# April Fool's joke about being pregnant - would you find this offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 31, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440 "2015-03-31T19:13:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/21 "2015-04-01T03:34:29Z")
It’s only funny if you phrase it as: “Hey guys, I’m pregnant…NOT!!” Because Wayne’s World references are still comedic gold. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/22 "2015-04-01T10:58:03Z")
Yeah, can someone explain what the joke is? Several couple I know do this every year. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the joke is. I’ve come up with a few, but none of them funny. “LOL, you believed something I said, you are stupid”. “LOL, preggy bellies look weeeeeird.” “LOL, I can’t believe people think this incredibly common thing actually happened. Next year, lets try telling people we got a new job, had carpeting done or need braces. They’ll totally fall for it!. LOL”. I got nothin’. Offensive? Hardly. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyClueless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/23 "2015-04-01T11:29:18Z")
Short summary of some of the last few replies: “This kinda stuff doesn’t get to me, so everyone who has been in this situation and had a bad reaction is a wimp”. Wonderful people, here. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/24 "2015-04-01T12:40:59Z")
I’d be annoyed. Like when your sister thinks it’s cute to have her 12yr old tell you the knock knock joke about “orange you glad I didn’t say banana?” annoyed. No one’s denying anyone’s right to say it, but it sounds like an excellent way to clear out your fb account. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/25 "2015-04-01T13:37:21Z")
It’s often a fine line between being funny and offensive, and worse still everyone’s line is slightly different. In direct answer to the OP, I don’t find this offensive because I don’t find anything offensive, at least in that area. I also don’t think it’s the worst April Fool ever in terms of humour, though admittedly it’s not great. What is more interesting to me is that this thread has caused me to re-evaluate my whole position on April Fools. A year ago, my wife was 8.5 months pregnant and on 1 April I emailed my direct colleagues at work (about 30 people or so) with the happy news that she had given birth that morning and we had named the baby after one my company’s founders. I included a clickable link purporting to be to pictures of the baby but actually took you to the Wiki on April Fools. Many, many people did not click on the link and offered their congratulations by email or in person. As a prank, therefore, it was a great success. But I did feel a bit bad about it, even though it wasted no more than a minute of someone’s day, and I think this thread has shown me why - it’s unfair to prank people when it is a major life-event that could easily be true, just like the OP’s example. Because what are people supposed to do - say “haha, good joke”? As far as they know, it isn’t, and so calling it one would be socially unacceptable. On the other hand, I feel that by putting the ‘gotcha’ in the email itself exonerated me slightly. This year I sent an email round with an entirely different ‘gotcha’ and very few people fell for it, maybe that is the better result and best of all is not to bother at all. I think I’ll give it a rest next year. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_of\_Words](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@Jack\_of\_Words](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_of_Words)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/26 "2015-04-01T14:26:27Z")
> [@MostlyClueless](#): > > Short summary of some of the last few replies: “This kinda stuff doesn’t get to me, so everyone who has been in this situation and had a bad reaction is a wimp”. > > Wonderful people, here. I am deeply offended by your thoughtless post. Well, I might have been…but I’m not a wimp. The pregnancy gag cropped up on my FB feed this morning - as others have noted, what’s the gag? This is a thing that happens, you’re just lieing about it. Marmite announced ‘Marmite Clear’ (transparent product - but also a transparent gag), while Puma/Arsenal announced a left-handed (footed?) football…which might fool someone, but you know it’s less a gag and more an attempt to generate viral marketing. My local community page put up an excellent little trick I’d not seen before. They claimed one of the members had been sending inappropriate pictures to other members, so please click this link to go to their profile and report them. The link leads to your own profile (whoever you are) - I had a moment of shock, and then realisation. Succesful gag, you’d think… Nope, offensive gag, which has been removed following a complaint, apparantly. Unless that’s a gag too… Roll on tomorrow, when people will just do their standard amount of lieing. ---
**Author:** ![Calatin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Calatin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calatin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/27 "2015-04-01T15:55:40Z")
A friend of mine (who isn’t pregnant) left a pregnancy test box in the trashcan of her house’s bathroom as an April Fool’s joke on her husband. Since she knows her audience, I don’t find that offensive, and since it was a subtle move (as opposed to just saying “I’m pregnant. Just kidding!”), I actually found it slightly funny, especially because I know her husband. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/28 "2015-04-01T15:56:48Z")
At its best, a cry for attention. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/29 "2015-04-01T16:05:08Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I’ve seen this circulating too, reposted by people who seem to have a hair trigger for being offended or outraged (based on other things they have previously reposted) The world is full of innocent things that will happen to upset people who are already upset. > > My wife and I suffered two very distressing miscarriages. Admittedly, this was many years ago now, but posting that you’re pregnant as a joke is just… lame, not especially offensive. > > Reposting a whiny plea telling people not to make a lame joke makes one look like a pathetic busybody. So, people who take offense offend you? ETA: April Fool’s is entirely foolish. None of it is worth on iota of concern or stress, either inflicted or taken. In a sane universe, it’d just be the first damn day of another damn month. