April Fools fail or win?

[living_in_hell]

I posted on Facebook that I got engaged. Entirely too many of my friends believed me. I thought it was funny but I now fear some may be mad at me.

What say you--should I have simply said "I am marrying corn"?

Really--what is the big deal? Why do people take this so seriously?

[jackdavinci]

Did you tell your SO?

[Oakminster]

Some people take it seriously because you lied about a major life event. It wasn't clever, edgy, or cool, it was stupid and thoughtless. That tends to piss people off.

[Rhiannon8404]

Fail.

Making jokes about life events that most people hold to be important and/or serious is going to piss people off. People who were excited and happy at your news, did not enjoy getting the rug pulled out from under them.

[Idle Thoughts]

I had a friend do this on Facebook last year on April 1st. A lot of people were pretty pissed off when they found out it was a joke, so it never seems like a good idea.
That's because (I think) that has a high probability of being real, no matter what the day. If you're looking for the right prank, it needs to be something a bit more outlandish, in my opinion.

Take mine for example. Every April 1st I'll change my profile photo (on Facebook) to a girl and make a status "confessing" that I've been a girl all this time and that I'm sorry for lying to everyone. This is obviously found out fairly quickly since I have a lot of people on my friends list who know me in real life...so even if people fall for it for a little bit, it's usually revealed sort of quickly, and then the rest of the day is set aside for puns and jokes in the replies.

With your announcement, people are taking it more at face value and feel happy for the person, so it's going to upset people more when they find out it isn't true.

[YogSosoth]

Say you're marrying bacon, as per the recent commercials. That might make a few of your friends chuckle

[DrFidelius]

Seriously, dude. Confess to being a Bigfoot, or an alien cephalopod, or an ATF agent who has been collecting information all this time. Change your pic to a black square. Coordinate with another friend and have a knock-down evil Status fight. But don't lie about becoming engaged - unless it's to Snookie, with appropriately badly Photoshopped pictures.

[living_in_hell]

Wow--I guess the thought of making a joke on a holiday all about making a joke would have been funny. I didn't realize there were such "rules"

PS: I have transgendered friends and making a joke about being the opposite sex would be in bad taste and borderline hatred. I would never ever joke about that--especially given the high rates of prejudice towards an already marginalized population.

[Punoqllads]

April Fool's Day is serious business. Every year sweatshops in China crank out millions of low-cost generic gags: "I'm pregnant", "I'm engaged", "I'm married". Perhaps some of your facebook friends are less disappointed that you posted nearly the same message as five or six of their other friends, and more concerned about the worrying trend of globalization, and assume that your message is yet more evidence of such. Next year consider buying your April Fool's Day gag from a local vendor, or make up an original one yourself.

[living_in_hell]

Well if it's such commonplace then why didn't they just say, "ho--I know you didn't post that knock-off up in here!"?

[Punoqllads]

Well, maybe they're just noobs. They'll eventually become as jaded as the rest of us.

[tellyworth]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

Wow--I guess the thought of making a joke on a holiday all about making a joke would have been funny. I didn't realize there were such "rules"

You didn't make a joke. You merely said something that wasn't true.

[Grumman]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

Wow--I guess the thought of making a joke on a holiday all about making a joke would have been funny. I didn't realize there were such "rules"

Of course there are rules - a fake holiday is no excuse for acting like a jerk. If you wouldn't lie to your friends about being engaged on any other day of the year, don't do it on April 1st.

[Miller]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

Wow--I guess the thought of making a joke on a holiday all about making a joke would have been funny. I didn't realize there were such "rules".

Something doesn't become funny just because you do it April 1st. Your joke wasn't outrageously offensive or anything, but there's nothing remotely funny about it. Like a previous poster said, you just posted something that was a lie. Your friends are pissed because you jerked them around in service of a "joke" that was not clever, original, or amusing.

[Little Nemo]

I don't think this is a huge thing. It was April Fool's Day. People should accept things with a grain of salt.

Now, announcing some tragic news like a divorce, a death in the family, or a terminal illness - that would be wrong.

[Scarlett67]

A friend's kid learned the phrase "Just kidding" around age five. Soon he took to telling people things that were perfectly plausible . . . followed by "Just kidding."

"My brother just fell down the stairs! . . . Just kidding."

