Since its tommorow, I thought I'd make this post before people think its a bit. My feelings are pretty mixed. It's a neat concept, but atleast In real life its really stressful not knowing if people are being sincere with me, as autism already has me second guessing how people are really treating me. In internet sites and media it's really fun though. Anyone else feel something similar?
IRL April Fools jokes have become less and less common as I've gotten older and I can't remember the last time someone's tried to pull one on me. In fact, the only April Fools jokes I can remember are online ones, and I agree that they're usually pretty great. Most of the one's I've encountered have been silly events/changes that get added to online games I play, so it gives me a chance to just mess around for a bit without any stress involved.
I guess if I was in a situation where I thought that someone was going to try to IRL prank me, it would probably be at least a little stressful. My ADHD would make it so that I was either in a state of constant hyperawareness that I'm going to get pranked, or I'd be completely zoned out and unaware when it happens, which would obviously make me more confused and stressed than a neurotypical person once I snap back into reality and start trying to figure out what's going on.
It occasionally makes the internet borderline unusable for a day, so I am against it.
more like 36 hours, tbh, because of all the different time zones people could be in. even worse than regular April Fools stuff is when something that says "March 31st" where you are is an April Fools joke.
I always look forward to all the youtube content that gets made. The kind of people I subscribe to never actually try to trick people, but sometimes you get absolute gold like this 3 hour long video reviewing all the bees in Bee movie
Are there any April Fools podcast episodes along the same lines?
I think it would be a good bit if leftist pods took some inspiration from Episode 1 and came out with ridiculous new podcast concepts.
It was better before I got irony poisoned by the internet and had to wonder if every interaction in my entire life was sincere or not.
Also mixed feelings. My dad is also on the spectrum (but doesn't know it) and for some reason, he ADORES it. Of course, being on the spectrum, he would get WAY too into it and come up with insanely elaborate pranks that sometimes took months of planning. But by the same token, that kind of makes me love it for his sake? Absent that, I'm not a fan, or wouldn't be a fan, pretty much for the reasons you mentioned. Having to second guess things or being tricked doesn't feel particularly great.
April Fools day has a lot of satirical potential, but like all satire, it's only good when it's punching up. When people are having a hard time to begin with, it isn't funny to make their lives even harder. On the other hand, if we take a situationist approach to April Fools day and try to create amusing specticals, it has the potential to be really good.
One time my mom told us they cancelled spring break because some people vandalized a bunch of schools and we were so upset until we got to the empty school and realized it was April fools and got donuts. Overall, April Fools can be fun like that but sometimes people are real nasty and mean about it.
Pranks are only fun when they are completely staged or the person getting pranked is a for sure ass hat that needs some Karmic re-balancing.
I used to get fooled by people all the time no matter how many April Fools pranks I would see the morning of or night before online. I hate that feeling.
I'm not a fan of the pranks, but I enjoy stunts like the urlesque gawker site becoming Steve Urkel themed for a day.
On a related note, it only took me 4 tries and 16 years, but I'm starting to understand February 29th and what Leap Day William stands for.
I like when I get got by them and then quickly see a clear flag that it was just a joke, I don't like being left guessing or when it's not clear
