Pranksters and merrymakers are reporting a massive downturn in japery and mischief this April Fool’s Day due to a universal general world-weariness. Professor Higgins of the Institute of Ersatz Academia gave his thoughts on the drop in gags, "The problem is that given the events of the previous year, people’s standards for nonsense are way down. They've seen a bloke given £17 million pounds for losing £20 billion pounds, they're expected to pay for someone’s porn habit and Britain's Got Talent has just got a new series. A story about prisoners being forced to wear nappies just isn’t going to cut it."
Office life is one area where the ramifications of all-pervading gloom have hit the hardest. Self-titled ‘Joker in the Pack’ Colin Trumby, a sales manager for a St. Albans tile business, describes his own forlorn situation.
"I’m a bit of prankster, always pulling stuff that people find hilarious or exceptionally annoying. But this year, it’s been really hard. I went up to one person and told them that it was now office procedure to come in dressed up like you’re from the 1930s. They just nodded and said ‘Well at least I’ve still got a job,’ and walked off."Susan Atkinson tells her story. "I pulled the old one about gullible being taken out of the dictionary. Later in the day I looked in the office dictionary and found that it had actually been removed. Along with hope, justice and remuneration."
