I am officially declaring this an April Fools-Free Zone. No foolin’.
My grumpiness might contribute to that, too. I ended up with an utterly miserable redeye flight from Seattle to Minneapolis — I landed at 5am. I’m still traveling to get home (I’m on a stimulant break right this instant), and as soon as I get there, I’m going in to work. Expect surly snarliness, world, until my labs are all over, I’m truly home, and I’m crashed into unconsciousness on my bed.
I have never made an April Fool’s joke in my life, and this certainly isn’t one.
I am glad to share this sentiment with you, PZ. I hate april-fools-gotcha jokes.
Though I was once peripherally part of a brilliant one (not my idea). I was doing essays for WXXI in Rochester, NY. They had radio channels news and classical/other stuff .
Early in the morning of April 1, the engineers switched them!
People woke up and (half asleep for the most part) like good citizens phoned us to tell us that something was wrong. I was at the station and helped answer the flurry (more like blizzard) of calls. It was delightful to talk to the listeners as they fully woke up and realized what we had done.
And no one was harmed in the making of the joke.
Does that make you feel better till you crash?
BTW your shoe is untied…
I just haven’t the creativity for a good prank. Well, except maybe nailing my friend to a cross and then tossing him in a hole for three days. (see previous thread) .
I never could work out why April Fools day was such a big thing. It struck me too much as a bullying tactic. I’m glad to say I’ve never gone there.
No April fools here?
Does that mean I have to leave?
Is this some kind of meta April Fools prank, which is to make people think you’re not performing an April Fools prank, when you are in fact performing a prank by making them think that you’re not.
Or perhaps a meta meta April Fools prank, which is to make people think you’re not performing a meta April Fools prank, when you are in fact performing a meta prank by making them think that you’re not.
Or perhaps a meta meta meta prank? How many levels deep does it go?
I’m with you, PZ. Colour me seriously grumpy and sleep-deprived and I have to go into town today, so I won’t be sleeping for a long while yet. Never had the slightest use for April 1st idiocy.
Yep.
The only jokes I could abide were those of the type google is pulling today with google nose, where the butt of the joke isn’t an individual but everyone – including the jokers.
Ha, good one, PZ. You almost had me there.
I hate April Fools’ Day. It’s a day for taking advantage of other people’s trust in order to make them feel stupid for your own sadistic amusement.
No thanks.
In that case, allow me to wish everyone a wonderful Veneralia. May PZ soon get some rest and a change of heart.
With a teenaged boy in the house, April 1st tends to be the most annoying day of the year.
Scr…Archivist:
Why should he have a change of heart about April 1st? I have no problem at all letting obnoxious assholes know that stupid pranks aren’t appreciated just because “hey, April Fool’s man!” Bah.
bcmystery:
Can you run away from home for a day?
Felt like Mother Nature was pulling a prank this morning. Bright morning due to the low East sun, but it was briefly snowing big fluffy flakes.
Alas, Caine, I have to spend the whole DAY with him. We’re doing a college visit.
Save me.
bcmystery:
Hmmm. Ditch him and claim “April Fool!” later?
*runs away*
All right, no foolishness today – but I reserve the right to continue my normal behavior for the next 364 days.
However, our esteemed and grumpy host flouts an ancient and mighty historical tradition. A little-known fack: about 1.98 millennia ago, it so happened that April 1 occurred one day after Passover, and some guys had the brainstorm of yanking a particularly nutty’s cult’s chain by heisting their guru’s cadaver… the yucks from that one have continued for centuries!
I’m not a ‘good sport’ so April Fool is never any fun for people pulling pranks on me.
Thank you! Fuck I hate april fools.
14 Greatest hoaxes of all time
I’m digging Google’s new Map mode: Treasure Map. Street view in that mode is also changed. Coursera also started offering ‘Underwater Basket Weaving’ today. Just a simple reminder that they aren’t a serious college.
