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This Google April Fools’ video isn’t my fault

This Google April Fools’ video isn’t my fault

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Google Gnome

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Google Gnome - April Fools

Google’s annual offering of April Fools’ Day jokes has begun, and the latest is the somewhat clever idea of “Google Gnome,” a Google Home customized for the outdoors that is a little more existentially dour than your average smart assistant.

I say “somewhat clever” because “Google Gnome” is primarily just a bad pun. In fact, it’s a bad pun I made just over two weeks ago on Twitter as part of my ongoing series “Let’s see how many people I can convince to unfollow me.”

Which is worse: the possibility that my tweet inspired this video or the possibility that we both had this idea independently? I have confirmed that Google had the video in production before I made this joke on Twitter, but I still feel responsible somehow.

But watch the video, because hearing a smart assistant tell a small child the truth about life is gratifying. “Really, we’re all compost if you think about it,” Google Gnome informs him. “Almost everything is made up of organic matter, and will return to organic matter.”