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Labelling April Fools
- Thread starter Steverooo
- Start date
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Tom Cashel
First Post
Steverooo said:
Thanks for labeling yours, Steve, but I'm afraid you've only proven that labeling doesn't work.
It's two of the three words in your thread title, and people still don't get it.
Meta-irony is the last bastion of the jaded on April 1.
Djeta Thernadier
First Post
Kahuna Burger said:
It was not meant to be taken as truth either. It was done on 10/30/1938 (ie. near Halloween) during the time slot that Orson Welles' plays were always performed. The real sounding broadcast was done to heighten the dramatic effect, but no one really thought it would cause the crazed panic that it did. It was a story adapted from a book. How many times have you seen a "news report" within a work of fiction such as a movie or tv show? Do you take those news reports seriously? What if you happened to tune in right when the news report segment was on? Surely after you realized that it was occuring during the time slot of a popular TV show , you'd realize it was not real, right? I think at the time, this was the most convincing fiction that people had been exposed too, but now we see stuff like this all the time and never even think twice about it.
"april fools day" is just Liars Day as far as I'm concerned. A bunch of immature people get an excuse to lie to other people. I'm supposed to disbelieve anything anyone tells me one day of the year or I'm a 'fool'? I don't think so. And frankly, any source of information which activly participates in Liars Day without some marking or revealing the 'joke' in the message loses my respect as a news source the other 364 days of the year too.
Several years ago here in boston, a couple of DJs thought Liars Day gave them the right to make a fake news announcement about the Mayor's death. Those two particular brats lost their jobs. No one thought that the mayor's mother or close friends, overhearing a completely serious sounding special report done exactly as they would have for a high profile individuals death, should have "Looked at the date" and assumed that a radio station would let somes lie about something that serious. But thats where Liars day gets us.
Whoa. I think some of the fake posts are a little annoying too, but I see it as people having some good fun. Serious, important news should not be kidded about on 4/1, of course. And the Mayor thing, I recall that, and I didn't think it was funny either. But saying MS is taking over WoTC, as a joke for one day is not on the same level and most April Fools jokes are. As for being called a fool, isn't that the whole point of Aprils Fools Day? http://wilstar.net/holidays/aprilfool.htm To play pranks on others, and have others play pranks on you? I try to not get annoyed by it, it's all in good fun, as long as it's not taken too far (ie. the Mayor).
Kesh
First Post
I do have a sense of humor; I am American; and I loathe April Fool's day.
Pranks aren't funny. Spend half your life being the butt of jokes and recipient of pranks, and you might feel the same way. I can't stand 'comedy' that degrades other people, makes them look like idiots and generally is condescending towards its 'audience.'
Give me the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Dr. Demento, Monty Python and Mel Brooks films anyday.
I should clarify that the news post didn't bother me at all, since it was so obviously silly to me. The photoshopped Army pic was a riot. I did love that.
Pranks aren't funny. Spend half your life being the butt of jokes and recipient of pranks, and you might feel the same way. I can't stand 'comedy' that degrades other people, makes them look like idiots and generally is condescending towards its 'audience.'
Give me the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Dr. Demento, Monty Python and Mel Brooks films anyday.
I should clarify that the news post didn't bother me at all, since it was so obviously silly to me. The photoshopped Army pic was a riot. I did love that.
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Kahuna Burger
First Post
drnuncheon said:
I will generously say that you missed my point. The question is not whether I can tell if something is a fake post or not. It doesn't matter. I didn't read the message in question, I'm responding to the whole idea of Liars Day - that its some how funny to make stuff up, even one day out of the year, or that I should take a source that does this seriously any other day of the year. Its like I had to explain to my Ex oh so many times "I get it, its just that I don't find it funny..."
