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.
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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.
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.
It’s stunts like this that got April Fools Day cancelled for next year.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 :rolleyes: 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”
That’s pretty much the definition of an April Fool’s prank – getting someone to sincerely believe something that isn’t true.
I disagree. You can’t just lie and say it’s a joke. Well, ok you can, but here’s what you’re really saying:
“I think it’s funny that you trust me enough to think that I’m telling you the truth. I think this is funny enough that I’m going to lie to you about something that could easily be true, without giving you any clue that I might be lying.”
Really, why does anyone think it’s funny to demonstrate that people are trusting them when they shouldn’t be?
“Really, why does anyone think it’s funny to demonstrate that people are trusting them when they shouldn’t be?”
Ummmmm I sorta thought that was a given, in the context of April Fools Day 
I vote fail. Not even remotely funny. I know it’s subjective that AF jokes should have some humor so I’m willing to let that pass. But what’s the point of flat out lying to family and friends, making them feel dumb, and making them less reluctant to believe you on any future significant announcements?
If you’re gonna do a joke on facebook, at least make it entertaining or worth remembering. Not something that people will look back on (if they even do) with a :rolleyes: face at best.
When you say “your friends believed you”… Do you mean actual friends, or Facebook friends whom you haven’t seen in years?
Whenever I see a status update on Facebook, I don’t get invested in it unless it’s somebody I see in real life (cold, heartless bastard that I am). I might give it a Like if I’m in a clicky mood. If I then find out that it’s a joke or somebody hacking the account, I’m not really annoyed that I was “fooled” as it had no impact on my life. All in all, a pointless exercise from my point of view.
The only Facebook prank I’ve pulled that was even remotely amusing was to change the birthday of a friend (in my defence, she started it). She knew I’d been on her profile but couldn’t work out what I’d done until a few days later when everybody started sending happy birthday messages. The fact that this doesn’t sound funny at all should give you an idea how funny Facebook shenanigans usually are.
(I did enjoy the time I changed my computer wallpaper to my Facebook page and left the room, knowing that somebody would assume I’d left things unguarded. The sound of furtive feet, a mouse click and a groan of realisation was well worth it.)
Remember the boy who cried “Wolf” one time too many, and the pissed off villagers killed him and savaged his body to make it look as if a wolf had actually done it.
One: you really need to start getting the hang of quote boxes. People are having difficulty parsing what you’re quoting,especially when they quote-reply to your wrongly formatted posts and downthread it gets mixed up. I can’t be the only one noticing some misunderstandings going on because of it. It’s not cool when a quote from someone else isn’t separated from your own post. Seriously. Preview. Fix it before submitting, you can do it all day until you get it right.
Two: for a lot of people, April 1st is … big surprise … April 1st. Especially when it’s on a weekend when they might not be catching morning news before work or catch on to what day it is because of morning hijinks at work. It’s just not so funny when you’re not in on what day it is, especially if you’re one to not really give a shit about “everything’s a joke like sixth grade day” in the first place.