Survey: Can an April Fools’ Joke End Your Relationship?

With April Fools’ Day coming, many are plotting pranks: on their friends, their families … and their dates. They say you should date someone who makes you laugh, so why not get a good laugh out of a little April foolery, right? At the same time, there’s often a little lingering anxiety: What if the prank is too much? Maybe a sensible chuckle isn’t worth the risk …. 

So how do April Fools’ jokes affect relationships? Do young Americans prank their dates and partners? And can a bad joke be a reason to break things off? Hily was wondering about these questions and more, so we asked over 4,000 Millennial and Gen Z Americans about jokes, pranks, and dating. Here’s what we learned.

Key findings:

• Around half of young Americans (53% of women and 44% of men) are likely to end things with their partner or date if their sense of humor doesn’t align.
• Among young American daters, 48% of men and 37% of women have played an April Fools’ prank or joke on their partner or date.
• This April Fools’, 45% of young American women and 49% of men are likely to play a prank or joke on their date.
• A majority of young American daters (68% of women and 58% of men) agree an April Fools’ prank or joke can hurt a relationship or date.
• Of the young American women surveyed, 1 in 4 have felt hurt by an April Fools’ joke or prank by their partner or date.
• A cruel or mean April Fools’ joke can be a reason to end things with a partner or date for 53% of young American women vs. 25% of men.

A compatible sense of humor is important for young American daters. Over half of women surveyed (52%) say they’re likely to end things with their date if their sense of humor doesn’t align. Among men, 44% say the same.

Millennials seem to feel more strongly about humor mismatches: 58% of Millennial women and 49% of men said they were likely to break up over that.

Considering it’s such a sensitive topic, how do young Americans feel about April Fools’ day? Are they pranksters? And how do they react to being pranked? Let’s have a look.

It appears that a lot of young Americans have tried pranking their significant others. As many as 48% of men and 37% of women say they have played a prank or joke on their partner or date for April 1st.

Millennials have pranked their partners more: 45% of Millennial women and 58% of men have at least once, compared to only 34% of women and 42% of men among Gen Zers.

With Gen Z not as keen on pranks, are April Fools’ traditions still going strong?

April Fools’ pranking and joking seems to still be popular among young Americans. When asked if they were likely to play a prank or joke on their date this April Fools’, almost half of the respondents said yes. Almost as many women appear to be planning pranks as men: 45% VS 49%.

However, since a misalignment in sense of humor can be a dealbreaker for many, let’s have a look at how daters deal with less-than-tasteful pranks and jokes.

The majority of young American daters agree that a bad prank or joke can hurt a date or a relationship. Among women, the number is as high as 68%.

Among men, there are slightly more who feel like a joke is just a joke. Still, 58% agree that a bad April Fools’ prank can have sad consequences.

When asked if they have personally been hurt by a partner’s or date’s bad April Fools’ joke, as many as 1 in 4 young American women reveal they have. In comparison, only 10% of men surveyed suffered from that.

Interestingly, even though Millennial women have been hurt by bad pranks at pretty much the same rate as Gen Z women, they were still more inclined to say a bad prank can’t hurt a relationship: 37% of them said it was unlikely, compared to 30% of Gen Z women.

But can bad pranks or jokes be a dealbreaker?

It appears that for women, a bad April Fools’ prank tends to be a dealbreaker. Over half of young American women (53%) said they were likely to end things with a date or partner over a bad joke on April 1st. In comparison, only 25% of men said the same.

Millennial women were the most uncompromising about this, with 57% saying they were likely to break up over a cruel prank, even though they were more likely to say that an April Fools’ prank can’t hurt a relationship.

It seems that pranking your date isn’t generally a faux pas, but if you are planning something silly, it’s best to be careful about it.

Are love- and marriage-related pranks popular?

Before April Fools’, some may dread jokes like saying ‘I love you’ or proposing marriage. It appears that such pranks are a dying breed among young Americans.

The overwhelming majority said they were unlikely to joke around like that: 90% of men and 92% of women are against prank marriage proposals and around 89% of both men and women are against prank a ‘I love you.’

Conclusion

A lot of young Americans, women and men alike, pull a prank or joke on their date on April Fools’. But most agree that a bad prank can damage a relationship. Women are more wary of bad jokes than men: they’re more likely to feel hurt by them, and they’re much more likely to end things with a date or partner because of such pranks.

In general, having a similar sense of humor is important for American daters, and many consider a mismatch in sense of humor a dealbreaker.