# So, any good work pranks? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 4, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057 "2006-11-04T02:54:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/61 "2006-11-08T23:09:21Z")
Here’s a great one that can be done in a split second if the opportunity presents itself. On WinXP systems (only, I think) if you hold down CTRL+ALT and then press a direction arrow (not the number keypad, but the arrow group) you can instantly switch the screen orientation. So basically, CTRL+ALT+LEFTARROW will rotate the screen 90 degrees, CTRL+ALT+DOWNARROW flips everything upside down. The great thing about this trick is that it only takes a split second so you can do it literally while you’re walking by someones unlocked computers, it’s totally non-destructive, and it just obscure enough that even a really competent Helpdesk or IT person might not know it. As far as I know it’s not even possible to affect this setting through the normal Display Properties Control Panel (though it’s fun to watch people navigate those menus upside down or at a right angle). Go ahead, keep rebooting! I’ve actually seen people with flatscreen LCDs just rotate the whole monitor to “fix” the problem; everything still works normally, so it’s one of those quirks that people are usually willing to live with. If that’s the case, be sure to rotate the screen on them by 90 degrees every other day. Evil. ---
**Author:** ![Pseudopod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecd19e/32.png) [@Pseudopod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pseudopod)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/62 "2006-11-09T00:22:45Z")
**Jayrot** , is that supposed to work on all XP systems? I can’t get it to work on mine… ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/63 "2006-11-09T00:37:08Z")
Hmm, good question. Works on the computers here at work and my computer at home (I actually prefer the portrait orientation). Doing a little googling, it seems that it might depend on the video card/driver that you have. ---
**Author:** ![rexnervous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rexnervous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rexnervous)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/64 "2006-11-09T03:47:02Z")
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton] Alternatively, wait until a colleague has left their PC unlocked and has disappeared for a bit. Hit Alt + Printscreen to get a screenshot. Then store this as an image file and set it as the desktop background. THEN drag every file they have on their desktop to someplace else and watch as they repeatedly click on the images of files you left for them. Fabulous fun in an i-hope-he-doesn’t-explode kind of way. 😃 [/QUOTE] On WinXP, the second part is even simpler - you can simply right-click on the desktop and under the icons submenu, uncheck the Show Desktop Icons. They all disappear. Also, make sure to drag the taskbar down to bottom of screen (you may need to unlock taskbar). This is a great practical joke by the way. Another one is to change the keyboard layout to another language. For instance, if you change it to France, most of the keystrokes will be the same, but a few won’t. Q becomes A and vice versa, M becomes a comma. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/65 "2006-11-09T04:17:27Z")
[QUOTE=Pseudopod] **Jayrot** , is that supposed to work on all XP systems? I can’t get it to work on mine… [/QUOTE] Are you using the arrows on the numeric pad, (not the “normal” arrows), and do you have NumLock turned off? It did not work, here, with the regular arrows, but did on the numeric pad arrows, but only if not in NumLock mode. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/66 "2006-11-09T04:23:19Z")
Correction, (for our machine), either set of arrows work, but NumLock must be off. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/67 "2006-11-09T09:12:36Z")
Hmmm, last day in the office, CRTL+ALT+“arrow”… ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/edb3f5/32.png) [@Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Push_Up_Bra)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/68 "2006-11-09T09:36:55Z")
I can’t believe I forgot about this until now: an old Livejournal entry I made to remember my dear friend Carl! Now I do not recommend doing this at your work but it’s good for a giggle. Some of them are kind of cruel but as you’ll see, Carl’s victims are either the victims of revenge or they get their own back. He’s not an evil bastard anymore apparently: > [@LiveJournal Entry](#): > > At my new job in a cafe, I work behind the register, in close proximity to Carl, the chef. > > Just a brief glimpse at Carl; he has two plugs in his lobes, big silver ones about the diameter of a ten cent piece and about 3/4 of a centimeter thick. He has a few bars in different parts of his ears and a closely shorn head. He’s 30 and his ex girlfriend ran away with his four year old son. He’s not a happy chappy. But this is not about that. This is about Carl’s utter genius in pranking fellow workers. > > When working at one restaurant, he slipped Turbo-Lax in two guys’ coffee. Why? Because they were assholes. Not such a big deal right, little bit of a laxative? > > Except for when you take little chillies, so hot that they make your lips blister, and squeezed them onto the rim of the toilet seat. One guy had a perfect imprint of the loo seat on his ass in blisters. > > Dotti is a socially naive wench, who works at my cafe. She came to Australia from Eastern Europe (so did most of our waitresses/waiters) as a size 8. She ate like a wren, very conscious of her size. She proceeded to hit on Carl, who took no real notice and also on the other chef. Finally Carl responded and she stepped away ‘No no, I have boyfriend, I no cheat on him.’ She did the same to the other chef. These two men, normally at opposite poles banded together to formulate a plan. As chefs, they both know the calorie content of the food they make. They created little snacks, no more than an inch cubed which contain more energy than nuclear fuel rods. Sugar, flour and butter, cut with apple and walnut to disguise the taste. Two months later, Dotti needs to go up a size. Her boyfriend is complaining. Carl and the other chef are wetting themselves with glee. > > He once worked for a man often described as an absolute c\*nt. A real hard bastard, with no love for anyone. One day, Carl had been pushed too far. He often made daily lunches for his boss and decided to slip a little extra something in there. Like an oestrogen pill. Forty-five days later, this man is crying to Carl; he doesn’t know where his life is going, there are troubles at home and he’s an emotional wreck. Carl’s pity had already started to kick in and he stopped slipping in the little something extra. > > He once had a colleague who either came in drunk and was obnoxious and talkative, or hungover and whingy. One day, he came in drunk and went too far with Carl. The next week, Carl turned on the gas in the oven, with the door open a crack until he could smell the gas. He shut the oven. He waited. The guy came in, hungover to hell. He picks up the clicker which is on top of the oven and lights it. Opens oven door. It is probably worthy of note that this man had straggly hair in a pony tail before that day. Afterwards, he looked clean-shaven with a singed ponytail at the base of his skull. > > Carl also loves fireworks. He once took what is essentially a little stick of dynamite, took apart a stove top and twisted the wick of the firecracker around the pilot. At 6am, some half-awake fucker goes to light his stove and is shocked awake by one hell of a bang. The first time it happened to Carl, he didn’t speak for the rest of the day. > > This is not to say that Carl has never been pranked. At one job, two of the other chefs opened a steam oven at him whilst he made ravioli. Carl had third degree burns where no one wants third degrees burns. The ring leader had a laugh but not for long. Two weeks later, Carl has made up the hottest chilli oil on earth and waited for his moment. As this prankster has bent over, Carl has emptied one litre of chilli oil into this man’s butt crack. No one at that place ever pranked Carl again. > > However, it is customary to prank someone on their last day. At another restaurant, Carl gave one month’s notice and no one has mentioned anything but he can feel an undercurrent brewing. On his last day, he heads to the change room only to have it opened with the manager’s keys and have twelve chefs drag him out and truss him up to a meat trolley, roll him down to the foyer (where the general public dines) and yank down his pants so that his third eye winks at the security camera. A female security guard wanders down and he begs her to ‘pull up his fucking pants please’ and so she disappears. Ten minutes later she returns with a pair of tongs but she just can’t seem to get a grip on his pants. And so what if some people see that you have a hairy bottom? > > He admits that his best prank was Rob. One morning, he and the other chef arrive at 6am. No Rob (third chef). Time continues until 10. Still no Rob. They call the casino. Rob is $8,500 up and tanked. He doesn’t want to leave. If he doesn’t get his arse into work, he’ll get fired. In the lead up to Rob’s arrival, Carl assigns him to Sides and gives him only enough potato chips to last until the busy time. In the meantime, he puts the rest at the back of the freezer room and mops the floor in there three times with clean water. Sure anough, around rush time, Rob bolts in to grab more potato chips and ends up in a shitheap of drunken limbs against the boxes of potato chips. > > He has also ridden a motorcycle through a dead cow (by accident) and played with air guns filled with blue cheese but more on that later, if you request it. Per the request part - I wrote out that part of his life in my English Exam creative writing part. In fact, I used nearly everything he’d ever told me about himself and got a bit creative towards the end to pull it together. I was pretty proud of that. ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/69 "2006-11-09T13:28:21Z")
that crtl+alt+arrow isn’t working on my pooter… I used to work alongside a total bitch, everyone hated her. She was the only person allowed (on her [de facto manager] orders) to use the single pooter in the place, someone suggested (since the bitch wasn’t very pooter savvy) that we use the auto correct to substitute her name for _fucking bitch_ and edit out all the auto corrects for the regular typos that everyone makes… I don’t like playing pranks (although she’d have deserved that and being tarred ‘n’ feathered) so I said “you do it” but they never did. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/70 "2006-11-09T14:35:18Z")
