
Suggest HN: No April Fools this year - bryanrasmussen
As you get near April Fools, and need to deploy your prank pages, perhaps reconsider doing it. As a general rule April Fools has become less popular on the web the more widespread it has become, and some people might take levity badly given the current world situation - I myself am among the party of people who think everything is open to mockery, but only if the jokes are good. Most April Fools pranks are tedious.<p>Obviously you may not have the ultimate say in what pranks are to be played at your company on the world, but perhaps you can push back on them and point out they might not be as well received as in years past.
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jmkd
I find this a mean-spirited, depressing and (ironically) tone-deaf idea.

1\. People need humour in challenging moments 2\. Black comedy and gallows
humour can lift the spirit at even the worst of times 3\. As much of the
northern hemisphere enters spring we could collectively do with a fillip to
jolt us into a more optimistic mindset

The only value in this proposal I see is that if you are working on a tedious
April Fools prank then yes you should drop it, which is true whatever year we
are in.

~~~
midgetjones
I agree with you, but in agreement with OP, April Fool jokes just aren't
funny. They're inherently mean. You can be funny without tricking someone, and
everyone is already on an emotional knifepoint at the moment.

~~~
jmkd
What about easter-egg style April Fools' like Google's 8-bit maps? Not an
ounce of meanness [https://maps.googleblog.com/2012/03/begin-your-quest-with-
go...](https://maps.googleblog.com/2012/03/begin-your-quest-with-google-
maps-8-bit.html)

~~~
midgetjones
Fair enough, good ones can exist. But every year April 1st becomes such a
barrage of PR stunts, mostly not of that quality, that I'd rather companies
didn't waste the resource.

~~~
jmkd
I definitely agree there is typically a lot of chaff to sort through.

------
gherkinnn
> As a general rule April Fools has become less popular on the web the more
> widespread it has become

Agree. Most are somewhere between tedious and boring. “Oh look, we changed our
company name to [something amusing only to a pencil pusher]. Aren’t we funny.
Buy our products.”

> some people might take levity badly given the current world situation

Disagree and fuck them. The last thing we need is doom and gloom [0]. Few
situations ought to be handled with solemnity. Including funerals. We gain
nothing and only make it worse. What we do need is levity. Some light-
heartedness.

[0] Music genres of that name are encouraged though

 _edited for impact_

~~~
bryanrasmussen
As I said some people would take levity badly, I don't necessarily agree with
them, but there are people who often say things are too serious to joke about
or during.

on edit: submitted before your edit.

~~~
Etheryte
Why do you care what people like that say? Especially so if you say you don't
agree with them.

~~~
bryanrasmussen
I dislike April Fools days jokes, basically it makes everything worthless for
the internet that day and some of it worthless the day after. So I would like
to have people not do it.

In my experience from previous years lots of people on HN seem to feel the
same way because there are always all these pranks, and people complaining
that they're not very funny.

So I would like people not to put out these stupid jokes.

One thing that might help people to decide not to make the pranks is the
observation that some people would find them offensive, given that the purpose
of these pranks are essentially marketing exercises.

As for why I would care what people say, I care to a minimal extent and
tolerate what I see as humorless behavior in the same way that while they
might say that was inappropriate when I make a joke I would like them to
tolerate my viewpoint. Thus if I think something might be offensive to some
people in a context I consider if it is really funny before saying it.

And then I come on HN and laboriously explain my reasoning for every little
bit of politeness I practice because that's just the kind of guy I am.

------
sneak
Hard disagree. We need levity now more than ever as we stare into the abyss,
and there has been a growing trend to be less whimsical and more serious in
hackerdom/technology business in general over the last few decades (eg the
MSFT blanket easter egg ban).

Hoist the jolly roger, and give me your best jokes ever this year.

PS: DEFCON is cancelled

~~~
ape4
Just avoid COVID-19 cure "jokes"

~~~
collyw
And no "quarantine is over" type stuff.

~~~
mschuster91
Serious question, how are people supposed to tell the difference for this one
between a joke and a certain politician's utterings or the demands of ruthless
big-corp leaders?

~~~
akiselev
Critical thinking?

I know it's a foreign concept but I'm sure we can import someone to teach us.

------
chimprich
The best April Fools joke I can remember was an anti-joke, when Google
announced Gmail on the 1st of April. They were promising what were then
unbelievably generous allowances and no one could agree on whether they were
serious or not.

~~~
onion2k
For me, a former Perl hacker, the Parrot announcement represents the best
April Fool's joke.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20100718195724/http://www.perl.c...](https://web.archive.org/web/20100718195724/http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2001/04/01/parrot.htm)

The official Perl.com site announced Perl and Python were going to merge so
you could run both languages in the same interpreter. In itself that was quite
amusing, but the best part is that the Raku project actually adopted the name
for their VM because it could actually do that, and became
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrot_virtual_machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrot_virtual_machine),
so what started out as a proper joke turned out to be real.

