Top 10 Office April Fool’s Pranks

April Fool’s Day is almost here and you know what that means: Time to plan some creative office pranks.

Now, before you write this off as childish or meaningless, let me remind you of the four benefits to office pranks. I shared them before in my post, Top 10 Office Practical Jokes.

When you play practical jokes or pull off a successful April Fool’s prank, you will develop four important skills:

1. Planning

April Fool’s pranks require significant planning to pull off.

2. Teamwork

Personally, I’ve never pulled off a successful office prank on my own. These require teamwork and are often a great bonding experience for co-workers.

3. Secrecy

I mean this in a good way. No successful office April Fool’s prank can be pulled off without holding everyone “in the know” to the strictest levels of secrecy.

4. Apologizing

Trust me, you will have to apologize at some point. I’ve become an expert at this.

Alright, so without further ado, here they are…

 

My Top 10 April Fool’s Pranks for the Office

 

10. Blue Screen of Death

Do you know the blue screen of death? If not, it’s this:

To pull this off, simply hide the victim’s desktop icons and make the Blue Screen of Death image their background.

This one never fails to get folks riled up. After ten minutes or so of hysteria, pop in to wish him or her a happy April 1st.

9. The important package

Fill a box with packing peanuts and slap some shipping labels on it and address them to the recipient. Then call the victim and tell him that an important package will be arriving for him later in the day.

When he is out for lunch or a bathroom break, place it on his desk. Be amused as he spends the next ten-plus minutes trying to find the important item.

8. Anything with a mouse

If you work with me and you leave your mouse unattended on March 31 or April 1, you are practically asking me to do something to it. My suggestion: take your mouse with you wherever you go.

Here are some fun things to with others’ mice:

Tape on the bottom. It still works for those who don’t understand how mice work.

Switch mice. For people who work close to each other, switch their mice.

Reverse right and left clicks.

Increase or decrease movement sensitivity. Slow it down or speed it up to ridiculous levels.

Plug in a second mouse. Do I need to explain the havoc you can wreak here?

7. Mmmm, mayonnaise

Fill a jar of mayonnaise with vanilla yogurt. Bring a sandwich.

At lunch, bring out all of the condiments and after eating your sandwich, begin to shovel spoonfuls of yogurt, which everyone else will think is mayo, into your mouth.

Enjoy their disgust.

6. Autocorrect fun

If your victim uses Microsoft Word, edit the dictionary to autocorrect certain common words they use. Focus on words specific to your industry.

For example, if you work in insurance, have the word “actuary” change to “alpaca.” Or if you work as a CPA, change IRS to…well, I think we can all think of something for that one.

5. The fake

Are your co-workers expecting you to pull off some heinous prank this year? Then do nothing, but act like you are up to something all day.

Say things like “Can you check your top drawer?” or “Have you been in the kitchen yet?” And make it hard to contain the giggle. Your co-workers will be paranoid all day.

4. Embarassing video

This is one of my favorites because of it’s simplicity. Send your co-worker an embarrassing video (like a Justin Bieber song). What he doesn’t know is that you switched the audio settings to play on a hidden set of speakers that you have turned way up. Watch as his face reddens.

3. Do this:

Then enjoy your officemates screaming commands at an inanimate object.

2. Find the smell

If you want to make a co-worker totally paranoid, get everyone else in on this. Throughout the day on March 31, anytime someone is in her cubicle or office, pretend there is a faint, but awful smell.

She will not notice anything, of course. In order to pull this off, you have to have good acting skills. You have to pretend to barely notice it in the morning and it gets worse during the day.

That night, put something that really does stink in her cubicle or office. April 1 will be a fun day indeed.

1. iPads for Everyone!

Send an email on March 31 from “Management” announcing that everyone is getting something special tomorrow. Show a box of an iPad. The next day, have them arrive to find an iPad box on each of their desks.

Then open to this:

 

If you’re looking for more practical jokes, check out my Top 10 Office Practical Jokes.

What’s your favorite office April Fool’s prank?

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