The reason I like those is because they’re not really ‘hahah – made you look’ style “jokes”. There are trolls who make being fools more than just a single day hobby and I think that plays into my own impatience with that method of “joking.”
This song is no joke.
I enjoy the ones that aren’t actually trying to deceive or embarrass anyone. Like the fake products ThinkGeek puts up every year. Other than that…ecch.
Not usually a fan of hoaxes, but I like the silly gags. The first time syndicated newspaper cartoonists swapped comics for a day was pretty amazing. Blizzard’s wacky patch notes and game announcements (Molten core raid, for the Atari 2600!), and fun Google modes.
When I was in middle school, the go-to April Fools’ Day joke among my circle of friends was to tell your best friend your family was moving out of town. Then, after she was upset and crying, you would say April Fools!
I’ve done things in my life I’m not proud of, but as far as I can recall, I never did that.
Yes, the Google Maps one was nice. Seeing my street in sepia through a pirate’s telescope was fun.
Being a Guardian reader, I quite enjoyed the video for Guardian Goggles. Not really a hoax, since it’s hard to imagine anyone falling for it, and it’s nicely self-deprecating.
If you like meta, there’s the Metro’s round-up of jokes, which was fake – except where it included itself. Whoa.
Caine @14,
No, I instead hope that our host’s “surly snarliness” is transformed into his usual gleeful snarkiness, his “grumpinesss” into sninyness. His post suggests that he doesn’t really like the mood he’s in, so I hope it lifts. And today’s (abandoned and forgotten, thus ripe for reinvention) holiday may be the day for it.
As for April Fool’s Day, I don’t like it either. I have to deal with enough deceit as it is.
By the way, Easter will be on April 1 in 2018. This will happen again in 2029, which (according to some calculations) will quite conveniently be the 2000th anniversary of that famous guy’s execution. Mark your calendars, folks.
fuck this stupid day
When I was a child, pranks were supposed to cease at noon.
The jokes that show some cleverness, like the BBC’s famous April 1st hoaxes (a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfWzp7rYR4″>the migrating penguins is a prime example), are acceptable. “Your shoelace is untied…April Fools!” aren’t.
10 things that actually happened on April 1st
Sorry about the html failure in #32.
Oh I loath April Fool’s day. Worst holiday ever.
No Kidding : DLCs Paternal Grandmother was born on this day, mumble-mumble years ago.
Of course, she came from a time and place where births were recorded in the family bible, and most births were in the home. Well, happy birthday anyway, long-dead Grandmother.
http://almamater.xkcd.com
I wonder how much computer power has been wasted so far :D
(I’m at 418, myself.)
Not an April Fool story, here. Just an old-fashioned Credulous Dupe story
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/01/robertson-god-gives-less-miracles-to-too-educated-americans-who-learn-science/
Pat Robertson warns us about the dangers of being educated and studying Science. God will give you “less miracles” if you do.
When I realized this year April 1st finally wasn’t on a weekend, I was going to dress up in a suit, go in to see my department chair, and thank her for all her help, but tell her I just couldn’t do engineering any more and was going to be switching to a Business major.
Then they made it a holiday. :(
On April Fool’s day when he was twelve years old, my boyfriend’s mom played– or tried to play– joke on him. While driving to school, she informed him that she had big, important news to share– she was going to have another baby. A younger brother or sister for him, isn’t that exciting?!
Boyfriend sat and thought for a moment, then said “How long ago was it that you got your hysterectomy?”
It happened when he was nine, a pretty complicated and serious event, and he remembered being told about it. He reflected to me today how interesting it was that his mother chose that to joke about, and how much it revealed about what she knew about what he knew about sex and reproduction, which apparently was nothing. In actuality he knew all about the birds and the bees at that age, for all intents and purposes despite his mother and her wishes.
His mom was, and still is, a very conservative evangelical Christian. Boyfriend is an atheist. I bet you didn’t see that one coming (just joking).
It’s pranks all the way down.
On april 1st people fool other people by tricking them into believing things that aren’t true.
So does that make it a religious holiday?