The worst April Fools’ jokes are the ones that make you think something cool is happening but turn out to be a big lie, and the best ones involve new episodes of cult classic anime shows, but Netflix is taking a comfortable middle-road this year with an actual announcement tied to a goofy April Fools’ stunt. The central gag is that Netflix has “acquired” Seth Rogen, with the streaming service releasing a video in which Rogen reads through a contract that lays out all of the ways it now owns every aspect of his life. Netflix even sent out a press release that tosses in some idea for what it can do with Rogen now, including a “live-action Shrek remake” starring him as both the eponymous ogre and the love interest Fiona and a new gig as the “executive foot massager” at Netflix’s headquarters.There’s also an extended version of this gag available now on Netflix.
Of course, as serious journalists here at The A.V. Club, we consider it our duty to spoil any and all April Fools’ jokes that come our way. To that end, we have no choice but to explain that Netflix didn’t actually acquire Seth Rogen, because that’s crazy, but it does want everyone to know that he has a new charitable comedy special coming out on April 6 called Hilarity For Charity. We reported on the event back in March, but now it has a proper premiere date and it’s attached to this wacky meta gag about Seth Rogen’s poor career choices and status as a “prolific marijuana-doer.”