Its kinda interesting that some posters are trying to make this a humor issue - I've got a great sense of humor. I like comedies, I like funny books, I like a good joke, I crack up my coworkers all the time. Anyone who actually knows me in person could tell you that the assumptions that I'm wound up or rigid or any of that are so wrong as to be bizare. Its just that I don't think a lie is a good joke. I consider most liars day "pranks" to be a sign that the person doing it lacks a mature sense of humor, but thats personal taste. (for an actual april fools day gag, do something personal and amusing to a dear friend, or go for the sureal to make everyone do a doubletake. Do the website in funky colors, or run the whole thing through the sweedish chef translator. hey, talk like a priate day was funny. Liars day has boiled down to a lame tradition.)
Djeta - I'm not sure, but I think WotW might have been one of the first broadcast fictions done in that style (though based on a long tradition of journal format horror), leading to the confusion... In my expereince, news reports within movies or shows tend to have an ultra removed feel to them (like a camera aimed at another tv screen if you know what I mean) or a too close one, so even without seeing the news I can usualy tell just from 'feel'. But while such a thing probably wouldn't take anyone in today, I don't think that those who paniced at WotW were "fools" - the newness of the format led to mistakes both in the listeners and the directors.
Kahuna Burger
Aeolius
Adventurer
This morning, I skipped my usual shower and woke my 10-year old son hurriedly from bed. "The Alarm didn't go off!" I screamed in a panic "We're late for school!". So, I got him ready for school, got him in the car, and got underway. We were halfway to school before he looked at the time displayed on the radio and figured it out.
When I got home, my 5-year old daughter screamed "Daddy, daddy! I lost a tooth!". I happily played along and let her "get me" with that one.
Granted, I love this type of humor in the first place. I recall fooling my mother-in-law on a Disney trip. "Those birds almost look real, don't they?" I remarked as I pointed to several birds resting in a nearby tree.
I also routinely use invisible tape on the spray nozzle on my mother's kitchen sink, but that's a prank, not an April Fools.
When I got home, my 5-year old daughter screamed "Daddy, daddy! I lost a tooth!". I happily played along and let her "get me" with that one.
Granted, I love this type of humor in the first place. I recall fooling my mother-in-law on a Disney trip. "Those birds almost look real, don't they?" I remarked as I pointed to several birds resting in a nearby tree.
I also routinely use invisible tape on the spray nozzle on my mother's kitchen sink, but that's a prank, not an April Fools.
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
If you fail to find it funny, it doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with you-- it could be that the jokester just wasn't very good at it.
There is an art to a good April Fool's joke. Flat out lying about something that isn't funny ("the mayor died") is neither artful nor funny.
I could list a few things that DO make a good joke (walking the fine line between fact, fiction, and believability-- and a "spoiler" at the end ruins the joke as surely as an unfunny topic), but I think that folks who get it, get it, and folks who don't, just don't-- like any other kind of humor.
And that's true regardless of what side of the joke you're on. Some folks just don't really get April Fool's day and their pranks aren't funny.
But that doesn't mean that all April Fool's jokes are unfunny, either.
Wulf
There is an art to a good April Fool's joke. Flat out lying about something that isn't funny ("the mayor died") is neither artful nor funny.
I could list a few things that DO make a good joke (walking the fine line between fact, fiction, and believability-- and a "spoiler" at the end ruins the joke as surely as an unfunny topic), but I think that folks who get it, get it, and folks who don't, just don't-- like any other kind of humor.
And that's true regardless of what side of the joke you're on. Some folks just don't really get April Fool's day and their pranks aren't funny.
But that doesn't mean that all April Fool's jokes are unfunny, either.
Wulf
drnuncheon
Explorer
Kesh said:
Because as we know, Monty Python never degraded anyone or made them look like idiots with fine sketches like "Upperclass Twit of the Year" or the "North Minehead By-Elections".
Kahuna Burger said:
I think you're getting too wrapped up in the "Liar's Day" issue. If someone had written that fake news post on any other day, it would still be funny, because it's satirizing D&D and Microsoft. If it's funny on any other day, why is it somehow wrong to have it around on April 1st?
J
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