"We're going to the Broncos game tomorrow . . . Just kidding."

He thought this was high hilarity. They had to explain to him about how jokes work and the boy who cried wolf.

This reminds me of that. Basically, you trolled your friends. And it wasn't funny.

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

I found out I was pregnant on April fools. My husband refused to believe me. This resulted in a fight and all kinds of stupidity. If I had a do over I would wait to tell him the next day.


Moral of the story #1: Save life altering revelations to the next day.


Moral of the story #2 My ex was an ass.

[Inner Stickler]

Originally Posted by Scarlett67

"My brother just fell down the stairs! . . . Just kidding."

I dunno. I laughed. I guess I have a five-year-old's sense of humor.

(The question is: which five-year-old?)


I gotta agree with the others. Posting on facebook that you're engaged on April 1st is first and most unforgivable, hackneyed and secondly there just isn't a joke to it. It's not that there are rules for April Fool's Day. (Well, I'd advise against breaking laws.) It's that people instinctively feel angry when they feel they've been made a patsy. If there's nothing clever or humorous about the reveal there's nothing to protect the joke teller from everyone's ire.

[Buttercup Smith]

Originally Posted by Mona Lisa Simpson

I found out I was pregnant on April fools. My husband refused to believe me. This resulted in a fight and all kinds of stupidity. If I had a do over I would wait to tell him the next day.


Moral of the story #1: Save life altering revelations to the next day.


Moral of the story #2 My ex was an ass.

Well congrats are in order.

[living_in_hell]

I have a question for all of you who take such a strong stand on what constitutes an acceptable joke.

What is your idea of funny? I'm genuinely curious.

[excavating (for a mind)]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

I have a question for all of you who take such a strong stand on what constitutes an acceptable joke.

What is your idea of funny? I'm genuinely curious.

OK, I'll play.

Several years back, where I worked was a plant superintendent who I'll call Idiot Bob. Well, as you can imagine, this particular Robert wasn't well liked. One morning, one of the General Foremen called me about some issue he was having. I talked him a bit about his problem, then about other sundry things, and ended the conversation with "Oh, have you heard? Idiot Bob gave notice." Of course, "giving notice" refers to the usual business practice of giving two weeks notice when resigning your position. Well, I had the foreman going. He wanted details, when? Where was he going? etc... I had to tell him I didn't know. Then asked him if he knew what day it was. He was silent for what seemed like 30 seconds (probably was 5), then uttered a curse. Laughed. Then said, "I have to call John with this one", John being the other General Foreman who worked at the same plant.

For a good April Fools prank to work and not be held against you, you have to let the mark know he's been had before he has too much emotional investment in the prank. Once they invest their emotions, you can't come out looking good.

The only reason my prank worked as well as it did, in my opinion, was because the mark didn't have time to time to evaluate the news before I let him in on it. When he figured it out, he realized that he only believed it in the first place because he wanted to (which was true, Idiot Bob was the kind of super that the Manufacturing Manager could make eat dirt if he told him to, and everyone knew it; I doubt he ever voluntarily quit any job in his life). If I had just left my friend hanging until he found out from others that he fell for a lie, I doubt he would have found it to be funny.

At least, that's my take.

excavating (for a mind)

[cmyk]

Yeh, it's gotta be neutral news, but what makes a good AF prank is it's outlandish mostly in hindsight. Don't play AF "blue" if you care about pissing off people; that is don't fuck with real emotions from people you care about.

I didn't do anything this year, but a year or two ago, I took two consecutive pics of myself, one closer with my hat and glasses on, and the other just behind where I was with my hat and glasses off, wearing a different shirt and photoshopped the two together, with a caption something like, "My twin bro's back in town, good to see him again!" on Facebook.

Of course, my close family and friends knew it was a joke, but the responses of "WTF?! I never knew you were a twin!" by my other 200+ friends were great. No harm, no foul.

[Alan Smithee]

Eh, it's not a very funny April Fool's joke, but I don't think it's egregious, either, unless you're dating someone. Otherwise, those most likely to be invested emotionally are also those most likely to realize how out-of-the-blue it is.

