--- title: Best April Fools Pranks Ever description: Check out five of the most hilarious viral April Fools' prank videos of all time. canonical: https://time.com/4718246/april-fools-day-funniest-viral-pranks/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-30T17:34:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:24.374Z og:title: The Funniest Viral April Fools' Pranks of All Time og:description: Including that epic John Stamos freakout og:url: https://time.com/4718246/april-fools-day-funniest-viral-pranks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Funniest Viral April Fools' Pranks of All Time twitter:description: Including that epic John Stamos freakout twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Funniest Viral April Fools' Pranks of All Time  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 30, 2017 5:34 PM CUT  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 30, 2017 5:34 PM CUT [April Fools’ Day](http://time.com/4277152/best-april-fools-day-pranks-jokes-2016/ "undefined") is right around the corner, which means it’s time to gear up to play a few [pranks](http://time.com/4629980/hollywood-sign-hollyweed-prankster-arrested/ "undefined") on your unsuspecting friends and family (or at least prepare for them to play one on you). But if you find yourself lacking inspiration as March draws to a close, it’s always helpful to take a look back at the [best gags](http://time.com/3764210/best-april-fools-pranks-2015/ "undefined") others have managed to pull off over the years — especially when they’ve been hilarious enough to land a coveted spot in the annals of viral Internet fame. Check out five of the funniest viral April Fools’ pranks of all time below. **John Stamos’ Netflix freakout:** Netflix took celebrity pranking to a whole new level in 2016 by first releasing a fake trailer for a biopic documentary about the man, the myth, the legend that is John Stamos before “leaking” a video of the actor unleashing his anger over the gag at the company’s office. Of course, it turned out Stamos was in on the whole thing. **Katie Couric takes a tumble:** James Corden may be one of the kings of late night comedy but even he fell for Katie Couric’s fake fall down the _Late Late Show_ stairs. Although most of the credit should probably go to Couric’s stunt double for pulling off that vicious-looking spill. **_Punk’d_** **NBA style:** Golden State Warrior Andre Iguodala partnered with Lyft in 2016 to hilariously trick teammate Festus Ezeli into thinking he was being released from the team right before the playoffs. Unfortunately, this prank became a bit retroactively awkward when Ezeli left the Warriors to sign with the Portland Trail Blazers just a few months later. **The Rickrolling heard around the world:** Riffing off the one of the most well-known YouTube pranks ever, the video sharing site took advantage of April Fools’ Day 2008 by linking all the featured videos on its homepage to Rick Astley’s swaggy “Never Gonna Give You Up” 1987 music video — a practice commonly referred to as [Rickrolling](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1974961%5F1974925%5F1970486,00.html "undefined"). **Math class gets technical:** In 2015, [Matthew Weathers,](http://www.facebook.com/MatthewWeathers "undefined") a math professor at [Biola University](http://time.com/3769495/april-fools-day-2015-math-professor-prank/ "undefined"), arranged an amusing — and elaborate — gag for his class involving a botched trigonometry lesson and some impressive live-action technology tricks. The video has garnered nearly 15 million views on YouTube to date. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4718246/april-fools-day-funniest-viral-pranks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4718246/april-fools-day-funniest-viral-pranks/"},"headline":"The Funniest Viral April Fools' Pranks of All Time","datePublished":"2017-03-30T17:34:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:24.374Z","description":"Including that epic John Stamos freakout","url":"https://time.com/4718246/april-fools-day-funniest-viral-pranks/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Holidays","Pranks","April Fool's Day"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4718246/april-fools-day-funniest-viral-pranks/","name":"The Funniest Viral April Fools' Pranks of All Time"}}]}] ```