging with “Big Media Acquisition Corp.,” which it identified by the NYSE ticker “BMAC.” In reality, the ticker belongs to Black Mountain Acquisition Corp. BMAC, a genuine SPAC.

A closer examination of the press statement began to show signs that the announcement was a joke — the company claimed CNBC would be sponsoring a HedgeyeTV program updating investors on the merger, which was highly unlikely as Hedgeye's social media channels are rich with unflattering comments about CNBC in general and Jim Cramer in particular.

And the statement’s claim that “Hedgeye intends to use the influx of capital to purchase a stake in Dogecoin DOGE/USD, adding over $50 million to their balance sheet” pretty much put a crypto cherry on this face-bound pie.

Battle Royale: MixMag got into the fun with an April Fool’s Day article insisting Kanye West and Pete Davidson were going into combat for a charity boxing match on April 29 that would be streamed on Twitch, a subsidiary of Amazon.com AMZN.

The article noted West purchased “over 100 different dumbbells” and was preparing for the bout by “eating a dozen raw eggs every day,” while Davidson didn’t share training secrets but wanted “to thank my mentor, Drake, who’s helped me to prepare so far.”

Not Kidding Around: Still, publicists realize that sometimes releasing serious news on April 1 is not the best idea. Case in point: Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino took to Twitter TWTR to announce that two stars of MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” Snooki and Joey, were bringing their “It’s Happening” podcast to the venue.

But Foxwoods, clearly uncertain whether the Twitterverse would seriously believe the venue was proudly trumpeting the arrival of low-rent reality TV personalities, prefixed their tweet by claiming “This isn't an April Fool's joke.”

Photo: Thomas Hawk / Flickr Creative Commons