I guess it depends a bit on your personality, too. I have one friend who regularly posts things like that that aren't true, not just on April Fool's, and relies on the implausibly to make it clear it's a joke. It's not funny, either, but I couldn't see getting mad at him for it. It's his schtick, and if you know him enough to care, you know he's trolling. Other friends, I'd be more likely to believe, and might feel a bit put out if they got me. Still wouldn't be mad, though.

[Jragon]

Originally Posted by Mona Lisa Simpson

I found out I was pregnant on April fools. My husband refused to believe me. This resulted in a fight and all kinds of stupidity. If I had a do over I would wait to tell him the next day.


Moral of the story #1: Save life altering revelations to the next day.


Moral of the story #2 My ex was an ass.

My friend's girlfriend pulled a pregnancy stunt last year. She started BAWLING that he wouldn't believe her and was an asshole and had fake pregnancy tests and everything, got her friends in on it.

It really was a prank. It was a really assholish one too, took her hours to get him to give in.

So yeah, I'd say wait until the next day. Not because you SHOULD have to, but because it's not uncommon for people to go to extreme lengths to make a really shitty joke.

[Miller]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

I have a question for all of you who take such a strong stand on what constitutes an acceptable joke.

What is your idea of funny? I'm genuinely curious.

You don't ask small questions, do you?

All humor is ultimately based on the subversion of expectations. You create a scenario in which the outcome should be x, but at the last minute, you reveal that the outcome is really y. For some reason, humans really love that shit.

However, your joke subverts those expectations in the most primitive way possible. The subverted expectation is simply, "You thought I was telling the truth, but it turns out I wasn't!" There's absolutely no nuance to it, no subtlety, no thought to it. It's exactly like Scarlett's story about her friend's kid. Being a little kid, the idea that a person could say something that was precisely the opposite of true was probably a pretty neat idea, and he thought that was hilarious, because he'd never really encountered it before. But to anyone over the age of, say, six or so, the fact that people lie is not a novel idea. A joke that's premised entirely and solely on the idea that you said something that wasn't true is literally the most hackneyed joke you could have possibly come up with. It's simply not funny at all in any context involving people old enough to tie their own shoes.

Of course, most people don't get upset just because a joke isn't funny. The problem with your joke is that it's actively cruel to the people you're playing it on.

See, when you tell people that you're getting engaged, most of them will be thrilled for you. They're your friends and family, they care about you, they want good things to happen to you, and when good things do happen to you, it makes them happy. When your friends saw what you had posted, I suspect most of them were extremely happy to hear the news. They probably went around all day, thinking, "Wow, that's so great that living_in_hell is getting married! I'm so happy for her!"

And then, when you tell them it was a "joke," you take that happiness away from them. For entirely understandable reasons, people really, really resent when you take something away from them that makes them happy. They tend to get super pissed about it.

Now, it is possible to make that sort of joke work, but here's the key: it is impossible to do this over Facebook. In the example posted by excavating, he did something similar: he told a co-worker something that was untrue, but that made his coworker happy. But he did it in such a way that his coworker did not have time to get overly engaged in the idea that the company jerk was leaving. Having not had the opportunity to emotionally invest in the idea, he was not particularly hurt when he found out the truth. If excavating had waited a week to tell the truth, his coworker would probably have been a bit more upset. On Facebook, you have very little ability to control how long people are operating under the false assumption you've given them. Even if you post the truth in a very short period, there are going to people who read the joke, but don't see the punchline for some time. It's pretty much a guarantee for hurt feelings and resentments.

Bottom line: apologize to your friends for jerking them around, and avoid playing April's Fools jokes. It's a lame "holiday" to begin with, so you're not missing out on much.

[Grumman]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

I have a question for all of you who take such a strong stand on what constitutes an acceptable joke.

What is your idea of funny? I'm genuinely curious.

On another forum, some lucky timing let me convince someone that the forum had run out of smilies because he'd used them all up.

[amanset]

A friend of mien did the exact same thing. She'd always said to her friends that her and her partner didn't understand the need for marriage, they were happy together and that's all they needed.

I fell for it. I congratulated them. I slapped my head. I thought it was funny.

[DrFidelius]

Originally Posted by amanset

A friend of mien did the exact same thing. She'd always said to her friends that her and her partner didn't understand the need for marriage, they were happy together and that's all they needed.

I fell for it. I congratulated them. I slapped my head. I thought it was funny.

