April Fools — The Ironic Joke We Didn’t Expect
For the past few years I’ve observed April Fool’s Day with my own quiet and humble trolling. Maybe a link or two sent to some friends or family who I knew would either be “foolish” enough to take the bate, or who would simply get a good laugh out of it, as I did.
This year public sentiment seems to have turned.
People aren’t quite as amused this year as they may have been on April Fool’s past. On its own I would find this interesting. And then early this morning I got my daily Product Hunt email…
The list featured this year’s “best fake products”. My reaction was as follows:
- These are ridiculous and funny!
- Wait… Are these ridiculous?
The Irony
Objectively, yes, the Fool Products trolling the web this year are ridiculous. At least, when judged on their own. When compared to other products that actually do exist, and that people actually do buy… They become a little less funny.
And of course, that is the great irony of these April Fools products and stories. Some people click, knowing it’s for a laugh. But many people click out of a genuine interest. A smart mailbox? Well… My smoke detector is smart… My thermometer is smart… My watch is smart… So sure, why not? It’s getting harder and harder every year to parse the gag products from the real products.
Why?
Some people might just shrug, “The Future…” (reasonable). Some people might say something about the state of tech, and how the times now are reminiscent of the 90's boom/bust. Something about crazy products or solutions no one was actually asking for… “Tech Bubble” type arguments for what I’m talking about are tired, and rely more on classical economic theories than modern behavioral economic theories.
In real life, people buy and use selfie sticks.
Honestly, what was the first thing you thought when you heard about the selfie stick? I suspect many people felt the same things they felt upon hearing about Amazon’s newest, hotly debated Dash Button.
Here’s what I think…
It’s not just that we’re so used to hearing about “far fetched” products, and that we’re becoming numb to them. It’s that we’re hearing about far fetched products that actually prove to be useful in ways we didn’t expect. And once we get over the hubris or ridiculousness of buying a smart thermometer, or a smart smoke detector, or a smart thermostat, (or for some people- a selfie stick), we realize that yes- actually our lives are qualitatively improved by the existence of these products.
And by now, many of us have learned a lesson (right or wrong)… We’re not that good at figuring out how a new product might be good for us. You didn’t think you needed the internet, or Facebook, or a smartphone, or a new kind of taxi, or a dash button… Well in the end, you did, didn’t you.
So now when April 1 comes along, I suspect many of you are like me. You click a link for a selfie stick holder and chuckle… But not as hard as you did last year. After all, you really are tired of digging your selfie stick out of the closet every time you want to go on a hike, aren’t you.
