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Comment by jedrek | Hacker News Reader

April Fools' Day is amateur hour for people who aren't funny the other 364 days of the year. It's much like New Year's Eve for people who don't party or Valentine's Day for people who aren't romantic. They feel like they have to do this on this exact day, which of course leads to an embarrassing situation for everybody.

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Boom! You nailed it. It's the social expectation to do something and BE something that is an excuse for people without those natural tendencies to act out.

Out of their comfort zone, feeling social force to try to be funny, they overextend themselves in obvious ways.

I don't know that I agree with this. I do like your analogies, especially the Valentines Day one for people who aren't romantic the rest of the year, but companies do have to act serious most of the time. April fools feels like the day they can "let their hair down" and be a little goofy. I think you can see some of the culture of the company exposed in that moment, and I like that.

> April Fools' Day is amateur hour for people who aren't funny the other 364 days of the year.

I'm keeping this in my "quotable quotes" file - do you have a preferred attribution, or is "jedrek" sufficient?

jedrek/jędrek is sufficient

All of these holidays are also amateur hour for people who view themselves as intellectual social critics--people like the OP.

I contend there are worse things that businesses can do with their time than think up bad jokes. Let's keep some perspective here, people.

I contend the same. Here are a few worse things (note that 2048 isn't one):

1. Using "agile" as a noun.

2. Meetings.

3. Conflating http and CRUD with high tech.

Let me tell you about Valentine's Day and the greeting card industry. In excruciating detail.

It's a completely normal human reaction. If something annoys you, you often have an urge to share that.

Oh, I agree. But realizing what they are can help you deal with them better. My GF and I are pretty romantic, we like to go out and love fine dining... So on v-day we have steak dinner and watch a movie at home. If we don't have a great house party to go to on NYE, we'll head out of town and just spend the night wandering around some other city.

The one time I went to an organized party on NYE, the bathrooms were all vomited over by 11pm.

I think you've put your finger on something important, but I don't think that it's just a bad thing that leads to an "embarrassing situation for everybody".

Opportunities to act differently for one day of the year are more valuable than that. That way, you can explore a side of you without being "inconsistent" with your usual public self, or get to know a different side of other people.

Anyone can decide to dress up like a pirate on any given day, but most of will wait for Halloween to enjoy it.

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