With the current state of the news, April's fools aren't fun anymore because they can't be distinguished as easily as before

It's just not fun anymore.
It used to be kinda humorous in an irreverent way back in the 2000s when Google used April Fools to announce things like the Google Romance search engine, or a facility to archive all your Gmails on printed paper. It was tech making fun of itself.
But these days when the mask is fully off, and we recognise that big tech and social media has been one of the greatest problems the world has ever faced, we're not laughing any longer.
- I mean, Google announcing a Möbius-shaped keyboard would still be a good April 1st joke, “obviously fake news” from a news source wouldn't be because it's not obvious, anymore.
- I loved the time I tried to copy something on StackOverflow and a fake ad popped up for a SO-branded copy/paste device.

This year I told my family that I'd seen the light and to celebrate because I've finally become a conservative christian. 🍾 🎊
Tomorrow is gonna be fun.
- Tomorrow:
  No, after trying it, I decided being an arrogant, spiteful, narcissistic, selfish, hateful, vengeful, judgemental piece of shit is exhausting as all hell and also just kind of a little bit wrong, don't ya think?
- zomg pls update
- Is this something they'd be delighted or horrified by?
  
  Confused and bewildered mostly.

People trying to make others look foolish with mean spirited jokes and outright lies and then pointing and laughing at them has never been fun.
But maybe that's me being autistic that I don't get it.
- Nah, I'm not autistic and have always hated the idea of pranks like that.
- The pointing an laughing at one or a few people is always assholish. A good prank involves everyone laughing together, and if it is targetted at anyone in particular they have to be comfortable with being the target.
  Jokes that are aimed at a widespread audience get a pass because there will always be someone who doesn't like something or feels foolish when they feel tricked no matter how lighthearted the joke is. So a game company announcing something ridiculous for their game needs some leeway when someone takes it personally when they fall for an announcement that Fortnite is removing dances or there would be no room for humor.
  Widespread ones can still be mean spirited of course, but tricking people isn't what makes it so.
- I'm autistic and I loooaaaathe April Fools. 99 percent of the 'jokes' are just mean spirited assholishness I feel.
  Random side note, feel suddenly didn't look like a word to me.
- Being ASD definitely makes it harder to enjoy April Fools pranks that are harmless and clever.
  My ASD friends and family will frequently perceive the omission of information as an offensive lie, when the reality is us not on the spectrum didn't consider it information worth sharing. Extend this to April Fools Day jokes, which should be intentional, harmless, clever pranks, and they just can't.
  Really good ones stick in my mind forever. Guild Wars once turned all the players into stick figures. I still laugh at that. Prior to enshitification Reddit had some great ones, like Orange Red vs Periwinkle. RuneScape always released upcoming features at the beginning of the month, and April Fools Day was always a fake one that sounded almost believable. I had friends swap clothes and classes for an entire day in college. I had a physics professor teach biology to each of his classes - a different lecture in each period. I had two friends announce they were ending their friendship on Facebook but intended to remain roommates, and continue to hang out with the rest of us.
  It's a social norm. Just like how sarcasm is difficult for some ASD to pick up. But, a lot of us non-ASD do need to choose our audience more carefully. I don't play pranks on my family and those friends. I also refrain from sarcasm and exaggerating too.
- I'm also autistic, and usually pretty bad at spotting jokes. But most April's fools jokes that I've come across were just lighhearted fun and pretty obviously fake. Just real enough sometimes to make you go "really?! oh nvm it's April 1st...". What kind of mean spirited jokes are people making?
  
  Yeah I saw a great one about how there's a new book in a series my partner and I read that we thought was done for...saw the date, had a quick laugh about how silly we were to believe it so fast.
  
  Yeah, honestly this sounds like some people are doing mean-spirited jokes with the cover of April fools.

My local newspaper stopped doing April Fools in 2017 due to the problem of fake news and discussions about media's credibility.
- Yeah, no newspapers in Norway have been doing April fool's since around that time

News sources shouldn’t be playing stupid April fools jokes. Everyone’s a fucking comedian. Certain people don’t get to make cute jokes, i don’t want that from my doctor either.
- injects you with a mystery chemical
  "Haha, you thought that was a vaccine? Nope! April Fools!"

The onion should post real news on april 1st
- They always do. Satirical, but real.

I went to the toilet and shouted for my son that I needed toilet roll. When he came in, I grabbed it from him and touched him with my hand, which I had covered in chocolate mousse. Worked a treat.
- I've seen the Tiktoks a million times, yes.
  Light hearted pranks are still great for April 1st!
  
  I've never seen a single TikTok. My dad did this one to me in 1988.

Being a fool has become a year-long occupation for many ...

Today in headlines: Everything is normal. The USA is not the laughingstock of the world. Civil war is not imminent.
Haha! April Fools ... yea that kind of sucks, let me try again.
Today in headlines: Elon Musk takes a sledgehammer to a Tesla showroom while screaming "I will fucking beat you to it you filthy terrorists!" ... no, see, that could happen ... I quit April Fools.

i opened lemmy to this. april fools definitely cheered me up at least, lol :)

It was never fun to begin with.
- It's extra not fun when you're not in the US, April 1st isn't a particularly relevant date and you still have to endure all the "fun" bleeding into real world news because you're in the cultural imperialism splash zone.
  
  April Fools' is not of US-American origin...

