The April Fool’s tradition is sometimes difficult to follow: haven’t all the jokes already been made? Lacking the idea or the skills to implement them, some communities have turned to generative AI, with more or less success.
What happens when you combine a slightly outdated tradition and a slightly too flashy use of generative AI? One of the answers is perhaps this “official” inauguration of the Jean-Claude Van Damme fitness area in the presence of the star, posted on the social networks of the town of Joué-lès-Tours. If a little manual intervention via image editing software was surely necessary, the fanciful geometry and uncertain perspectives of the image betray a use of artificial intelligence.
The joke, however, has some truth: Joué-lès-Tours has installed outdoor sports equipment since the summer of 2025, and in particular areas equipped with weight training machines. The photo which served as the basis for the “Jean-Claude Van Damme” area is also the same as that used to illustrate the “Charrons” fitness area, in a housing estate district in the southwest of the town.
Like Joué-lès-Tours, several companies and communities are still playing the game, even if in the year 2026 the pearls seem a little more difficult to find. And unfortunately, AI help doesn’t necessarily make productions better.
Who has never been tired of crossing the parking lot of a large shopping center? Here again, thanks to an image generated by AI, Cap Saran has the solution: a cable car. The shopping center’s Facebook post probably also received a little help from ChatGPT: “Look at this exclusive aerial view! 💇 Construction starts TODAY! Imagine… No more stress!
So perhaps instead of AI-assisted illustrations, nostalgia would lead us to prefer good old photomontages, even the most hazardous ones. Stick two airplane wings on a coach and invent “Air+”, the new service in the Centre-Val de Loire region which offers “100% electric flights” promising to take “height without leaving the region”.
On the Orleans Métropole side, we prefer to bet on a small viral video. In the latter, a new system of intelligent green and yellow bins rejects unsuitable waste, insulting users in the process!
The city of Orleans, for its part, is content with a resounding announcement: the addition of a date at Co’Met in Céline Dion’s next tour. Just that!
So, does the future belong to the nameless horrors generated by AI or will the love of the absurd and the ridiculous be able to maintain its limits? In any case, if the creations of ChatGPT and others can sometimes seem astonishingly realistic, it is clear that the sense of humor has not yet been automated.
