Tuesday, April 1, 2014

My Least Favorite Holiday

Can April Fool's Day even be called a holiday? There's lots of traditions around it, but no one is sure why it started or what the point is. I found an interesting blog post with facts about April Fool's Day: Twenty Interesting Things About April Fool's Day. And there are some funny and clever things on blogs like Make It and Love It--in previous years she's done posts like chocolate covered veggies and embellished disposable diapers on April 1. There's cutesy stuff to do for your kids like making a cupcake look like a piece of corn on the cob. But that's far beyond the kind of time I'm going to take on just about any holiday, especially April 1.

The real reason I don't like April Fool's Day is that for the most part, any pranks or practical jokes made on this "holiday" are at someone else's expense. It creates a mess or a problem for someone else, or makes them look stupid so other people can laugh at them. And any time a joke has to be at another person's expense, it's not really funny.

This sentiment has sometimes given me the label of "not having a sense of humor." Well, having a different idea of what's funny than someone else doesn't mean I don't have a sense of humor. And I wrote a published paper about that as an undergrad, so don't get me started unless you want to hear the arguments I made in that paper. (And no, that's not an April Fool's Day joke.)

2 comments:

  1. The only thing we do for April Fool's Day is use funny dishes for dinner (like using a spatula to eat spaghetti or giving someone a baby bottle to drink from--the kids' favorite!). Our kids get a kick out of it! It's fun to choose the most random things to eat with. I did put a cherry tomato in the bottom of their cereal bowls one year and that was pretty funny. I think only Lauren ate hers (my kids don't like tomatoes) and her face was priceless. I guess maybe that would fall into your not-so-funny category! I agree that the silly cupcakes are too much work for such a random holiday. Well, too much work for any holiday in my book! Hope you're doing well! How are you feeling?

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  2. I agree. I feel like April Fool's Day usually ends up as a "I can now have an excuse to be rude day" for too many people. It doesn't have to be, but that is what is usually is. Turning the milk green with food coloring, or something like that, I don't really mind. But I don't like this "holiday" in general either.

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