For another year, companies around the world celebrated April Fool’s Day with a number of zany ads. Japanese companies joined in the fun with a number of gags, including a “real-life” Adobe Photoshop kit, Volvo’s airbag for cell phone users on the go, and Coca-Cola’s new corporate business cards that are printed on a Coca-Cola bottle.

However, one Japanese commercial in particular seems to be garnering a lot of negative attention from China. Anime channel, Animax, released a live-action commercial promoting a new product for the person-on-the-go, who simply must watch anime on their phone, but also needs to be hands-free. Here’s the video that introduces it:

The commercial, titled “pillow word” in Japanese, is quite elaborate. For those unfamiliar with the term, a “pillow word” is a pun in which one new word is made up of other words. Kotaku helps explain the intricacies of the joke:

The name “teburakuchin” is a wordplay on “empty-handed” (手ブラ or tebura), “comfort” (楽 or raku), and penis (チンチン or “chinchin,” チンコ or “chinko”). “Rakuchin” (楽チン) also means “easy going.” But yes, all the phallic jokes are on purpose.

While you may need intimate knowledge of the Japanese language to get the entirety of the joke, it’s a pretty decent sight gag. As the photo below illustrates, the special appendage allows our hero to watch all the anime his heart desires, completely hands free.

Unfortunately, not everyone enjoyed the commercial for what it was: an April Fool’s joke. Numerous reports described the cell phone peripheral as a legitimate and fashionable accessory among the public:

The Japanese have discovered that everybody is always holding up their phones for too long, tiring their arms. Therefore, a smart and clever person of the island nation has invented a magical device to allow hands-free operation…it is an effective peripheral!

Here’s Sina Video’s introduction:

My eyes are bleeding [doge.emoji] Japanese people feel that using both hands to hold up a phone is too strenuous… therefore.. a strange, magical device has been invented… majestic and impressive… they also have specially-designed models for women.

Some Weibo users also took time to comment on the Japanese product:

• Are you courageous enough to use this? The great cellphone peripheral invention of the Japanese people.
• A new cell phone brace has come out in Japan, it is too much
• This is a new selfie peripheral that was just researched and developed in Japan, give it a try. [evilface.emoji]

With the emphasis on the Japanese origin of the invention, the Chinese netizen response was mostly negative. Just about everyone ignored the fact that it was an April Fool’s joke, despite the posted picture announcing “Happy April Fool’s Day”. The Chinese response was unduly harsh, targeting the Japanese people themselves:

富地装修：
Again it’s the Japanese who have come up with such a thing.

小风吹嗖嗖:
Perverted people of the Yamato (an early Japanese state that existed before recorded history)

浅葱—：
Japanese are extremely perverted people [byebye.emoji]

丫丫的抽抽：
Seeing that it is Japanese has made it seem much more normal to me

方悟净：
Honestly, I am speechless. The Japanese really are a mysterious people. They are a marvel, and another kind of marvel. (One is a complementary term, one is a derogatory term).

做个安静的土肥圆：
Japanese people are really disgusting, I want to throw up when I see one.

黑夜彩虹1008149305：
Inferior, perverted Japanese people.

路是心的痕：
This kind of thing could have only been sold in Japan…

浙江的记者：
I can’t take it anymore… this kind of invention has made me think they are properly and without peer the most stupid people in all the world.

QQ-97806：
Again, something created by those islanders.

一线blog：
Perverted people make perverted inventions.

缥缈_虚幻：
These perverted island people are past the point of saving.

一只老虎一只猫：
These are the most perverted people (in the world), bar none. [pickingnose.emoji]

One takeaway from all this could be that Chinese can’t recognize an April Fool’s joke; after all, the tradition isn’t celebrated in China. We can only hope that next year, netizens will take a look at the calendar before automatically believing a commercial that does more than just border on the ridiculous, it pole vaults right over it.