------
bArray
Are we supposed to pause comedy until this virus is over? Potentially we could
still be dealing with this till Christmas. Hell, give it another year for
people to begin to come to terms with the misery surrounding the virus. When
shall we start comedy again?

On the other hand, I want to see even more jokes. Yes, the situation is crap,
so even more the need to raise everybody's spirits. If you don't want to see
jokes, log off for a day, some insane Doctors said it won't actually kill you.

I would suggest that jokes that lessen the current virus or deaths surrounding
it would be in poor taste, but each to their own. I personally won't be making
morbid jokes, but I'm not going to fetch the pitch forks out of the garage to
go seek revenge from anybody who does.

------
royletron
Personally I feel I am desperate for some humour in the current climate. I'm
going into my birthday tomorrow isolated and in a few days would greatly
appreciate a chuckle. Go for it.

~~~
mstade
Happy birthday buddy! Here's a joke for you:

> Two elephants were skydiving

> and suddenly one gets a

> Cinnabon bun in the eye.

I have to admit this doesn't seem very funny at all, but someone told me this
and I couldn't stop laughing. Then again, I was twelve at the time. :o)

Hope you have a great birthday, despite the times!

~~~
royletron
I really don't get it.... My three favourite jokes from when I was twelve

* What is E.T. short for? Because he has little legs * How do you titilate and ocelot? Oscillate it's tit a lot. * What is Batman's favourite food? Toast - still don't get why that is funny but even now I laugh.

Thanks for reaching out!

~~~
mstade
Haha I don't get it either. I also have no idea why but the Batman one cracked
me up as well. Maybe I'm wired wrong.. :o)

Thanks for the laugh!

------
DanBC
I agree. I think this comment sums up how I feel:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7609289](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7609289)

> I agree with what people have already said, but I think there's one more
> point to add: people usually over-estimate how funny their own comments are.
> We have a tendency to think, "This idea of mine is hilarious! And different!
> Surely this witticism is the exception." And we are usually wrong. When you
> have N people all doing that, there's a lot of noise.

> I try to gently point this out to people who complain when their attempt at
> humor has been downvoted by the community. It's not that we don't like
> humor. We just don't like banal attempts at humor, which becomes noise. Or,
> put in a less charitable fashion, "You're not as funny as you think you
> are."

------
sdrinf
Good rule of thumb, is April fools is funny, only if the recipient laughs with
you afterwards.

Spreading misinformation is not funny. Making others miserable is not funny.
Schadenfraude is not funny.

We need levity and laughter more than ever. Doing it well is where the
dividing line is. I'd suggest do it well, or don't do it at all.

~~~
QuesnayJr
For me, what makes a good online April fool's joke is the gestalt switch,
where I first believe it, then I read it with increasing incredulity, and then
I remember that it's April 1st.

------
knorker
Kind of agree. No, fuck people who can't handle jokes, but April fool's is
rarely jokes. They're just deliberate humiliations.

Iow: don't do jokes where the punchline is "look how fucking stupid you are
for believing what I said", which is most April fool's jokes.

~~~
threatofrain
Isn’t all of The Onion and what Colbert used to be about? In fact, isn’t that
all satire — bitingly critical mockery?

~~~
knorker
Still not humiliations.

~~~
threatofrain
That's true, it's not humiliating when you aren't being satirized or mocked by
an Onion or Colbert report.

------
quezzle
Cmon it’s the most magnificent of corporate jokiness times. Always funny even
when it’s not a global disaster. How can you bring down such a rich tradition
in which corporations aim only to bring some light to your day?

Organized, planned, workshopped humor on an industrial scale!! What Ho!

------
cranium
Pranks are difficult to do right. They easily can be experienced as
frustrating, aggressive or plain idiotic by the receiver while the giver
thinks it's totally hilarious. It requires a lot of empathy to create a good
prank that doesn't hurt anyone especially when it's experienced online, ie.
without being able to interact with a "WTH man?! - Sorry, tried to prank you
but it misfired. You OK?"

In the good pranks category, I'm especially fond of new product announcements
when it's clear it's a joke like Amazon shipping authors directly or the
Google's "Clean screen" app. They are often refreshing and witty and it's just
what I want from a good joke. And it's free positive marketing if done right.
(Just don't announce your company bankruptcy, like Elon Musk.)

I'm still holding to my idea of swapping a font with
[https://hellveticafont.com/](https://hellveticafont.com/) for a day. I'll
just make sure it's not obstructive and can easily be disabled.

------
steerablesafe
[https://i.kym-
cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/731/143/3e3...](https://i.kym-
cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/731/143/3e3.jpg)

Come on! Just don't make distasteful or obviously bad jokes, otherwise it's
fine, welcome even.

------
thanatos_dem
It’s almost like humor is subjective. Yes, many people suck at it and do it in
wrong or counterproductive ways, especially with the rise of “prank” YouTube
channels and the like which view embarrassing people as the end goal.

But there are other ones that I have found genuinely amusing and funny. The
list of Google’s April fools pranks/features has some real gems -
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_April_Fools](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_April_Fools)

Some of them even lead to products or other real features down the line (like
the 2014 Pokemon google maps explorer, which went on to become Pokemon Go).

Yeah, some jokes miss the mark for me, but I get that my sense of humor isn’t
universal, and frankly I think a bit of levity is important for us right now
as individual and as a culture.

------
Jaruzel
> _Most April Fools pranks are tedious._

Totally agree. Also the problem with most April Fools events online is that
unless you spend 30 minutes scrutinising the page, it's _not apparent_ that
it's a joke or fake. A bad joke is one that no-one gets. _It doesn 't make you
clever to have outwitted your readers, just arrogant._

Let's face it, in these trying times, there's enough fools online and in the
media trying to screw our lives up, lets not be part of that.

