Read Catch-22 and note the character Milo Miderbinder.
At the pizza place I used to run, we sold slices up front. On April 1st we’d put pizzas out that no sane person would eat, so that customers would do a double take and ask “WTF is that?” Then we’d play it up like it was a new specialty we were promoting. One example I recall was a pie topped with whole Vienna sausages and Cheese Whiz.
And if you’re familiar with VBA programming, you can automate the speech-to-text function to do a bunch of things, like have the computer say each word after they type it, or say their name at random intervals. Or, if you want to be really evil, remap their keyboard so that the letters are all jumbled around, or change the XML RibbonX code to include any number of wacky commands (or just include the code <startfromblank = “true”> and add no other commands in your customUI folder…the ribbon will be entirely blank).
Myself, I prefer the simple pranks. A couple of years ago I set my stepson’s clock and his alarm time forwards by one hour. He thought he’d overslept and ran downstairs screaming that he was going to miss the bus. If I’d thought about it more, I would have set the clocks in the kitchen an hour forward as well.
I like this one too! You need to crank up your radio, so when people point and yell at you, you can just smile, shake your head and be like “what? I can’t hear you!”
This one would freak me right out! That’s over the line!
Get a wireless mouse and plug the USB receiver into a co-worker’s PC when they’re away. Windows will happily allow multiple mice to co-exist on one machine, and if you use any modern mouse with a standard HID driver you won’t even have to dismiss any “New hardware found” dialogs when you plug it in. Totally stealth.
Keep the mouse at your desk and just wiggle it every once in a while as your co-worker goes about their work. Resist the temptation to move it very much at first, and take care to only do it when they are actually using their own mouse. If you can see their mouse hand from your vantage point, try replicating their movements (to exaggerate their pointer’s progress and overshoot its target) or totally reversing them (to cancel it out). These tactics work more subtly than random movements.
Over the next few days, progress slowly from small nudges of the mouse to actively grabbing windows and moving them around the screen. When your co-worker stops calling tech support and starts calling an exorcist, your work is done.
I have done this several times, and find that the Logitech mice with the nano USB receivers work best, both for the unobtrusiveness of the receiver and the range of the link. In one instance I conducted the experiment for two weeks on a co-worker who sat twenty feet away.
That is evil.
I love it.
My thought exactly! (Where is my parachute?)
One of the tech sites recently showed a photo of a great trick. It was an official looking document, with an HP Logo posted above an HP Copier. It said something to the effect of :
Voice Commands have been activated on this copier.
You may now use verbal command and options instead of pushing buttons. For example:
“Copy, Single Sided, 25, Collated and stapled”.
Please enunciate clearly.
If command is not accepted, say “Reset” and try again after 10 seconds.
Best if you are within earshot of the copier…
Once I was at an election training session on April 1, during a politically unstable period. Partway through the morning, our director-general suddenly came charging in, brandishing her BlackBerry and yelling, “Harper dropped the writ! The election’s May 7!” :eek::eek::eek: :o :smack:
My daughter got me with this one last year (she’s 8 and thought it was awesome)…
Get a pack of Oreo cookies. Remove the icing from some the cookies. Get plain white toothpaste (NOT gel toothpaste) and substitute it for the icing. Put the cookies back in the pack. Make sure you save a “real” one for yourself. Grab it out the pack and eat it, then ask if the “prankee” would like a cookie!
I worked at a place where if a manager left for a job elsewhere (either within the company or not), someone would shrink wrap their car. When the place closed for good last year, the manager and assistant manager on duty that day got their cars wrapped just before the key was put in the door. The pics were mailed around to everyone. 
Yeah, pretty funny.
Several years ago I worked with someone who was adamant about using the SETI screensaver thing, which turned all of his monitors into devices at idle which would analyze radio signals from space. We all tried to explain how ridiculous it was, but he was convinced that this was going to find E.T.
One April 1st while he was at lunch I grabbed a screenshot, and altered it with a very large red spike, with the words “NON-RANDOM SIGNAL DETECTED - CONTACT SETI IMMEDIATELY”
The deception was short-lived, but hearing his hoots of delight was well worth it.
My favorite one, and it’s one we used on all new employees at one time or another, is to reverse the mouse orientation. Set it so that when the mouse moves left, the cursor moves right, and when the mouse moves up, the cursor moves down.
This doesn’t seem funny until you see them with both hands on their mouse trying to overcome the misbehaving little beast.
Ianzin, you’re doing it horribly wrong.
April Fools jokes should be fun for both pranker and prankee. You shouldn’t be using them as passive-aggressive weapons against people you don’t like.
Similarly, I don’t feel April Fools an excuse to damage other people’s property. I wouldn’t write in someone else’s book unless I’d already bought them another copy to make up for it.
I have done this. With six of the infernal devices. One of them went into the back of the victim’s chair. It had a zipper access. Another went into the middle of a Post-It note pad that I had created a cavity in with an exacto knife. He had dumped the drawer out onto his desk and was looking right at it when it beeped at him.
I am intrigued and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Will be even more fun as he uses a USB KVM switch and there’s an extra port on the switch. It will affect ALL of his computers.
This year I will be attaching a Fart Machine to the bottom of someone’s chair.
But my greated prank was recounted here. Her shriek brought tears to my eyes.
If you have access to someone’s car…
- Set ALL the radio buttons to the most obnoxious station you can find.
- Turn the radio volume up as far as it will go.
- Turn on the windshield wipers at the highest setting.
- Turn the air conditioning up to full blast.
- Turn off the engine.
- Pour confetti/paper hole punches into all of the air conditioning vents.
- Run like hell.
When the owner gets into the car and starts the engine, the car will fill with confetti, the radio blasts on, and the windshield wipers go nuts.
My son did this to his stepmom. Good times.
Better yet, saran wrap a toilet bowl.
This works best with someone who is extremely proud and particular about their car. The type who glares at you for parking near it.
Get a scrap of paper and write “the guy watching me write this thinks I’m writing my name and address for you. Sorry about the scratch”. Put it under your victim’s windshield wipers when their car is parked someone public (like an employee carpark). Watch from somewhere discreet as your victim goes nuts trying to find the scratch.
Wow. I see a whole lot of just mean shit. I’m of the opinion April fools is about light hearted pranks, not an opportunity for a full scale pain and suffering. The difference between between being startled versus screaming in terror.
I agree. Sometimes the best prank is against yourself just to get a reaction. i.e. A coffee cup with magnets. I think that’s hilarious.