I'm not exactly one of the biggest fans of April Fools' Day. I think the best April Fools' jokes are the ones that are clever, simple and not disruptive or harmful; I dislike April Fools that hurt people or seriously embarrass them. For example, a couple of days ago I heard about a prank which involved replacing the jam in someone's doughnuts with chili; this bothered me — what if the recipient had choked because they were expecting jam, or worse yet, had an allergic reaction to the chili?
Such an occurrence would change a harmless prank into a dangerous situation; on the other hand, it's also possible that, since everyone has advance
warning about jokes on April Fools' Day purely on the basis that it is April Fools' Day, the recipient would expect something in their doughnuts. It's also likely that the joker knew their audience, and this was a fairly mild joke by comparison (no pun intended), but even so, I couldn't help but wonder about people who use April Fools' Day as an excuse to pull nasty pranks.
I'm probably sounding boring and unfunny here! What about you? Do you like practical jokes with a potential to embarrass, do you prefer jokes that involve nothing beyond minimal discomfort/danger to others, or do you like both types provided that you know your audience?
At any rate, mini-rant over, and Happy April Fools' Day!
No, I'm not a fan of April Fool's. My friend's roommate posted on Facebook that she was engaged and about 20 other friends of mine changed their relationship status on FB to be funny. To me, that doesn't seem funny... it seems pointless. Then again sometimes I;m called dry and boring.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, you're not boring. :) Those sort of jokes become so commonplace that they're not funny: once, haha; twice, okay; three times, old now; four, yawn!
DeleteClever and rare or unique jokes are good, but not something that has been done ad nauseum.