April Fools’ Day — especially on the Internet — is awful, and somehow everyone sticking the apostrophe in the wrong place has very little to do with it. As John Oliver says in the anti-April Fools’ Day diatribe above, “April Fools’ Day is to comedy what St. Patrick’s Day is to Irish culture.”
That’s exactly why the Last Week Tonight host took time from his precious week off to ask everyone to take his No-Prank Pledge, a noble cause that, clearly, everyone should participate in. There’s only one flaw: it only applies to April Fools’ Day. Pranks are generally terrible, and we should all band together to have them wiped from society 365 days a year.
Have you seen the average YouTube prankster? Gleefully trying to achieve that level of heartless idiocy for a day is on par with posing as the “We appreciate your business!” text on a hospital bill for a miscarriage. Besides, the only truly great April Fools’ Day prank has already been done. There’s no topping it. Don’t even try.