~~~
Dylan16807
Most? That's a shame. The ones notable enough for me to remember are all
ridiculous fake product launches, where it's really obvious that they're not
serious (though sometimes it does exist in some form, which just makes it
better).

------
dave333
Repurpose the day for poking fun at King Donald, ordering the tide of Covid-19
to recede! You're fired!

[https://twitter.com/SatiriaNews/status/961271656705613824/ph...](https://twitter.com/SatiriaNews/status/961271656705613824/photo/1)

------
apexalpha
April fools can be very fun. My mom convinced my two younger brothers once
they were moving to Spain and would leave the house in our country to be run
by them. They called friends and family, completely forgot it was April 1st.

On the other hand I have yet to encounter a coporate HR approved April Fools
that have me a laugh.

------
trynewideas
April Fools among people with a mutual understanding of each other is levity.

April Fools as practiced on the internet and directed at strangers is bullshit
on a good day and a headache on a bad one.

I've got enough bullshit to deal with.

------
cessor
I 100% agree with not doing April fools. Humor is important; jokes work with
twisted semantics and surprise. April Fool's websites have neither and just
render the web useless for a day.

------
thebiglebrewski
If anyone _is_ looking for some good humor during this time beyond an ice
cream bar, please check out the latest edition of Techloaf and MASH THAT LIKE
BATON.

[https://us17.campaign-
archive.com/?u=14538d8f8591165977d9a9d...](https://us17.campaign-
archive.com/?u=14538d8f8591165977d9a9d93&id=90727b99c4)

------
bryanrasmussen
I didn't put this into the text field but this might be relevant
[https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/31/15076050/april-fools-
day-...](https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/31/15076050/april-fools-day-pranks-
jokes-terrible)

------
op03
There are creative positive pranks though, that can give people a boost or
atleast a smile.

I like the Michael Carbonaro/Just For Laugh Gags variety. That kind of
positive humor and creativity is helpful during crisis. You can see the effect
it has on people in the youtube comments.

------
teekert
"I myself am among the party of people who think everything is open to
mockery, but only if the jokes are good."

This is the entire issue, as with evil people, no people ever find themselves
to be bad jokers, or evil.

------
michaelscott2
There’s no such thing as an appropriate joke. That’s why it’s called a joke.

------
ASalazarMX
> Most April Fools pranks are tedious.

Reddit usually nails it with their April Fools events. I would hate to see
that lost because we are supposed to be dark and gloomy in times of crisis.

------
thinkingemote
Anyone else remember "too soon" when it comes to making jokes?

Maybe we are seeing "it's never going to not be soon, don't even think of it"

------
collyw
HN doesn't do much in the way of humour anyway.

~~~
schappim
Yeah it is an instant recipe for being downvoted. :-(

~~~
spery
As it should. Empty comments posted for the giggles of author (and maybe a few
others) would just add too much spam. Look at what reddit grew into, you have
templates of comments and meta comments everywhere, very low quality content.

~~~
krapp
Reddit still has plenty of high quality content, even with the jokes and meta-
commentary. And much of the humorless content on HN isn't exactly high
quality.

Indeed, the humorlessness of this place tends to encourage tedious pedantry
and vindictive sniping.

~~~
spery
Totally agree. I feel its too hard to strike a balance between the two.

------
jansan
> some people might take levity badly given the current world situation

Fuck this attitude. Just yesterday I joked in a comment on Youtube about the
quality of James May's video for reminding people to stay at home. I wrote

"James May shamelessly reused the footage he recorded during the Spanish Flu
pandemic".

6600 people liked the comment, it was by far the most liked comment on that
video, until suddenly Youtube decided it was inappropriate and the comment was
no longer displayed. Who are they to decide what people are allowed to find
funny?

~~~
QuesnayJr
That's bizarre. It seems like a completely harmless joke.

~~~
jansan
Yes, and I still think this is hilariously funny. My guess is that Youtube
currently filters all comments that contains coronavirus and related subjects.
And to be honest, there are some truly stupid, awful and potentially harmful
comments. I cannot imagine the comments are filtered manually.

------
meerita
But you put us also in contsant mourn mode where nobody can even relax a bit
with this situation.

------
weego
I'd rather have April fools than virtue signalling

~~~
jsjddbbwj
Dude look how virtuous we are, we avoid making a joke because there's a virus
around. We take everything very seriously. Please buy our products

