April 1, 2017

"Is it still funny to play tricks on April Fool's Day?"

Asks the UK Independent, offering 3 reasons to say yes...
* The attention paid to April Fool's Day by the media is proof that we all enjoy being taken for a ride

* These are troubled times. It's good to have a day when a bit of anarchic fun is officially sanctioned

* A bucket of water atop the boss's door will surely amuse even the most po-faced colleague
... and 3 reasons to say no....
* It's depressing that the most widespread version of the tradition now takes the form of glorified adverts

* Many people will think it inappropriate to be messing about in a time of global crisis

* It might be a bit of fun to you, but one person's joke is another's cruel jibe, and the line is very fine indeed
Phrased like that, the "yes" side wins. What I think is what I think about jokes in general: It depends on the specific. Is it funny? Is it taking advantage of the gullibility of the kind of person it's good to get a chance to laugh at? Is it creative and different? You've already got that element of sameness in that you're using the April Fool's occasion and format, so what's new here? Are you just cheaply saying something that's not true, upsetting somebody, then quickly taking it back? You can do that any day — announce terrible news — then say "Just kidding." If you wouldn't do that, then you don't have a good enough April Fool's joke. 

17 comments:

Darrell said...

The Lyin' Media should take the day off.

Oso Negro said...

Here in 2017, the daily headlines smack of April Fool's Day. We have lost "normal". One wonders - will we ever get it back? Or is it ever an illusion?

FleetUSA said...

The U.K. Papers love their April Fools issue, just as much as their Valentines issue

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Joyce Carol Oates asks....

How will we recognize April Fool's Day?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Yesterday Gay Patriot temporarily going by 'straight patriot' twitted.

"What's the fakiest outrage news of today that I've missed?"

traditionalguy said...

Dylan woke up this morning in Sweden, where he was told that he could get a Nobel Prize for Literature. That sounds like a cruel joke. In Literature?

Kate said...

The spaghetti farmers of Switzerland! The world was a better place in the 1950s.

rhhardin said...

We need an annual play jokes on a woman day.

rhhardin said...

It's funny until somebody gets their eye poked out.

Then it's still funny, just not around that person.

- usenet

Unknown said...

My husband woke my up saying he had bought us some retirement land on Montserrat. Well, the joke at first was on him, because I thought he meant those quaint French islands just off the coast of Canada. He had to say, no, in the Caribbean, and eventually say, the one with the um volcano . . . But, he wins, because I still bought it hook line and sinker for a bit (helps to pull your prank just when the prankee is waking up!)

rehajm said...

Spaghetti farmers is April Fools greatness but Sidd Finch is The GOAT.

Ha-ha. Cancel my subscription.

Big Mike said...

Just so it's understood that it's ageism to play a prank on a septuagenarian like me!

Jim said...

When I was an adjunct, and taught on AFD, I would do what my beloved late engineering physics professor did on 4/1/1976. He came in acting pissed. He said he was disappointed with us. We had been cheating on homework. He thaught we could do better. We were going to have a pop quiz so get out a piece of paper and put your books on the floor. He would write the question on the board. I WAS PANICKED. He wrote on the board shielding his writing with his body. When he stepped away it said," April Fool's." I was never so relieved in my life. Great joke.

MadisonMan said...

Of course it's not funny because Trump.

tcrosse said...

It's only funny if it's sensitive to the needs of minorities, women, and the LGBTQ community. Everybody else can go to Hell.

JAORE said...

A good April Fools joke must be really good because we are all on our guard.

Perhaps all those extreme left sites could issue a statement that absurdities like Do over elections, impeaching Trump and installing Hillary, or an armed revolution of the left were ONE AND ALL stupid memes all heading towards this April first......

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

My husband got back early this morning from an orchestra tour. I was thinking of ways to prank him -- sorry, hon, I left the door unlocked for you and it blew open and the cats got out and I can't find either of them; sorry, hon, I shattered the carafe and anyway we're out of coffee -- but they all seemed too cruel.