I don’t know why but this year’s April Fools has reminded just how tired and boring April Fools new stories are. I love the concept of April Fools (like this), I just find the way in which the media (mainstream and blogosphere) has turned what was once an opportunity for amusement into a power-trip game of ‘who can dupe the reader the best’.
Today’s Techmeme is a complete unintentional rundown of the blogosphere’s japes. It’s the power of links, I guess… Sorry if you thought there was any serious news going on today folks.
(no link juice for the following stories as I don’t want to perpetuate the TechMeme effect. You’ll have to go find them yourselves…)
Google’s free internet via the sewer system, TechCrunch buys Fuckedcompany, Apple stops iPhone production, Yelp go into the tire business, JaJah buys Vonnage, JaJah launches quantum calling (hey, they got two??). Yawn, yawn, yawn.
Ok, this is the tech-orientated news but even mainstream news hasn’t done much better. ‘The EU’s standardization of time off work’ is covered in one of Sweden’s top newspapers today. Mildly amusing I guess. Grow your own Viagra in the UK Independent.
Dear editors… If you’re going to run an April Fools joke, at least make it funny. As touched on at the beginning of this post, some of the ‘joke stories’ this year are about as funny as finding your favorite Web2.0 app just got bought by Fox Interactive and now Rupert Murdoch owns all your data. Ouch.
Also, if you publish your April Fools story with a date stamp of March 31st, surely the joke is upon you? Get with the program.
Maybe I’m just becoming an old git in my old age – hey I’m fast approaching my late twenties these days… But, hey, the BBC was doing this kind of thing 50 years ago with the 60 minute documentary about the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland [video clip]. Now that was funny.
Is this really what we have to show for ourselves half a century on?