It’s just not fun anymore.
It used to be kinda humorous in an irreverent way back in the 2000s when Google used April Fools to announce things like the Google Romance search engine, or a facility to archive all your Gmails on printed paper. It was tech making fun of itself.
But these days when the mask is fully off, and we recognise that big tech and social media has been one of the greatest problems the world has ever faced, we’re not laughing any longer.
I loved the time I tried to copy something on StackOverflow and a fake ad popped up for a SO-branded copy/paste device.
I went to the toilet and shouted for my son that I needed toilet roll. When he came in, I grabbed it from him and touched him with my hand, which I had covered in chocolate mousse. Worked a treat.
The onion should post real news on april 1st
They always do. Satirical, but real.
My local newspaper stopped doing April Fools in 2017 due to the problem of fake news and discussions about media’s credibility.
Yeah, no newspapers in Norway have been doing April fool’s since around that time
i opened lemmy to this. april fools definitely cheered me up at least, lol :)
It was never fun to begin with.
It’s extra not fun when you’re not in the US, April 1st isn’t a particularly relevant date and you still have to endure all the “fun” bleeding into real world news because you’re in the cultural imperialism splash zone.
April Fools’ is not of US-American origin…
The culture goop in the splash zone is.
April’s fools is a line break. It reminds people that things don’t have to be as they are, that they’re not on an inescapable path and they can choose to be different.
For one day a year you are made to look for deviations so you know that you can deviate if you want to. You have that option in spite of however many shackles may keep you bound to your route.
It’s not a holiday for the mean to be meaner, it’s a liberation day for the mind.
Yeah, I think the mean prank vibe sucks (obvs, ymmv) but the ‘fake news’ aspect was a positive. Like the original and sadly long lost art of og trolling, the purpose was to remind everyone that you cannot believe everything you read, and you should not suddly react to something just because you read it in a newspaper. If it sounds wild or incendiary, maybe check a couple of other sources before passing it on to friends and looking like a ‘fool’.
Unfortunately, we’ve past the stage where gentle friendly reminders of media literacy are likely to help. Most of us are all too aware we live in an age of misinformation (but don’t agree on what is ‘fake’) so it’s no longer funny.
You’ll love my comment from yesterday!
News sources shouldn’t be playing stupid April fools jokes. Everyone’s a fucking comedian. Certain people don’t get to make cute jokes, i don’t want that from my doctor either.
Today in headlines: Everything is normal. The USA is not the laughingstock of the world. Civil war is not imminent.
Haha! April Fools … yea that kind of sucks, let me try again.
Today in headlines: Elon Musk takes a sledgehammer to a Tesla showroom while screaming “I will fucking beat you to it you filthy terrorists!” … no, see, that could happen … I quit April Fools.
Being a fool has become a year-long occupation for many …
It depends. “Donald Trump wants to annex Wisconsin as the 51st state” wouldn’t be funny. Pocketpair launching a Steam store page for the Palworld dating sim (which was last year’s April Fools joke) was.
But yeah, this isn’t the time for political humor.
I chuckled at “Trump wants to annex Wisconsin” because it is just plausible enough that he would say something like that.
I wonder what the white houses april fools joke will be. Probably something along the lines of “We’re sending humanitarian aid to Myanmar” or something tone-deaf like that
Yass… I woke up today and that’s the first thought that popped into my head. With clowns running the world and their demented jokes as reality… nothing is funny anymore.
OP is exactly right.
April’s fools jokes are tiring. I’m over them myself.
Businesses doing April Fools was fun until every gigantic corporation started doing it. Now it’s just bland, thinly-veiled marketing.
Most are lame. I saw nvid ai one and it didn’t feel surprising and after I found out it was fake, I did not feel fooled. Kinda like someone saying “here have a cup of JAFFA! Jokes on you, it’s orange juice!” Meanwhile some like suzuki slimny is cute and whimsical.
