How coronavirus finally cancelled April Fools' Day – the worst tradition of all time

Let’s admit it, no one likes April Fools even in the best of times. But this year, the powers that be (Twitter users) announced that dumb tricks and pranks have are officially unacceptable due to the world facing the “worst crisis since the Second World War.”

As the intensity of the global pandemic increases, our tolerance for tomfoolery decreases tenfold – perhaps especially for our sympathy for opportunistic branding and marketing.

In the past, corporations have often used this day as an opportunity to show consumers how “silly” “relatable” and “non-corporate” they are.

We didn’t fall for it then, so definitely no need bother this year.

Google usually releases a number of April Fools’ jokes each year – like “Google apps for Business Dogs” (Haha!)– which are intended as light-hearted jokes for internet users.

But even one of the world’s biggest tech companies has given us a break this year, canceling its famous April Fools’ Day announcements.

The company said that it was focussed on being “helpful to people” and would not launch any hoax products as it has in previous years. Perhaps since every day in the past few weeks has felt like an “April fools.”

Some people seem to be OK with “harmless” jokes, saying on social media, “the majority of us need a laugh more than ever.”

They may allow it, so long as people do not make, “ANY Covid-19 related pranks or jokes. Please don't lie about being infected or any other insensitive jokes. The situation has so many people under a lot of stress and panic and it just won't be funny,” as one Twitter user put it.

If you even had the slightest desire to “prank” that you have the virus, please note that in the US, a man who coughed in the direction of a grocery clerk and said he had the virus was charged with making a terrorist threat in the third degree, according to the New Jersey attorney general's office.

In the UK, anyone claiming to have coronavirus and deliberately coughs at emergency workers faces being jailed for two years, Britain’s Director of Public Prosecutions Max Hill said on Thursday.

If you are a real prankster or trickster at heart and are somehow truly sad about the dissolution of this day, perhaps pondering the ridiculousness of the world we're currently living in will give you a laugh?

Lol, indeed.