April Fools Day is the dumbest holiday in existence
The only person laughing is usually the person who made the joke and it's generally just irritating to everyone else who just wants to get on with their day. I might feel differently if we like, got the day off work for April Fools Day I guess
Nah man, keep in mind what people have considered jokes in the past x years. The "its only a prank" crowd in the past years have been absolutely atrocious. In fact they have not been jokes or pranks at all.
They have been things to totally humiliate the people. I have a feeling this is the kind of joke or prank that happened.
Even if its not the case, its totally possible the joke caused multiple people to laugh AT OP instead of WITH everyone.
A good prank gets the prankee to laugh along with everyone. For instance sending a singing telegram to someone would cause slight embarrassment, but would still be entertaining for everyone involved as long as they don't work at a funeral home or something like that.
The dumbest ones are when they mess with someone's car by covering it with something or filling it with something like plastic balls or whatever. That's just mean and not creative.
I honestly didn't realize yesterday was April Fools Day until I read this post a few minutes ago. I worked all day, and I'm a little sick, so I read a book, ate dinner, chatted with my partner who never mentioned it, and I went to bed early.
I guess it just depends on where you live and who you're around. I don't work in a particularly serious workplace or anything, and I interact with people through the day, but I guess everyone was just like, "nah" on AFD this year. And because I wasn't on social media or Lemmy etc much yesterday, I didn't even notice.
I absolutely loathe this day. Most of it is just dumb, silly and annoying. Especially when this dumb shit gets forced on you by companies whose marketing teams think they’re clever.
I also used to work at a radio/TV station where we covered pranks during april fools. That was a real eye-opener: there are waaaaay too many idiots out there who fall for jokes and take things at face value. Basically, they’re a cruel way to mess with vulnerable, gullible people.
Now, if someone wants to make a joke at their own expense, go for it. But don’t do it at the expense of others.
Bingo, on both accounts. April 1 is now a marketing tool for companies, and all of those are just annoying now (mostly because they're so worried about the blowback they won't do anything anyway)
And for the second, way too many people forget that jokes end with both parties laughing at the end. Maybe something missed something, or fell for something, but it should be small and lighthearted, not something where they actually feel embarrassment or anger afterwards. If only the joke teller is laughing, then it wasn't funny.
Now lighthearted things where both people end up laughing? Have at it, it's one day of lighthearted joking - but anymore that's rare.
This is true, but the same can be said about Christmas and Easter. At least April fools only has to be endured for one day; the Xmas bs starts in mid oct now
At our radio station, we start Christmas music on December 6th, right after the Dutch celebration of Sinterklaas. And like every other station out there, we play the same exact ten songs every hour until december 27th.
Most people probably aren’t really aware, but as a station you get sent a LOT of unsolicited music. Which also includes a ton of Christmas themed songs starting around June. Everyone wants to be the next Mariah Carey.
One year, our music programmers decide to get creative: “Everyone has the same playlist. Fuck that! We’ll play the Christmas songs nobody else plays!”
So they meticulously comb through that mountain of CD’s that we got throughout the year, digging up the proverbial diamonds in a pile of manure. And they put together a lovely playlist featuring unique, decent songs.
December 6th rolls around. 9 AM. It’s The Big Day. The new playlist goes live. By 9.15 the first calls come in. By 10 AM, the phone is red hot with calls. By 11 AM, someone phones in an honest-to-God death threat. The listeners aren’t having it; they want goddamn Mariah Carey or nothing at all. So by midday, the new playlist gets yanked and replaced by four-times-per-hour ‘All I want for Christmas is you’.
And since that year, we know better than to get creative around Christmas. Don’t fuck with Mariah Carey fans…
For me, the thing i find most annoying about april fools are the days afterwards. I don't know if a piece of recently uploaded media is actually real or satire until I check the date its uploaded.
Its twice as irritating as an Australian because if you dont wait till the day is over to share things you just get bombarded by Americans telling you it isnt April 1st yet because they dont understand time zones.
Blame the king who wanted January 1st to be New Year's instead of April 1st. Were it not for him we'd still be using the far more logical start date of April 1st and there wouldn't be any pranks to make fun of people who think that the beginning of spring is a better start to the year than the dead middle of winter.
Yeah I don't know about "logical", I'd say it's arbitrary either way. I think in Asia the calendar traditionally aligned that way, since spring is "beginnings", but it seems every bit as logical to put the new year around the winter solstice.
A good and proper prank leaves both Parties happy and satisfied with the prank. Otherwise it's basically just harassment.
Secondly, it should only be done on willing people, usually this limits you to people you know, and know would be accepting of such interaction.
Prank culture has gotten sour and uncouth at this point so I can agree many people (for lack of a better phrase) "do it wrong". But really it is fun and can be a great form of bonding when done correctly as well as even potentially a way to show how well you know someone by personalizing it in a really fun way.
Years ago I had roomies and we had a figurine that randomly appeared about the apartment. if you saw it or found it you'd move it to a funny spot to prank the other roommates. It'd show up in pantries, the shower, on top of doors, outside your window, holding random stuff, etc. It was great, everyone enjoyed it and left everyone with good memories. That's IMO, a good prank.
100 Percent in agreement. Always hated the day, but now that it's the anniversary of my mom's brain cancer diagnosis I cannot stand the stupid jokes and shit eating grins.
Lol try saying that on someone's April 1st post. You'll get a lot of angry people because you think it's annoying and you're just "ruining their fun". It's been a fun morning lmfao
To me, having to pretend that the comodification of romance is remotely romantic is far more stupid. However, I'd say April fools is definitely second place for most dumb.
April Fools day was fun for me when I was younger and the internet really didn't exist. But today as an adult and dealing with the onslaught of responsibility and mis/disinformation from the internet has made me cynical of this day. Could be that I'm becoming jaded.
You know the wrong people. Most i get are clever and planned. Or they don't do it at all. My wife's selling hand dyedB yarn & this April's new quality was "Silky Mint" - and guess what: people bought it. 500m floss to knit what? A dentists coat???
When my daughter was about 5 years old, we made an entire dessert dinner for April fools. We made mashed potatoes and scooped them onto the plate like ice cream, and a gravy that looked like chocolate syrup. We made meatloaf in the shape of candy bars, and there was some kind of vegetable thing to but I forget what it was.
It was awesome. When her mom feigned surprise, she let out those deep belly laughs that little kids do.
I'm sure some of you toxic, horrible people don't have fun on April fools, but the rest of us are crushing it.
there is no ceremony, history, or celebration of any kind. It's as much a "holiday" as national taco day or anything else you want to make up. Even wikipedia has it listed under "unofficial holidays" which, in my opinion, makes it not a holiday.
Also, you seem like an asshole.
A high-profile incident where a takoyaki restaurant in the Philippines started a challenge on Facebook where participants had to ink the restaurant's logo on the forehead. The guy was compensated with ₱100,000 ($1773). That incident alludes Personal Injury Court episode where a contestant won $100,000 after he was jokingly inked with station's call sign on his forehead.
One of my coworkers told everyone to have a great 3 day weekend. I wasn't aware of a 3 day weekend so when I checked the calendar, Monday was April 1st. I thought it was actually a very good prank because I almost believed it. Turned out it really was a 3 day weekend because of Cesar Chavez day so technically, we did get the day off on April Fools.