Cyclone Larry and April Fools Day

IT’S April Fools Day, but I think we should forget it.

At least this year. I can’t think of any kind of April Fools Day joke you could pull off in Northern Queensland at the moment that would make anyone laugh.

Especially somewhere like, say, Innisfail.

Even if it was really tame, like “Kick me” stuck on the back, you could — quite rightly — expect your teeth to be smiling from your bum in fairly short order.

But April Fools Day gags don’t come that simple any more. Like children’s toys, they have grown increasingly sophisticated. Slipping on a banana skin is not enough. We want to watch them fall down three flights of steps and fracture their skulls. If you don’t believe take a look at the funniest home video shows on TV.

They only show the accidents. The trike (and child) that drives off the bridge; the horse (and rider) that don’t make the jump. The footage always runs out before the ambulance arrives.

But oh how we laugh! All of us, that is, except the victim.

Which may explain why April Fools Day remains successful. It’s the one day in the year when you can do really nasty things to people and they are supposed to treat it all as good clean fun.

As high school students we stretched Gladwrap over the teachers’ lavatory pans (but under the seats) and wet ourselves imaging them wetting themselves. No one ever reported back whether we’d been successful, but we enjoyed it anyway. Most especially because there was an unwritten rule that said you couldn’t be expelled, caned, or lifted off the ground by your ear for any misdemeanours that happened on April Fools Day.

That didn’t stop them taking revenge of course. They saved it up until April 2.

But there’s another element to the psychology of April Fools Day jokes, sick home videos and category five cyclones – you can only laugh at them if they don’t happen to you. And sometimes not even then.

At least, not straight away. When Abraham Lincoln was shot dead while at the theatre with his wife, no one thought it was funny. One-hundred-and-fifty years later people were saying: “But apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?”

The same will happen with Cyclone Larry. Maybe it already is… the Townsville Bulletin ran a story on Thursday about a couple who were getting “Larried” instead of married.

Good on ’em! Mocking adversity is what Australians do best. Especially their own.

Well, Cyclone Larry didn’t happen to me; it happened to a lot of people I know and liked. It happened to some people I know and don’t like and even that’s not funny.

Despite the involvement of more banana skins than have ever been skidded on in all the pratfalls in the history of the world, there’s not a laugh to be had.

Yet.

Maybe we should encourage it. Somewhere out there, there must be a funny story about Larry. Even when my dad died of leukaemia there was some funny moments.

So if you know of any, share them with us. Tell the Bulletin. And while you’re at it… find a mug today and stick “Kick me” on his back.

You might just get away with it. And if you don’t… April Fool!