Posted April 02, 2017 11:57:12

Photo: The Canadian PM has a healthy sense of humour. (Reuters: Ben Nelms)

It's not every day a prime minister can get away with threatening to punch someone, but Justin Trudeau used April 1 to do just that.

The Canadian PM took advantage of April Fools' Day to take a shot at Friends actor Matthew Perry.

Earlier this month, Perry told talk show host Jimmy Kimmel he had beaten up a 10-year-old Mr Trudeau when the two attended school together in Canada.

"My friend … who was also in the fifth grade in Canada, reminded me that we actually beat up Justin Trudeau," Perry said.

"I think he was excelling in a sport that we weren't so it was pure jealousy."

The PM bided his time and fired back on April 1, saying he wouldn't mind taking a shot at Perry's Friends character, Chandler Bing.

The Canadian leader wasn't the only one to make a joke on the notorious pranksters day.

Russia's Foreign Ministry got into the action, posting an audio clip on its official social media pages making light of allegations hackers interfered in the US election.

The recording, supposedly a new automated switchboard message for Russian embassies, prompted callers to press 2 "to use the services of Russian hackers" and 3 "to request election interference".

Companies and media outlets also got into the spirit, with Swedish furniture giant IKEA jokingly issuing a press release announcing it would be launching its own airline.

Snapchat took aim at competitor Facebook, which it has previously accused of cloning its popular "stories" format on photo-sharing platform Instagram, by launching a tongue-in-cheek filter for the day.

National Geographic joked that Tasmania would "drift out of Australian waters" in 40 years.

"Drifting of this speed hasn't been seen since the formation of Australia, it's worrying. If the drifting continues as far as we expect it to, there could be an issue of ownership between Australia and New Zealand," the magazine joked.

Photo: National Geographic based its article on an interview with the fictional Cabinet of Tasmanian and Australian Waters. (Supplied: National Geographic)

Royal watchers might have been heartbroken to realise the Daily Mail's story on Prince Harry marrying girlfriend Meghan Markle was untrue. While the WWF's Scottish polar bear prank drew attention to climate change.

Topics: human-interest, comedy-humour, offbeat, canada, sweden, united-states, russian-federation