Yes, but you had a set-up to the announcement, and the humor comes from you recognizing the dicotomy between past statements and your willingness to immediately believe they had changed their minds.

living_in_hell seemed to believe that "Ha! I lied to you all!" is in and of itself a sufficient payoff.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

Really--what is the big deal? Why do people take this so seriously?

The big deal is that you lied to them for your own amusement. They believed you (why shouldn't they?) and now they feel manipulated.

Not a big mystery.


mmm

[jali]

I don't see what's so bad about his joke. I don't understand the big deal or emotional investment in a simple status update that doesn't hurt anyone.

Not amazingly funny (unless I knew the person), but not pile-on material either.

Y'all sound like a bunch a grouchy -pants.

[tdn]

Originally Posted by DrFidelius

Change your pic to a black square.

"Got any cheese?"

[kayaker]

Saturday we went to visit a friend of my gf . When I used the bathroom, I pulled a bullion cube out of my pocket, removed the shower head, inserted cube, replaced shower head.

Yesterday, when I didn't hear any outrage, I verbally investigated. Turns out the bathroom I used is a guest bathroom that is rarely used. Fail. At least for now.

[YogSosoth]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

I have a question for all of you who take such a strong stand on what constitutes an acceptable joke.

What is your idea of funny? I'm genuinely curious.

I think, to me, when there is a groin shot somewhere. It doesn't even have to be that kind of joke, like "Why did the chicken cross the road?" *groin shot* Hahahahaha!

[Freudian Slit]

Originally Posted by YogSosoth

I think, to me, when there is a groin shot somewhere. It doesn't even have to be that kind of joke, like "Why did the chicken cross the road?" *groin shot* Hahahahaha!

It's a tough call. "I'm engaged. Just kidding" had lies and hurt feelings and drama. But "Why did the chicken cross the road -- GROIN SHOT!!!" had a GROIN SHOT.

[Inner Stickler]

Originally Posted by jali

Y'all sound like a bunch a grouchy -pants.

Hey, jokes are serious business.

[Maus Magill]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

Wow--I guess the thought of making a joke on a holiday all about making a joke would have been funny. I didn't realize there were such "rules"

Originally Posted by tellyworth

You didn't make a joke. You merely said something that wasn't true.

As I had to explain to my eight year old, April Fools' Day is not a license to tell lies.


In order to be a joke, you need some sort of pay off. You set up tension and then release it in an unexpected way.

"I'm getting married.... April Fools!" isn't funny. There's no pay off.

"I'm getting married... to corn," has potential to be funny, depending on the audience.

[neuroman]

FAIL--but only because your joke wasn't that funny.

One of my acquaintances "broke" his engagement on Facebook on April 1. I smelled a rat immediately and was sorely tempted to write "thank god! Sarah was such a bitch, we were all wondering when you'd come to your senses."

[Autolycus]

Originally Posted by Miller

<snip>

9/10, -1 point for 'get off my lawn' anti-silliness agenda.

As for the OP, I had a friend announce she was pregant on April Fool's, and she actually was! I thought that was interesting at the very least.

[DigitalC]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

Wow--I guess the thought of making a joke on a holiday all about making a joke would have been funny. I didn't realize there were such "rules"

PS: I have transgendered friends and making a joke about being the opposite sex would be in bad taste and borderline hatred. I would never ever joke about that--especially given the high rates of prejudice towards an already marginalized population.

The thing is saying "I'm engaged" is not a funny joke at all, which violates the one and only rule about making jokes. It was a lame joke not because you are making fun of being engaged, but because you are not making fun of anything at all, you are just saying something that isn't true and that is somehow supposed to be funny.

[BigT]

Originally Posted by jali

I don't see what's so bad about his joke. I don't understand the big deal or emotional investment in a simple status update that doesn't hurt anyone.

Not amazingly funny (unless I knew the person), but not pile-on material either.

Y'all sound like a bunch a grouchy -pants.

I know. I'm a pretty sensitive guy, and I don't see what's so bad about this either. The point of the holiday is to try and make someone believe something that isn't true, and then shout, "April Fools!" when they act like they believe it.

