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The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#111

Post by hackinthebochs »

mbillie1 wrote: post #108
mjwhansen wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather them make jokes and try to make me laugh to "farm" page hits rather than publish click-bait headlines that lead to idiotic articles. At least we're all in on the joke on April Fools.

I don't know that I agree - I find really bad humor to be sometimes worse than no humor.

Agreed. I often have to change the channel if a scene on a show (that I otherwise like) is just too cringe-inducing. I wonder if there's something underlying some people's sensitivity to this? Heightened activity of mirror-neurons perhaps (e.g. feeling embarrassed for someone else)

Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#112

Post by stcredzero »

rnernento wrote: post #72

"I have a sense of humor. Really I do." Are you sure? I think you're taking yourself and the internet a little too seriously. If the jokes aren't funny don't laugh and don't click. If it really bugs you go ahead and spend a day without reading news on the internet, you'll survive, I promise. April Fools is interesting on the internet because attention is rewarded and that encourages companies to put real effort into…

Are you sure? I think you're taking yourself and the internet a little too seriously. If the jokes aren't funny don't laugh and don't click. If it really bugs you go ahead and spend a day without reading news on the internet, you'll survive, I promise.

This is true. But I'd also like to point out that humor shouldn't be given a free pass on a little healthy analysis simply because it feels good and has been lionized in our culture. That's just a pretext for shutting our brains off. Often this is used as a way to attack analysis which makes things uncomfortable, and sometimes the analysis is uncomfortable because it is true.

Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#114

Post by stcredzero »

npsimons wrote: post #96
rnernento wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blizzard's made me laugh. I think the Google Pokemon map was funny. The celebrity photobombs on the front page of Google. These are nerds making these not standup comedians. Pretty much every internet April Fools gag is funnier than SNL these days...

Pretty much every internet April Fools gag is funnier than SNL these days... That's a really low bar to hurdle.

It should all be a cautionary example about institutionalized humor.

Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#116

Post by wehadfun »

mbillie1 wrote: post #78
rnernento wrote: post #72

"I have a sense of humor. Really I do." Are you sure? I think you're taking yourself and the internet a little too seriously. If the jokes aren't funny don't laugh and don't click. If it really bugs you go ahead and spend a day without reading news on the internet, you'll survive, I promise. April Fools is interesting on the internet because attention is rewarded and that encourages companies to put real effort into…

> It's okay to be silly sometimes, it's actually important. I agree with this entirely, but I think the argument here is that none of these corporate April Fool's jokes are silly, or funny, or clever, or interesting. They're the minimum effort to justify being a "gag" in order to farm page hits. Honestly, when was the last April Fool's prank that "got you" or made you laugh?

The last one I liked was http://www.google.com/virgle/

Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#117

Post by stcredzero »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #8

> It seems every single company and publication that communicates via the web has a corporate communications department or something that thinks it's a corporate priority to come out with something for April Fools. It's not really the lameness of April Fools Day, it's the lameness of internet businesses, social media marketing, or marketers and salesmen in general. They need to take over, trivialize, devaluate and de…

not really the lameness of April Fools Day, it's the lameness of internet businesses, social media marketing, or marketers and salesmen in general. They need to take over, trivialize, devaluate and destroy every thing that becomes special in society, in hope to get some additional sales.

They're not different than anyone who's ever done marketing, it's just that most single individuals in industrialized nations have almost effortless access to potential audiences only Popes and heads of state had several hundred years ago. Ever been in an open air marketplace? In a lot of places in the world, everyone is shouting in the marketplace.

Another of Garret Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons"

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