Tinder's "Height Verification" for Men Has to Be an April Fools' Joke, Like These Other Stories
Updated April 1 2019, 1:40 p.m. ET
It's April 1 — you know, that time of year when you can't trust a single thing you read on the internet. Due to the nature of the world we live in, companies are ready to jump on any trending phenomenon, no matter what it is, in the hopes of getting some free exposure on social media.
That means participating in hoaxes and pranks that often happen to be very funny. It looks like some this year, however, started their gags a little early.
That's probably a good idea; you can't just drop something right on April Fools' and expect everyone to believe it. So it's perfectly fine if you get a few days' head start and then reveal on April 2 that it's all a gag.
A good prank always has an element of truth to it, too. You can't be way too obvious by putting out something that your company would obviously never produce.
Some of the following April Fools' pranks do a good job of that or at least attempted to keep that in mind, while others went straight for the absurd (here's looking at you, Elon).
The biggest obvious April Fools' prank is Tinder's announcement that they'd be introducing height verification into their application, forcing people to tell the truth about how tall they are.
If you browse Reddit's r/tinder or r/relationships subreddits, or look up internet dating memes, you'll be sure to find a number of examples of men and women discussing height. If the memes are to be believed, the majority of women are looking for dudes who are 6 feet tall and above, and dudes who don't cut meet that cut-off are very upset about it.
Apparently, "height-fishing" is a thing on dating apps, where dudes lie about their height because they want to up their chances of getting right-swiped, and Tinder's announcement is definitely a play on all the hullaballoo surrounding this great height debate.
It turns out that they were right. Even though, if you took two seconds to actually figure out how the dating app could realistically accomplish this from a technological standpoint, you'd see that it's impossible. Still, it definitely rustled some people's jimmies.
It didn't take long for people on Reddit to respond to Tinder's "height verification" post and immediately start calling for "weight verification" for the women using the platform.
Although several men realized this was most likely an April Fools' joke, they still thought it was damaging to the psyches of "short" men out there, who've had to deal with constantly being rejected for their height.
If I'm being totally honest, my height definitely played a factor in me getting any romantic attention from members of the opposite sex despite my annoying personality. So thank you, genetics.
When it comes to the world of fashion, it's kind of hard to discern whether designers are trolling their customers. That might be what this individual was thinking when they designed a pair of "Goth Crocs."
If you had to pick the least goth item of clothing, a Rainbow Brite unicorn bow collection would probably hold that distinction easily.
But Crocs are definitely a close second.
So this Etsy seller must be joking with the "Goth Crocs" they're selling online for a whopping $250 a pair. Created by Instagrammers with a wicked sense of humor and style, these abominations must be an early April Fools' joke that may ultimately nab them a few dollars from goths who need to rep their look while simultaneously staying comfortable.
I mean they're probably great for summertime?
In the defense of Goth Crocs, at least they can refer back to the ugly-as-heck Balenciaga editions if it turns out they were made "seriously."
Elon Musk doesn't really have the benefit of "serious" Harambe raps against which he can defend his very conspicuous April Fools' prank.
The Tesla founder and billionaire thought it'd be a good idea to produce his own SoundCloud track, which is ridiculous on its own.
To add insult, the song by "Jung Musk" is about internet meme sensation and slain gorilla Harambe.
Musk tweeted out the song, along with a series of other weird tweets, like a single duck emoji.
Part of me knows this is simply Musk's attempt at an April Fools' prank, but I'd like to believe he's inherently this strange and has been waiting to release the song he's been dying to make under the guise of it being an April 1 prank. Bless his genius, fossil-fuel-fighting heart.
McDonald's has been keeping the pranks going strong this April 1, too. First, they announced a McPickle Big Mac burger that replaces the beef patties with just...a ton of pickles.
The best part is that pickle-lovers are now suggesting the prank should become a reality because they want to get their hands on some brined cucumbers and three slabs of bread STAT.
While that prank was probably obvious, and was most definitely made with Mickey D's "Create Your Taste" experience, their other April Fools' Prank, "Shake Sauce," seems a bit more deeply rooted in reality.
All of us have probably, at one point or another, dunked our french fries into a milkshake for a little sweet & salty goodness.
Pre-packaging dairy-based desserts into little plastic tubs to dip McNuggets into, however, doesn't sound all that appetizing.
There are some places that went the troll route entirely, la Tinder. Like when Metro "vowed" to ban "straight white men" from the comments section of their articles.
They're definitely looking to grind some gears with that one.
BBC's iPlayer promised to skip right past the sex scenes in TV shows to avoid any awkward interactions between you and other people you may be watching this.
Gosh, I wish I actually had this when I was growing up. All the beatings I would've escaped.
Bear Grylls and the World Scouting association teamed up to announce that they were taking the next generation of Boy and Girl Scouts to explore the moon.
And the Royal Mint in the UK announced they would be issuing "Emoji Coins." Imagine paying for a pack of bubblegum with a silver poop half-pence. Amazing.
If you're tired of dealing with creepy Uber drivers, then why not just slap down a few shekels for the Uber pogo stick?
And what better game to play while you're rocking your Goth Crocs than the amazing, fun-filled "All-Black" Twister!
Honorable mention: the "news" that Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are headed towards a divorce...even though there aren't any reliable sources cited. Nice try. A couple that has 700 weddings probably isn't going to get divorced after just being together for 3 months.
