The latest season of The Bachelor ended on a controversial note after leading man Arie Luyendyk ended the final episode by breaking up with the woman he'd proposed to in order to rekindle his romance with the runner up. Dumping poor Becca Kufrin on camera when she believed they were going strong and ready to enjoy a romantic weekend getaway alienated plenty of fans, and his explanation for doing so before running back to Lauren Burnham didn't win many of those fans back. #TeamBecca loyalists probably aren't going to come around any time soon, even with Arie on his best behavior. Unfortunately, Arie and Lauren made an attempt at April Fool's humor that definitely didn't go well:
Arie Luyendyk posted the first tweet that indicated he and Lauren Burnham were going to be parents -- and that Lauren managed to become SUPER pregnant in the month since she accepted his proposal on the Bachelor: After the Final Rose special -- in the afternoon on April 1. He followed up by another tweet, an hour and a half later, proclaiming "APRIL FOOLS!" Basically, he let fans on social media believe that he and Lauren were happily expanding their family for an hour and a half, less than a month after he broke up with Becca on camera, which... Too soon, man. Too soon.
All things considered, Arie's April Fool's joke was a risky move. He and Lauren have faced their fair share of backlash in the wake of how he dumped Becca and then joyously got engaged in the After the Final Rose special. While he's not the first Bachelor leading man to earn the ire of fans for his behavior on the show, I think it's safe to say that he's the only one to have billboards slamming him. For her part, Becca has been as polite as can be expected, and she scored a gig as the next Bachelorette. Still, fans weren't afraid to hold back in telling Arie exactly what they thought of his "prank," and most of what they had to say was decidedly negative. One person on social media had a suggestion for how he should handle the situation:
There's no saying if Arie actually saw that particular tweet; if he did, he obviously didn't take the advice. Both the original post and the "APRIL FOOLS!" post are still up. Another person on social media took a different approach to critiquing his tweet by going to the social media evidence. Take a look:
Some pranks just can't hold up in the current era of social media, especially for public figures like the controversial (and most recent) Bachelor contestant and the woman he went back to after dumping the woman he chose first. Lauren is not visibly pregnant in the picture posted not too long ago, and the April Fool's photo shows a woman who is very pregnant. Still, not everybody who saw Arie's tweet are quite as fluent in his and Lauren's social media posts, and a lot of them were not amused for another reason. The fake pregnancy prank drew outcry from those who believed he was making light of issues like infertility and miscarriage. Arie addressed the outcry a day later:
Maybe Arie should just stay off of social media for a while. He and Lauren weren't the most popular people on the internet before this April Fool's prank; something tells me this won't exactly help. Not all April Fool's pranks can be as funny as what Pornhub pulled. We can only wait and see what happens next for these two.
The Bachelor is done for the time being, although it did recently score a renewal for another season. Becca Kufrin's season of The Bachelorette kicks off on May 28 on ABC. For more viewing options now and in the coming weeks, check out our midseason TV premiere guide and summer TV premiere schedule.
