It's no longer easy to play April Fool's jokes on Americans because their reality is so chaotic that it's no longer easy to tell what is real, funny, fake or sad.

I was thinking the same today: if the White House had fabricated an April Fool's joke it would be unrecognizable - unless they developed a really black sense of humor and made a press release like "Trump tells SCOTUS to overturn immunity ruling".

Incidentally, comedians all over the globe have been bitterly complaining about Trump stealing their show since 2016.
- "Trump says he's sorry and will resign effective immediately"
The Sarcasm Industry is on the verge of collapse .... the last time that happened was in the 1930s
- So what you're saying is we should be on the lookout for men who don't have the right or authority to do things, but try to force their way in anyway. Those are the guys who want to be ultimate unquestioned dictator.
  
  Like......maybe we should grab these guys, and throw them out of any meaningful positions of power. And if they're criminals, we should throw them in jail. When you're a criminal they let you do it. So we should just grab them by the balls, and lock them up!
  
  .........I really wanted to include a reference to hunter bidens laptop, but couldn't make it work in that joke.
The Onion has instead switched to reporting real news.
It's a stretch, but i wonder if things like the onion, with us laughing at the insane stories has had any impact on the general reaction to what's happening now. Like people don't really care.
- It's not a stretch.
  
  Q-Anon evolved from joking/trolling/shitposting/whatever_its_called on 4chan, some disinformation narratives share common roots with early internet satire.
  
  I realise that's not exactly what you meant, but I'm sure you see the common thread.

As an American I can say its actually gotten a lot easier, it's all sad. Just sad all the time.

Ditto. If it's not real right now, give it a week or so.
- ”Breaking news: Trump deported to Russia by the Trump administration”

Truth. Half the time I see some satire article from The Onion or similar productions and I have to double take to make sure it’s The Onion and not real. Satire used to be more obviously absurd and mocking. Now it’s too real.

Yep. Everything is so bad if it was telly we wouldn't believe it
I have to double take to make sure it’s The Onion and not real.

TBF that's always been the deeper point of satire.

Immigration Raid Prank GONE WRONG!!! [ICE CALLED, Strip Searched, and DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR]

- I’m stealing this and spamming it everywhere. Thank you.
*kidnapped and disappeared to El Salvador

Deportation involves due process.

It's more like pranking your granny in the nursing home. Still plenty easy to do, but sad and cruel.

HEY GRANDMA! THIS ISN'T YOUR HOUSE!!!!!

HEY AMERICA! THIS ISN'T FASCISM! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!

This is very funny and also terribly sad

Am Irish and this happened to me today. There are no more joeka. Life is a joke

It’s April and we are all the fools.

It feels like there's few pranks these days that don't end up being cruel. We have enough horrifyingly outrageous things in the news, that if the prank is trying to make us think something horrible happened that didn't, we sure don't need that. On the other hand, if it's trying to make us think that something good happened, but it didn't, then that's a really perverse cruelty.

Satire is getting really hard.

Lukewarm take: if the person being pranked doesn't laugh during or immediately following the prank then it's not a prank anymore, it's just being mean to someone. Basically all the things "ruined" as pranks by the current situation fall under this, so it's not really ruined at all.

Pranks also don't work during periods of fascism .... someone is liable to get arrested, beaten or taken away

It has been stated that in these days of misinformation it is bad taste to publish April's fools jokes.
I think it is more of a sign that citizens are terrible at distinguish between lies and facts, which is more depressing.

This is basically the reason i picked my lemmy nom de plume. A sad small quip to remind myself and maybe others that they have made truth out of lies and lies out of truth.

I'm so depressed about what's happening in America, I didn't even attempt any April Fool's jokes

It works if trying to pass off the prank as good news

Yeah there's not much jovial energy to go around either. Any time I see misinformation today I don't go April Fools, I just try to ignore it and move on.

Not even that. Due to globalization you get warned beforehand by the East Asians, Middle East/Middle Asia and Africa/Europe.