April's fools is a line break. It reminds people that things don't have to be as they are, that they're not on an inescapable path and they can choose to be different.
For one day a year you are made to look for deviations so you know that you can deviate if you want to. You have that option in spite of however many shackles may keep you bound to your route.
It's not a holiday for the mean to be meaner, it's a liberation day for the mind.
- Yeah, I think the mean prank vibe sucks (obvs, ymmv) but the 'fake news' aspect was a positive. Like the original and sadly long lost art of og trolling, the purpose was to remind everyone that you cannot believe everything you read, and you should not suddly react to something just because you read it in a newspaper. If it sounds wild or incendiary, maybe check a couple of other sources before passing it on to friends and looking like a 'fool'.
  Unfortunately, we've past the stage where gentle friendly reminders of media literacy are likely to help. Most of us are all too aware we live in an age of misinformation (but don't agree on what is 'fake') so it's no longer funny.
  
  You'll love my comment from yesterday!
  https://old.lemmy.world/comment/16148875

It depends. "Donald Trump wants to annex Wisconsin as the 51st state" wouldn't be funny. Pocketpair launching a Steam store page for the Palworld dating sim (which was last year's April Fools joke) was.
But yeah, this isn't the time for political humor.
- I chuckled at "Trump wants to annex Wisconsin" because it is just plausible enough that he would say something like that.
- I would almost find the Wisconsin one funny since it's already a state and I'd just assume grandpa Hitler was sundowning.
  Goddamn this is fucked...

"Trump does thing people generally agree on out of kindness of his heart"
Too easy

April’s fools jokes are tiring. I’m over them myself.
- Businesses doing April Fools was fun until every gigantic corporation started doing it. Now it’s just bland, thinly-veiled marketing.
  
  Most are lame. I saw nvid ai one and it didn't feel surprising and after I found out it was fake, I did not feel fooled. Kinda like someone saying "here have a cup of JAFFA! Jokes on you, it's orange juice!" Meanwhile some like suzuki slimny is cute and whimsical.

Yass... I woke up today and that's the first thought that popped into my head. With clowns running the world and their demented jokes as reality... nothing is funny anymore.

I wonder what the white houses april fools joke will be. Probably something along the lines of "We're sending humanitarian aid to Myanmar" or something tone-deaf like that

Where I am, that day started 13 hours and 54 minutes ago .. so far the news is indistinguishable from any fake or real news.

OP is exactly right.

Alternatively April fools air raid sirens

I wonder if AI companies basically disregard scraped data from 01/04 due to all the tomfoolery.

The Onion problem.
- Onion is almost spherical, it doesn't have any problems.
  
  Not just an onion, but The Onion.

Tomorrow Nintendo Switch 2 gets more details and I heard about a Oblivion remake, this ain't no April's fools.
- Nintendo Switch 2 getting more details, and knowing Nintendo probably a release date within a short time span, is true.
  For one, April 1st has always been a date to make big announcements in Japan, not one for jokes. Nintendo just learned to move that one day for westerners (:

Tomorrow one is never going to be sure we aren’t in that Star Trek: TNG episode with the time loops (pick one, but you know the one) - but for news.

April Fools!

I like how Minecraft adds fun updates for 1 April. Not the pranking.

It's a stupid concept anyway, it's never been fun except to those few people who think pranks are awesome.
I remember once as a kid I moved to a school I really liked, the kids were nice, the teachers were cool and helpful and didn't make me feel like an idiot, like I actually wanted to go to school, then April fools day comes along and my nan decided to call me and tell me the school had burnt down, this obviously made my 7 year old heart break and I started bawling worried I had to move back to the bad school, she had tried to say April fools but I threw the phone away so I didn't hear it, she never April fools me again.
Fuck April fools day, some things deserve to die and be forgotten.
- As with all things, some pranks are better than others.
  Your lifelong trauma from a prank gone wrong is delectable.
  Psychologically, these types of holidays are recommended because they break the monotonous delirium of daily droning. They force the brain to think and not just accept everything as it comes.
  Your nan's hardcore. She may decide to haunt her place after passing, so keep some salt with you when you visit.
- That's a shit prank, and people like your nan don't understand how pranks work.
  A good prank should allow the subject to join in the fun. Some stuff came up this year, so my plans have to be delayed until next year, but I bought a vial of gallium that I'm planning on molding with a cast of one of our kitchen spoons.
  So my wife will wake up and see that her coffee melted her spoon. Little miraculous and inexplicable moment in the morning.
  (Gallium is non-toxic)
  
  I absolutely love your spoon idea, but you are like the 1% of pranksters. I have never, ever witnessed or been subjected to a prank that lets the victim join in the fun. It's always been solely fun at someone else's expense, ending in laughing and/or pointing at someone.
  
  It might melt in her hand before it even makes it into the coffee

It's ruined in multiple ways.
People with low-hanging, unfunny 'pranks' or jokes.
Corporations being stupidly obvious and still trying to be hip.
Pools of people that would take great offense or lack a sense of humor.
There's just no point in it anymore.
- I think corporations using it in unfunny ways to sell something is the worst and killed it for real. But all your examples are good too.

Trump's first term killed April Fools

I got absolutely fooled by a tech YouTuber posting that Microsoft added OneDrive ads to the blue screen, so it felt good to get got for once.
However with real life news, I tend to agree with you. The distinction between satire and real life is getting ever more minuscule