As exciting as the end of March is, with winter finally coming to an end and warmer weather sticking around for longer than just an afternoon, there are few ‘holidays’ I dread more than April Fools’ Day.
Not only is it incredibly irritating to scroll through my social media and see posts about fake engagements, elopements, or pregnancies, but I feel I lack the ability to understand what makes the entire thing fun to begin with. What part of deliberately misleading people is entertaining? Isn’t that just lying?
I can remember feeling a similar way when I used to watch shows like Candid Camera. I’m not a person with a strong sense of empathy, but I know what it feels like to be tricked and lied to – and it’s not a pleasant feeling. So I can’t really wrap my brain around why people would go out of their way to play practical jokes on the people they care about.
Cultures all over the world have celebrated this long-standing custom of setting aside a special day to play harmless tricks on one’s friends and neighbours, which leads me to believe that I’m missing something. But since reading people isn’t a particular strength of mine, and I have a tendency to be honest almost to the point of inappropriateness, it’s not always easy for me to tell when someone is trying to trick me.
My gullible nature aside, I can’t see what the practical joker gets out of it, either. It’s funny to make someone believe something that isn’t true? To laugh at them when you reveal that you were tricking them the entire time? I guess I just don’t see the point. Why has this bizarre tradition survived for centuries? And why do people around the world enjoy something that seems so obviously mean-spirited?
And it’s not even just individuals, anymore. This year, I got several emails advertising ridiculous and impossible products that are “soon to be offered” or “patent pending” from a large number of the various companies who somehow have my email address.
(I was actually quite interested in the x-ray glasses that, according to the ad, would let me “see beyond reality.” Stupid April Fools’ Day disappointments. Why are you emailing me about a product that doesn’t exist, anyway?)
Lying is human nature… right? According to a 2002 study by the University of Massachusetts, 60 per cent of adults can’t get through a ten-minute conversation without lying at least once. And of those who did lie during this brief chat, most told an average of three lies. In only ten minutes.
Another study, published in a 2010 paper in Human Communication Research, says that according to an online survey of 1,000 Americans, people lie an average of 1.65 times in a 24-hour period. I understand the value of ‘little white lies’ about something that likely doesn’t really matter for the purpose of tact or sparing someone’s feelings, but the idea of going out of your way to deliberately convince someone to believe something absolutely false is baffling to me. And isn’t that the entire point of April Fools’ Day?
So I don’t play along. This year, I spent the entire day hiding out in my bedroom, working alone. And still, I sifted through Facebook photos of ‘winning’ lottery tickets, Twitter updates of fake promotional announcements, and plenty of emails trying to sell me products I will (sadly) never be able to own.
That’s enough for me.
