Is April Fools’ Day 2020 Cancelled This Year?

Is April Fools’ Day cancelled this year for 2020? With the coronavirus outbreak on everyone’s minds, some people are wondering if April Fools’ Day is cancelled. The answer is no, it’s not, despite all the tweets saying that April Fools’ Day is actually March 32 this year. But some companies aren’t celebrating April Fools’ like they normally do. So although the holiday itself isn’t canceled, you might not see all the jokes online that you’re used to seeing. And you might want to refrain from making any pranks that are directly related to coronavirus or COVID-19.

April Fools’ Day Isn’t Cancelled, But Some Companies Are Canceling Their Jokes

April Fools’ Day itself isn’t cancelled, but some companies are canceling their yearly jokes. For example, Google has canceled its yearly pranks this year, The Verge reported. According to an internal email, Google planned to take a year off in respect for all the people fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. An internal email also asked people to “suss out” smaller team projects for April Fools’ and “pause on any jokes they may have planned — internally or externally.”

Even some subreddits are canceling April Fools. The CoronavirusUK subreddit, for example, made this post.

Telegraph reported that Heinz, Kia, and Lego were also foregoing April Fools’ jokes this year and instead were focusing on supporting people fighting COVID-19. A Heinz spokesperson said to Telegraph: “Heinz has no plans for April Fools stories this year. Our attention is entirely focused on helping to feed the nation with popular grocery essentials…”

In fact, officials in Thai announced that jokes spreading false information about coronavirus could lead to as many as five years in jail.

In Taiwan, spreading false information could lead to three years in jail or more than $99,000 in fines, The Hill reported. India also posted a warning of its own.

So while April Fools’ Day isn’t cancelled in the United States, it’s important to not use the holiday as an excuse to spread false information. Keep in mind that some people have lost loved ones already to COVID-19, so don’t make any jokes that are in poor taste.

You could try some puns related to staying inside, though. For example, you might say something like, “Doctors recommend that we only tell inside jokes today.”

Just remember: don’t use April Fools’ as an excuse to spread false information about the coronavirus pandemic or COVID-19. Redditor u/FurbyFubar put together this handy guide about not joking about COVID-19.

Some people say this is all common sense, but a lot of people may not realize everything in this guide. Don’t pretend to be sick; don’t pretend to cough on anyone. Don’t share a prank that you’re infected or share a prank that someone died from the disease. While you’re thinking of ways to celebrate April Fools’, be sure to steer away from any jokes that might accidentally spread misinformation.

Here are some tweets calling for April Fools’ Day to be ignored this year. One person wrote: “By the way, April Fools is cancelled tomorrow. Keep your jokes to yourself because this whole year has been one already. We tired. Tomorrow is March 32nd.”

Yes, April Fools’ Day is still happening. No, the holiday is not canceled. But shelter-in-place orders and social distancing are also still in place, so most jokes will either need to be played on your family members or shared via text messages, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites.

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