Jenna Bush Hager somehow managed to both win and fail April Fools’ all at once, which is quite impressive.
The TODAY show host staged a cruel joke to play on fellow host Willie Geist, with help from accomplice Arianna Davis, and while it didn’t alllll go to plan — she certainly succeeded in scaring the life out of Geist.
The hilarious bit happened while Jones was hosting a segment on trending topics. She began by speaking about the buzzy Lamar Odom documentary and Raye‘s new album, then transitioned to introducing a special cake which she said had gone “viral” and cost $20,000 because the bakery only made one of them a day.
At this point, Bush Hager got up to take the cake from a production assistant, asking if it was really heavy, before promptly dropping the cake on the floor and spectacularly destroying it.
Jenna Bush Hager attempted to play a prank on co-host Willie Geist. By: TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle/YouTube
Though that was all she was supposed to do with the cake, the host went on to slip and fall dramatically while still holding the platter it came on, as Geist and Davis looked on in apparent shock.
Davis then made a show of crying, “Well, there goes the one cake! $20,000, Jenna!”
By then, though, Geist had already figured it out: “April Fools’, everybody,” he said, adding, “Good job!”
He then explained that he only figured it out after his co-host “went down,” but that they’d otherwise gotten him.
“I did get it all over my shoes,” Bush Hager then said, holding said shoes up to the camera. “I really committed.”
Davis then asked her co-host if the fall was real. “The fall was fake,” Bush Hager said. “I mean, the fall was real!”
“You slipped on the icing,” Geist said, with Bush Hager adding, “We tried to trick Willie.”
The trickee in question said, “I mean, it is suspicious, isn’t it? A $20,000 cake.”
The TODAY show posted a clip from the gag on Instagram, captioning it, “The cake was fake, the fall was real 😂🤣 and JBH is OK! April Fools’, Willie!”
Davis confirmed in the comments, “Y’all, my shocked reaction was real because Jenna was NOT supposed to fall like that 😂.”
Geist added, “FULL commitment from JBH, as always. 🎂.”
One fan added, “Only JBH would wipe out in all white. We love a girl committed to the gag 👏.”