Michael Phelps Returning to Swimming? The Best Celebrity April's Fool Day Jokes

It's April Fool's Day and this year, Hollywood upped their game with shocking haircuts, major announcements and one scary on-set prank

Photo: Al Bello/Getty

When it comes to celebrity pranks, not everyone can be George Clooney and go around pranking their friends year round.

No, most stars save their jokes until April Fool’s Day. And this year, Hollywood upped their game — with shocking haircuts, major announcements and one scary on-set prank.

Star Trek star George Takei kicked things off, announcing in the early minutes of Saturday that he was planning a run for Congress in 2018 — targeting California’s 22nd District so he can take on Republican Devin Nunes.

Takei told The Daily Buzz that he wanted to take a bigger stand in politics. “With what is going on now in the country, I couldn’t stand by any longer merely as a citizen,” Takei said. “I knew I had to take a bigger stand. So that’s why I’m running for Congress. My hope is to challenge Devin Nunes for his seat in 2018.”

The 79-year-old actor let the world wait over 8 hours before revealing the truth — tweeting a photo of him holding a sign that read, “Gotcha!”

“No, I’m not running for Congress. Happy 4/1!,” he wrote. “But Jon Ossoff is on 4/18. Help him win at electjon.com. Let’s flip Congress in ’18.”

Minutes before Takei’s reveal, swimming champion Michael Phelps took his own stab at an April’s Fools Day prank — tweeting that he was ready to come out of retirement to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“Some dreams/goals you just can’t get rid of,” the 41-year-old athlete wrote. “Been doing a lot of thinking n I’ve decided that I’m going 2 make another comeback! #tokyo2020.”

Sadly, for those hoping the 23-time gold medalist would be trying build on his historic success after his last Olympic Games wrapped in Rio, they’re out of luck.

Team USA quickly screen-grabbed the tweet, posting it to Instagram with the caption “#aprilfools.”

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Rebel Wilson‘s April Fools Day prank had everyone scrambling on the set of Pitch Perfect 3.

The 37-year-old comedian laid on the ground outside one of the film’s trailers, as concerned cast members and crew came to her aid.

Before things got too serious, some of the folks who were in on the prank screamed “April Fools!” — as seen in video of the prank Wilson posted to Instagram.

“Tragic accident on the set of Pitch Perfect 3,” she wrote. “Just kidding! Happy April Fools Pitches! I got you!!!”

For all the Bravoholics out there, Real Housewives of New York City star Bethenny Frankel had a surprise on Saturday — posting a shot of herself on Instagram with a new pixie haircut.

She captioned the shot, “#shorthairdontcare” and “#newseasonnewlook” (among others).

Of course, anyone following Frankel on Snapchat would know the 46-year-old Skinnygirl mogul was just joking around — as her she’s been showing off her bob on the social media site while skiing with her 6-year-old daughter, Bryn.

Gigi Hadid also pulled a hairdo prank, sharing a shot of herself with what appeared to be short hair and scissor emojis. However she later updated the caption to share that it was just a prank.