So, I changed my relationship status for April Fools’ Day

MANILA, Philippines - For people with trust issues, April Fools’ Day is a nightmare. Likewise, for people with no sense of humor — or more specifically, no sense of satire — April Fools’ Day becomes the most agitating day of the year, with people saying things (e.g. half-truths, jokes, lies, etc.) left and right that are not to be taken seriously. But a lot still do. And they flare up on the comments section about how “this is such a bad joke,” and “the author is so dumb.”

On the other hand, there are those who, in order to take part in the festivities, change their relationship statuses online from single to “in a relationship.” It’s the oldest trick in the book and those who are most likely to fall for it are people who are just as old (and new to the Internet). It’s a cheap and lousy prank that people who least know you would probably fall for. Perhaps, it’s a convenient way to be funny and self-deprecating; another way to say “my relationship status is a joke.” Pity the couple whose anniversary actually falls on April 1.

There’s nothing terribly wrong with people changing their relationship statuses on April Fools’ Day. To get mad over a mundane and inconsequential thing misses the point entirely. It might even be indicative of some repressed emotion, a longing for a different kind of life, or a desire for the other person to get into a new “stage” in life. A joke is never just “joke lang.”

The thing about humor is that it’s not just about being funny. It’s not just about having that Rene Requiestas almost-toothless smile or having Willy Revillame’s knack for poking fun at other people at the expense of their dignity. It’s not just about having a sense of humor or being born with a healthy funny bone. Understanding and mastering humor requires talent, but contrary to popular belief, it can also be practiced by knowing how to manipulate variables in a controlled context. Simply put, it’s taking things out of their usual and routinary order that makes for a good joke. And in that sense, humor can be studied. In other words, there’s hope for all of us to be funny.

The question “why do we laugh?” has been around since Plato’s time. Answers range from the practical and sensible “because we are able to see things in a different context, contexts which we don’t usually see them in;” to the largely philosophical “because it is the exact and inevitable opposite of dying.” They say that laughing is the opposite of death because it ultimately requires the unexpected, like seeing your most torpe friend posting that he’s in a relationship with the prettiest girl around. Dying, on the other hand, is the only thing certain in life. It’s something we always know to be true, we will all die one day, but forget at that moment we laugh — that moment you never expected. Laughter is unpredictable, fleeting, and spontaneous. Death, on the other hand, is absolutely certain, permanent, and lawful in life’s natural course.

And with the fairly recent death of some known comedians, we are reminded of who the true victor is among the two.

Before we get lost in the abstract dimensions of laughing, it must be said that amid the said “institutionalization of the ‘in a relationship’” joke, there remains a good number of April Fools’ Day pranks online (see: Brand New’s April Fools’ prank — a daring go at the whole idea of branding and advertising). I guess what we are taught in the unfortunate event of April Fools’ Day is that the business of making people laugh is no laughing matter. It requires a lot of thought and work. April Fools’ Day teaches us that a few clicks on your Facebook settings just won’t do it.

With higher expectations, here’s to a funnier April Fools’ Day next year.