"I can't believe they tricked me into thinking I could talk to my dog!"
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These were the words that exited my mouth last week. An email had landed in my inbox asking if I wanted to do a story on a soon-to-be-released dog translation app that would tell me what my pooch was saying. The dream!
"By detecting changes in your dog's sound waves and body temperature, we're able to distinguish what your dog is trying to tell you," the press release, promised me.
My dog, Pumba, says a lot that I'm sure is worthy of being translated. He doesn't look like it, but he is part beagle which means every time I walk through the door I am greeted by a doggy yodel for, at times, 15 minutes or more. Yes, I have timed it.
I hadn't even clicked through the link to download the app before I started thinking about the video content I would produce for The Canberra Times. (I could compare Pumba's very vocal translation to my boyfriend's very quiet greyhound Tina. It would have been great).
But the link guided me not to the Apple Store but to a joke page revealing that it was an (early) April Fools' joke. I have never been more disappointed in my life.
Yes, this is probably a sign that I am too attached to my dog, but I like to think I wouldn't be the only one bitterly disappointed at the revelation.
It was a stark reminder of how much I dislike April Fools. It is rarely creative or any good.
I can count on one finger how many times I have come across one that has actually made me laugh and felt original and harmless. That was the time someone had come into the office out of hours and tapped cutouts of Nicolas Cage's face on everyone's mouse laser. As people arrived and discovered Nicolas Cage's face was the reason their computer wasn't working that morning, they couldn't help but laugh in delight and confusion.
To this day, no one in that office has owned up to the prank, but I still think about it often.
Every news outlet and journalist has a stance on whether April Fools has a place in the news.
Some places do it every year and they do it well. My favourite has always been the BBC film trailer featuring flying penguins from 2008. It had this authenticity to its beginning - the same serious tone that most nature documentaries have - but as the final graphics of the penguins flying to the tropics took over, it was clear it was a hoax.
And that's where the line lies - you don't want people to walk away believing in flying penguins for the rest of their lives, but you don't want it to be disappointing or unoriginal, either.
In a world where more and more unbelievable things happen every day, this creativity is harder than ever. If that's not a reason for news outlets to avoid April Fools, I don't know what is. If there is no way to distinguish fact from fiction, when it comes to how strange it is, then how can you trust a news company?
As for anyone else wanting to partake in the April 1 tradition, feel free. But know that unless it's a face of Nicolas Cage on your co-worker's mouse, it's never going to be the greatest prank ever.