April Fool’s joke roundup: some funny, some not funny and some that just sound sensible

Everyone with a Facebook feed saw Google’s eight-bit version of Google Maps (complete with a pixelated CN Tower), but there were other jokesters at work in and around Toronto yesterday:

• WestJet posted a video (above) introducing a child-free cabin program called Kargo Kids, which involves sending kids into the baggage hold to keep them quiet. (Could this be real? Please?)

• A prankster with some Photoshop know-how took the idea of EdgeWalk a little further and worked up a photo of “EdgeSwing,” a carnival-like ride around the top of the CN Tower. Reddit commenters got in on the fun: “I’ve checked, and this is NOT an April Fool’s Day thing. Apparently they hired Richard Dean Anderson to design the whole thing.”

• A lot of unoriginal Torontonians (one every 10 or 15 minutes, according to Newstalk 1010) called the Toronto Zoo asking for “Mr. Jim Panzie,” “Miss Ryna Soris” and the like.

• Twitter abounded with rumours that Rob Ford had resigned. Not everyone thought that was funny.

• Wellington Financial, a Toronto-based finance firm, announced that Jim Balsillie was its new chairman. The Toronto Star called it as a joke, but given Balsillie’s recent troubles, we wouldn’t be surprised if he were looking for a paycheck.