Has the Web Killed April Fools’?

That question might be needless, because I’d like to think the universal answer would be, “without a doubt”. Growing up, April Fools’ was all about pulling fun pranks on family members or friends. Making the entire experience a lot better, few people would actually clue in quick enough to what day it was. Good luck forgetting what day it is with our socially-connected Web!

An editorial at TechCrunch that I tend to agree with says that the Web has for the most part killed April Fools’. Pranks or jokes are so common on April 1, that we’ve become skeptical of pretty much everything we read on or around that day that sounds just a little bit off. And as the editor there mentions, most of these jokes are simply not funny. Are we really going to believe, for example, that AMD will be producing Intel’s next batch of CPUs? I don’t think so.

For me at least, April Fools’ has become a bit of a chore – not because I’m worried about getting suckered into a prank, but because I have to endure the bad jokes and stupid stories littered all over the place. I used to enjoy looking at April Fools’ roundups, but I’ve reached a point where I just don’t care, not even about the “good one”.

What about you guys? Are you as tired of April Fools’ as I am, or do you appreciate all the humor surrounding the day, even if it’s at times bad and dull?