All this talk about jokes is irrelevant, because it's not about a traditional joke. If anything, it's more akin to a practical joke. There is no setup and release, just the joy of having tricked someone, and then the fun of trying to trick them back

Now, I get that some people don't like these sorts of jokes, and that's fine. But to not expect them on April Fools Day? Heck, the main reason I assumed this joke would be a "fail" is that I wouldn't expect anyone to believe it. I sure wouldn't have.

I previously pitted people for making jokes that weren't even pretending to try and trick people. What I didn't realize is that so many people don't even realize that is the point of the holiday.

EDIT: And this is obvious in hindsight, unless the OP was so elaborate that he was also "in a relationship" for a significant period of time. And if I had a nickel for each time I saw a kid joke about their relationship status, I'd have at least $100.

[DrFidelius]

To many amateurs think they can be funny. Most are wrong. Don't let this happen to you; please be sure to let us vet any ideas you have for "Facebook Humor" before you post.
The Friends you save may be your own.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

April Fools should be about the Weird, in my opinion. As a teacher, my jokes are pretty mild: I write the daily schedule upside down and pretend I see nothing wrong with it, that sort of thing. Google's 8-bit map was a great example of an April Fool's joke: it wasn't remotely believable, but it was weird and fun.

Something that's believable but not weird is the opposite of a good joke.

Also, Miller's post rocked, and you should take it to heart.

[kittenblue]

As I mentioned in another thread, my son's April Fool's joke was that his wife was pregnant again, 7 months after giving birth. My daughter was so excited for them and was very angry to be fooled....plus she was worried about me getting emotional about getting the news that way. Then the next day...his wife discovers she really IS pregnant! So now half the people believe them, half don't, and half are angry about it (don't worry, that third half is a second layer) and half think he used April Fool's to test people's reactions.

[pravnik]

It's stunts like this that got April Fools Day cancelled for next year.

[tesseract]

A friend of mine who is very crunchy (into all things natural, makes her own orange peel-vinegar cleaning solution, makes her own yogurt, etc.) posted a video on Facebook on April 1 about how/why to drink your own urine. She posted the next day that she wasn't sure what to think of how many people believed she was serious! Pretty funny.

[Johanna]

Pranks like that can turn deadly, especially if you lived back in the Wild West.

In Tombstone, Arizona (IIRC) in the days of Wyatt Earp, a guy and his girlfriend were shacking up. Some jokers thought it would be funny to prank him by putting a notice in the newspaper in his name, saying he planned to marry her. When she read that, she was overjoyed with romantic happiness. But the guy, forgetting that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, ran a notice in the paper saying that it was a hoax and he had no plans to marry her.

When she saw that, she went and shot him dead.

[Czarcasm]

Lying about getting married in a Facebook page-not funny.
Setting up a fake Facebook page in a friend's name to announce his or her upcoming marriage-funny.

[SecretaryofEvil]

Originally Posted by tellyworth

You didn't make a joke. You merely said something that wasn't true.

This is why the OP's "joke" was a fail. There are plenty of things in this world that are both funny and mean. There are a few things that are funny and deceptive. The OP's joke was deceptive but not funny. On the other hand, I don't really see why anyone should be angry about this particular "joke." I don't see how anyone was harmed by it.

That being said, there are very few people out there who enjoy being tricked. Then again, I'm one of those curmudgeons who openly declares "I don't like surprises," so maybe I'm biased.

[Zyada]

See, what you attempted to do was the fine art of bullsh!t, a very important and subtle sub-genre of the practical joke. Seeing as I am a Texan born and bred, I feel like I qualify as an expert on BS.

Bulls$hit needs to walk the fine line between believabillity and unbelievability. If your BS is too unbelievable, people will catch on too fast, and you'll get instead of Really unbelievable BS can be either stupid or surreal. "I'm marrying corn" is surreal.

If the BS is too believable, you're just lying. If you find that people are accepting the line you are spinning too easily, you need to add more to the story. I'm assuming that you are dating someone that so many people

So instead of saying "I'm engaged", you could have said "SO and I flew to Vegas last night, guess what?", then follow with a comment about "We got married!"

Or if you could get your SO to help with the joke - his/her comment could be something about "Who's the lucky person" or "Why didn't you tell me"

[Acsenray]

Originally Posted by tellyworth

You didn't make a joke. You merely said something that wasn't true.

That's pretty much the definition of an April Fool's prank -- getting someone to sincerely believe something that isn't true.