Whether it strikes at home or in the office, April Fools’ Day is a good way to cope with the depressing last leg of Chicago’s winters. It provides an escape, even for a brief moment, from the constant seriousness and responsibility many adult lives are plagued with. But what happens when a simple prank completely backfires and turns into an awful situation full of negative feedback?

One should ask reporter Shawn Jones of the Evanston Roundtable. After publishing a fictitious newspaper article, on March 29, discussing a ridiculous fake law about snow removal in the community, many residents took it more seriously and failed to read carefully.

The article claimed that due to the massive blizzard that hit Chicago and surrounding areas, the city of Evanston was facing a budget crisis because of the excessive but necessary snow removal. The article reported that in the future residents would have to purchase stickers daily to request snow removal from in front of their homes for $2.25 per day and place them on orange cones outside of their homes, according to a fictitious source the author called the “snow czar, Pearl de Blanc.” If people wanted their driveways cleared, it was an extra $2 per day.

The article also referenced a meeting that took place on April 1, even though the press date was on March 29. As one continues reading the story, it gets completely unrealistic, and it’s hard to believe so many people missed the joke. It went over Evanston resident’s heads so much that City Hall got numerous complaints about the fake legislation.

Is it possible that publishing a fake article in a legitimate news source was not the best idea? Of course. However, the content was so blatantly fake people should have chuckled at the newspaper editors for having a sense of humor. This is especially true during times where dismal world and local news continuously bombard our televisions, radios and print media.

Some people need to learn to laugh a little bit and stop the hypersensitive attitude when they fall for a joke. It’s not an uncommon scene when someone falls for a prank and his or her ego gets in the way. It turns a lighthearted simple hoax into a grudge-worthy moment that gets used against the prankster from that moment on.

Understandably so, not everyone has a sense of humor. However, as cliche as it sounds, the world could be a slightly better place with more humor.

Hopefully a good amount of well thought-out April Fools’ jokes were successful and perhaps raised the spirits of whoever witnessed, took part in or fell for a prank.