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Suggest HN: No April Fools this year

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Re: Suggest HN: No April Fools this year

#61

Post by johannes1234321 »

anonsubmit2671 wrote: post #56
mcv wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we need to get rid of "jokes" that mislead people, mock them, or otherwise hurt or disadvantage people. Especially since fake news and misinformation has become a serious problem online. Jokes that are actually fun are great. But those don't need to be restricted to April Fools either.

Either you're joking or don't appreciate humor. What a sad and dreary life.

Issue with April's Fools jokes are that many of those aren't funny. Some are trying too hard, some are just company-ads hoping to "go viral".

Sometimes there are good ones, but 90% are not.

Re: Suggest HN: No April Fools this year

#62

Post by [deleted] »

midgetjones wrote: post #29
jmkd wrote: post #23

I find this a mean-spirited, depressing and (ironically) tone-deaf idea. 1. People need humour in challenging moments 2. Black comedy and gallows humour can lift the spirit at even the worst of times 3. As much of the northern hemisphere enters spring we could collectively do with a fillip to jolt us into a more optimistic mindset The only value in this proposal I see is that if you are working on a tedious April Foo…

I agree with you, but in agreement with OP, April Fool jokes just aren't funny. They're inherently mean. You can be funny without tricking someone, and everyone is already on an emotional knifepoint at the moment.

[deleted]

Re: Suggest HN: No April Fools this year

#63

Post by thanatos_dem »

It’s almost like humor is subjective. Yes, many people suck at it and do it in wrong or counterproductive ways, especially with the rise of “prank” YouTube channels and the like which view embarrassing people as the end goal.

But there are other ones that I have found genuinely amusing and funny. The list of Google’s April fools pranks/features has some real gems - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_April_Fools

Some of them even lead to products or other real features down the line (like the 2014 Pokemon google maps explorer, which went on to become Pokemon Go).

Yeah, some jokes miss the mark for me, but I get that my sense of humor isn’t universal, and frankly I think a bit of levity is important for us right now as individual and as a culture.

Re: Suggest HN: No April Fools this year

#65

Post by thanatos_dem »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #61
anonsubmit2671 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either you're joking or don't appreciate humor. What a sad and dreary life.

Issue with April's Fools jokes are that many of those aren't funny. Some are trying too hard, some are just company-ads hoping to "go viral". Sometimes there are good ones, but 90% are not.

Humor is subjective.

Re: Suggest HN: No April Fools this year

#66

Post by midgetjones »

adventured wrote: post #44
midgetjones wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you, but in agreement with OP, April Fool jokes just aren't funny. They're inherently mean. You can be funny without tricking someone, and everyone is already on an emotional knifepoint at the moment.

> I agree with you, but in agreement with OP, April Fool jokes just aren't funny. They're inherently mean. This entire debate is mostly going to be heavy on the subjective and is largely pointless accordingly. It's opinion tossing, people hoping their opinion somehow magically weighs more. I like pizza. No, pizza sucks, it's too hot. Pizza isn't hot enough. Only cold pizza is good. No all pizza is inherently evil. Pi…

The only people that think April Fools jokes are funny are the ones performing them, or PR departments. I have no idea what sort of pizza that would be, but I don't think it's that subjective.

All the people disagreeing with OP in this thread are misreading them as wanting to somehow ban jokes and humour.

Re: Suggest HN: No April Fools this year

#67

Post by cranium »

Pranks are difficult to do right. They easily can be experienced as frustrating, aggressive or plain idiotic by the receiver while the giver thinks it's totally hilarious. It requires a lot of empathy to create a good prank that doesn't hurt anyone especially when it's experienced online, ie. without being able to interact with a "WTH man?! - Sorry, tried to prank you but it misfired. You OK?"

In the good pranks category, I'm especially fond of new product announcements when it's clear it's a joke like Amazon shipping authors directly or the Google's "Clean screen" app. They are often refreshing and witty and it's just what I want from a good joke. And it's free positive marketing if done right. (Just don't announce your company bankruptcy, like Elon Musk.)

I'm still holding to my idea of swapping a font with https://hellveticafont.com/ for a day. I'll just make sure it's not obstructive and can easily be disabled.

Re: Suggest HN: No April Fools this year

#69

Post by neotek »

anonsubmit2671 wrote: post #56
mcv wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we need to get rid of "jokes" that mislead people, mock them, or otherwise hurt or disadvantage people. Especially since fake news and misinformation has become a serious problem online. Jokes that are actually fun are great. But those don't need to be restricted to April Fools either.

Either you're joking or don't appreciate humor. What a sad and dreary life.

Seems much more sad and dreary to be the kind of person who can only find humour when punching down.

Re: Suggest HN: No April Fools this year

#70

Post by gherkinnn »

artsyca wrote: post #11
gherkinnn wrote: post #4

> As a general rule April Fools has become less popular on the web the more widespread it has become Agree. Most are somewhere between tedious and boring. “Oh look, we changed our company name to [something amusing only to a pencil pusher]. Aren’t we funny. Buy our products.” > some people might take levity badly given the current world situation Disagree and fuck them. The last thing we need is doom and gloom [0]. F…

A lot of the clichés we use don't apply any more pencil pusher is one of them

And yet you understood what I meant.
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