I love April Fools Day. Not because I love getting fooled, mind. No, I love April Fools Day for the same reason I love Halloween: It’s a chance for people to loosen up, get creative, and maybe even re-evaluate their own self-importance.

The best April Fools Day gags are like the great Halloween costumes and decorations: Rather than tricking everyone, they are a treat. Consider the classics:

• The 1957 BBC “Spaghetti Farming” documentary was a welcome relief from the stuffy news the beeb showed at the time.
• Britain’s The Guardian delighted literary types everywhere with their 1977 coverage of the island nation of San Serriffe.
• The Soviet Union really did add a computer called “Kremvax” to the Internet, but not on April 1, 1984.
• The long-running series of April Fools Day RFCs show that there is life left in the academic halls of Internet standards. Many, like IPoAC and the evil bit, have even been implemented!

What do all of these hoaxes have in common? They are genuinely funny, at least to those with knowledge of the subject at hand. They are sincere and brainy and not mean-spirited. And, most importantly, they are self-deprecating. In other words, the joke is on the creator as much as his audience.

Google has a long history of wonderful April Fools Day pranks, though the various elements of that now-massive company often over-play the holiday. Although some un-funny bits are found each year, I genuinely enjoy many of them. This year’s renaming of the company to Topeka is an especially appropriate reciprocation. Too bad Microsoft seems completely humorless this year.

I know that many people get sick of the piles of jokes perpetrated at this time of year. But remember that it’s only a day, and a little laughing at ourselves never hurt. As Joel and the Bots said, just relax!

Stephen Foskett is community organizer for Gestalt IT, among other things. His latest scoop, iPad Was a Hoax, Admits Apple, can be found on his Pack Rat blog.