April Fools fail or win?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

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)

22

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.

23

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.

24

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.

25

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.

26

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.

27

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.

28

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.

29

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

30

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.

31

“Got any cheese?”

32

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.

33

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!

34

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.

35

Hey, jokes are serious business.

36

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.

37

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.”

38

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.

39

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.

40

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.