(no subject)
I've noticed that once again there are an awful lot of posts talking about how awful April Fool's jokes are, and how they are cruel and bad, etc. etc. I've been seeing these posts cropping up, usually starting a couple of days before April 1st for the last several years. And I've seen a few instances - especially a decade or so ago when there was a bit less general social knowledge about how to both post and read in a manner that doesn't give or take unnecessary offence - when things got pretty out of hand and ended in tears.
I don't think I've been directly involved in one. My one personal, and occasional, April first tradition is to write something about my father. (It's his birthday. Sadly, the things I've are neither jokes nor tricks.)
But for whatever reason, the outrage density has kind of gotten to me. I mean, hey, I respect that you have your tastes.
I have my tastes. I haven't yet seen an April Fool's joke today that struck me as cruel. Some were a little tedious (maybe they would have gotten better if I read them all the way) many made me giggle. Pac-Map is fucking brilliant. (And playing it centered on the house I grew up in is *really hard*. Like, darn.) The Polyamorous Misanthrope had me guffawing between forms this morning. (ETA: Abe's Market's "Vegan Lip Balm for Meat Lovers" was pretty good, too.)
YoungestLabmate and I kind of missed our chance when we switched the direction of opening of the lab fridge a couple of weeks back - he made me swear that it had always been that way (and we made predictions about which labmates would notice and which would not.) In practice, when people showed signs of being actually upset, we told them the secret, then made them swear it had always been that way. But the whole lab was in on it before today.
(OTOH, the piece I designed and printed to replace the piece he broke in the handle came out beautifully and fit perfectly on the first time... and will never been seen again, most likely, because it's internal. But hey. We know.)
So... Hey, you get to have your tastes. I have mine. But think for a moment that because it's possible for a prank to be cruel doesn't mean that all pranks are cruel. And an awful lot of them seem to be pretty hard to read that way. Maybe the problem is cruelty, or even just not thinking things through, and not pranks? Maybe the solution is thinking about it a little harder?
I'm pretty happy we have a day of more or less official silliness.
I don't think I've been directly involved in one. My one personal, and occasional, April first tradition is to write something about my father. (It's his birthday. Sadly, the things I've are neither jokes nor tricks.)
But for whatever reason, the outrage density has kind of gotten to me. I mean, hey, I respect that you have your tastes.
I have my tastes. I haven't yet seen an April Fool's joke today that struck me as cruel. Some were a little tedious (maybe they would have gotten better if I read them all the way) many made me giggle. Pac-Map is fucking brilliant. (And playing it centered on the house I grew up in is *really hard*. Like, darn.) The Polyamorous Misanthrope had me guffawing between forms this morning. (ETA: Abe's Market's "Vegan Lip Balm for Meat Lovers" was pretty good, too.)
YoungestLabmate and I kind of missed our chance when we switched the direction of opening of the lab fridge a couple of weeks back - he made me swear that it had always been that way (and we made predictions about which labmates would notice and which would not.) In practice, when people showed signs of being actually upset, we told them the secret, then made them swear it had always been that way. But the whole lab was in on it before today.
(OTOH, the piece I designed and printed to replace the piece he broke in the handle came out beautifully and fit perfectly on the first time... and will never been seen again, most likely, because it's internal. But hey. We know.)
So... Hey, you get to have your tastes. I have mine. But think for a moment that because it's possible for a prank to be cruel doesn't mean that all pranks are cruel. And an awful lot of them seem to be pretty hard to read that way. Maybe the problem is cruelty, or even just not thinking things through, and not pranks? Maybe the solution is thinking about it a little harder?
I'm pretty happy we have a day of more or less official silliness.