Director’s Notes: 245 - Fridge-worthy

We get asked from time to time about doing an April Fool’s episode, because we always have a new episode on April 1. It’s not something I’ve strongly considered.

I’m not alone in my dislike of April Fool’s Day as a concept. First, I don’t really like pranking people. The furthest I really go with ever fooling people is having a dry sense of humor. If I deliver a line seriously, it can be believable-sounding, even if it’s an absurd statement. I’d be lying if I said I don’t enjoy that brief moment of confusion. But it’s never my primary goal. I actually prefer an honest laugh to my jokes far more than I like having someone get frustrated with themselves and me.

All of this comes from my own dislike of being taken for a ride. Back in 2010, a sports blog ran an article about the retirement of Dirk Nowitzki. As background, I grew up in Dallas, and Dirk played for the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. He’s my favorite player of all time. And he retired in 2019. Not 2010. But back in 2010, this article caught me by surprise, and it honestly brought tears to my eyes thinking about how much he meant to me and my team. I was shocked and sad. And then I got to the end of the article. “April Fools.”

With respect: fuck you.

I’ve heard about elaborate pranks that went well. All parties involved (both prankers and prankees) had a blast. And good for those folks. I’m not vehemently opposed to April Fool’s Day, but over the years, I’ve grown weary of the whole concept.

This gets me to my second reason for not messing with this “holiday.” Corporate over-use. From basketball writers to multi-national brands, I’m exhausted from being tricked (or worse, not being tricked and just having to roll my eyes at the bad attempts at humor). It leads to a lack of trust with all things news & social media. 

In fact, a former co-worker of mine used to joke that his April Fool’s gag was to slash his neighbor’s tires. Sometimes he would trip old people. Of course, my co-worker was being tongue-in-cheek. The satire is in the question of where is the line between funny harm and harmful harm. 

Finally, Night Vale itself is weird. It’s filled with absurd humor (e.g. the version of Scrabble in this episode), so I’m not even sure what the content of an April Fool’s episode would be, short of annoying our listeners. 

I prefer to annoy our listeners with my dumb jokes and pedantic director’s notes. 

Jeffrey Cranor
April 1, 2024