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/30 "2015-04-01T16:06:43Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > What is more interesting to me is that this thread has caused me to re-evaluate my whole position on April Fools. A year ago, my wife was 8.5 months pregnant and on 1 April I emailed my direct colleagues at work (about 30 people or so) with the happy news that she had given birth that morning and we had named the baby after one my company’s founders. I included a clickable link purporting to be to pictures of the baby but actually took you to the Wiki on April Fools. Many, many people did not click on the link and offered their congratulations by email or in person. As a prank, therefore, it was a great success. But I did feel a bit bad about it, even though it wasted no more than a minute of someone’s day, and I think this thread has shown me why - it’s unfair to prank people when it is a major life-event that could easily be true, just like the OP’s example. Because what are people supposed to do - say “haha, good joke”? As far as they know, it isn’t, and so calling it one would be socially unacceptable. On the other hand, I feel that by putting the ‘gotcha’ in the email itself exonerated me slightly. If I got such an email, I would never see the “gotcha,” since I wouldn’t bother to look at the pictures. For me, I’m going to believe plausible stuff you say (and maybe even some implausible). I don’t feel like a fool for believing when people tell me plausible stuff. I don’t have any reason not to believe it, so I believe it. So, if someone says they’re pregnant, I will say “Oh, okay.” Reveal it to be a lie, and you’ll move down my list of people whose plausible things are likely to be true. Move far enough down that list and I will simply stop listening. I’m bombarded with information all day, every day. The most I can do is weed the better sources from the worse. People can volunteer to weed themselves. That’s okay. I won’t stop them. ---
**Author:** ![Boogly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Boogly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boogly)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/31 "2015-04-01T16:12:47Z")
I got slapped after telling my mother I was pregnant. I had her sit down, held her hands so very gently, big sighs and then told her I was pregnant. I am a straight male and I was slapped on the arm. The next year I had her sit down again…to tell her that she was adopted. Thankfully my arm had recovered during the year. I was subjected to much laughter and name calling. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/32 "2015-04-01T16:40:12Z")
Well, I for one am offended. As a man, I have had to struggle through a long treatment regimen of lemur hormones and pseudouterine assembly in order to carry a child. More recently, we have learned that because my fly was open during implantation, the fetus is at risk for the rare “XYZ” chromosomal deformity. How can other people make light of this experience? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/33 "2015-04-01T18:56:29Z")
> [@Septima](#): > > Yeah, can someone explain what the joke is? Several couple I know do this every year. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the joke is. I’ve come up with a few, but none of them funny. > > “LOL, you believed something I said, you are stupid”. > > “LOL, preggy bellies look weeeeeird.” > > “LOL, I can’t believe people think this incredibly common thing actually happened. Next year, lets try telling people we got a new job, had carpeting done or need braces. They’ll totally fall for it!. LOL”. > > I got nothin’. > > Offensive? Hardly. It’s pretty simple. It’s that they want to do an April Fool’s joke, but can’t think of any actual good one. And they don’t realize that a joke is different from just a plain lie. There are probably some people who post actual funny April Fool’s jokes on Facebook or wherever, but it seems the vast majority are stupid. There are some funny pranks put up by various companies, but there was obviously some thought put into most of those. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/34 "2015-04-01T19:03:00Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > …trigger… Warning trigger words in the spoiler. “Trigger” is one of my trigger words. Please be respectful of others and add a warning next time you use trigger words. Thank you. > [@Velocity](#): > > I think that April Fool’s jokes are offensive, pregnancy or not. What is the humor in lying and saying, “Gotcha, you fell for it?” It’s inane. If you think about it the punch line to all jokes is a twist, or a trick if you will, and its purpose is to make the other look foolish and thus demean them. It is another form of bullying. Doing it on-line is cyber-bullying and thusly I do not think the SDMB should allow this cyber-bullying on their message board. If I were a moderator anyone who told a joke would get a warning. ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/35 "2015-04-01T19:42:26Z")
I would be mildly offended/annoyed and think you were kind of dumb. Saying something that is not true, but has no actual joke to it is not something I find amusing. I would assume you were not bright enough to compose a real joke and maybe were too dimwitted to even know that sometimes people get pregnant who don’t want to be and that this could actually happen even to super-special you. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/36 "2015-04-01T19:48:39Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > So, people who take offense offend you? Nice try, but no. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/37 "2015-04-01T20:44:31Z")
> [@MostlyClueless](#): > > Short summary of some of the last few replies: “This kinda stuff doesn’t get to me, so everyone who has been in this situation and had a bad reaction is a wimp”. > > Wonderful people, here. Pretty sure no one said that. I’m also standing by my position: Learning to cope with unpleasantness in life is your own responsibility as a human being. You cannot expect the world to conform to your expectations. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/38 "2015-04-01T21:03:06Z")
> [@MostlyClueless](#): > > Short summary of some of the last few replies: “This kinda stuff doesn’t get to me, so everyone who has been in this situation and had a bad reaction is a wimp”. > > Wonderful people, here. Some people feel they have to tiptoe carefully around people who are hurting, and maybe that’s sometimes true, but a lot of the time it isn’t. When we were going through a tough time after our second miscarriage, all I really wanted was for things to be normal. Some people, out of genuine kindness, tried to insulate us from things that might upset us, but most often, that was just awkward - walking into a room and finding that a conversation, presumably about babies, had just been abruptly hushed. I didn’t notice anyone actually taking offence on my behalf (this was before Facebook), but I think it would have annoyed me. There are more of the reposted admonishments against saying this or that, than there are people actually doing the thing. The people reposting the stuff _are_ the problem they themselves are notionally trying to address. ---
**Author:** ![nastynaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@nastynaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nastynaven)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/39 "2015-04-01T21:09:28Z")
no one will fall for it today. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440/40 "2015-04-01T22:24:01Z")
April Fool’s Day is the day that unfunny people try to be funny. As a riotously funny person myself, I don’t prank on April Fool’s Day for the same reason I don’t do out drinking on St. Paddy’s Day or New Year’s Eve: amateur night is dangerous. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-fools-joke-about-being-pregnant-would-you-find-this-offensive/716440.md?page=3)