At the place I worked, some of the guys decided to ride a charity event - 125km from Hamilton to Whangamata. They scheduled some after work training rides. One of the engineers turned up with his new road bike. He spent all day going on about the bike to his colleagues. He kept on about how light the bike was, and how easy it was to ride. They get back from the ride and he is exhausted. He can barely lift the bike back on to the bike rack - a bike he claimed he could handle one-handed. Of course, that was before his workmates filled the seat post and frame with steel bar… Si ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/71 "2006-11-12T04:00:03Z")
This probably only works with the extremely gullible: 1. Get a cheap PC microphone, the kind that looks like [this.](http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/6461/6461722_sa.jpg) 2. Affix the microphone to the copy machine or fax machine as neatly as possible; perhaps use some double-sided tape on the base. Bring the cord around back of the machine and tape it in place out of easy view. 3. Type up some official-looking instructions for use; one of the instructions should be to have the user repeat a nonsense phrase of some sort to establish a “baseline” for their voice. 4. Ask your mark if they’ve tried out the new “voice acitivation” on the copier/fax machine yet. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgonzola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e480ec/32.png) [@Gorgonzola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgonzola)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/72 "2006-11-12T04:43:34Z")
I’d want a webcam somewhere nearby for that one. ^^ The only prank I’ve ever seen work perfectly was to leave a message from “Myra Mains” for the mark, with a return number for a funeral home. It made me wince quite a bit for the funeral home people, though. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/73 "2006-11-12T16:23:27Z")
I used to have one of these [foureyesjokeshop.com](http://www.foureyesjokeshop.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=200) which got left in strategic locations like alongside the breakroom fridge or in somebody’s desk drawer. That sucker is big. The woden part is ~4"x8" and the critter is 10" plus the tail. And it flops mightily, at least when the batteries are new. Always good for a scream from the newbie. In the bad old DOS days I had a TSR that would randomly substitute an adjacent keystroke for the one the user really hit. But not every time. Tres evil. There was a startup parameter that controlled the probability. 1 in 10000 was a good place to start. The you’d slowly bump the probability every few days. The person just thought they were getting careless. By 1 in 100, they were unable to type & out buying a new keyboard. And this was a decade before realtime spell check was available to follow along & fix the goofs. Good times. Don’t forget about Hal & the sheep: [Sex with sheep is fun. - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=333640) . Now THAT was a prank to remember. I wonder what Hal ever did to that guy? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/74 "2006-11-12T19:19:38Z")
This one has become a tradition in my office - and a rite of passage for new people. Twice a month, the HR department will send out an email asking for volunteers to clean out our two refrigerators. We’ll rush around to find someone away from their desk who left their computer unlocked and “volunteer” for the job. We then delete the email so there is no way for them to know they volunteered and it’s an extra surprise when someone from HR shows up at their desk asking them if they’re ready. This is an especially tedious and often gross task because our office has way too many people for only 2 refrigerators. Another good one I discovered on my own: If you have Nortel Networks VOIP phones, there’s a setting buried in some obscure menu for “buzzer volume”. The default is all the way down, but if you turn it all the way up it sounds like a freaking foghorn. What this is is the buzzer that goes off when you’re already on the phone and you have another call coming in. It tends to scare the living hell out of people and completely throw them out of their conversation. Me and a friend came in on a Sunday earlier this year and did that to every phone in the office. We laughed our asses off for weeks as we heard those things go every few minutes from every corner of the building. Eventually we let a couple people in on the joke who apparently then told two friends, who told two friends, etc., but I still occasionally hear one! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/75 "2006-11-12T19:58:12Z")
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton] Alternatively, wait until a colleague has left their PC unlocked and has disappeared for a bit. Hit Alt + Printscreen to get a screenshot. Then store this as an image file and set it as the desktop background. THEN drag every file they have on their desktop to someplace else and watch as they repeatedly click on the images of files you left for them. Fabulous fun in an i-hope-he-doesn’t-explode kind of way. 😃 [/QUOTE] Along the same lines, here is [BlueScreen Screen Saver v3.2](http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen.mspx) which appears to give a BSOD and then restart the system. If possible, disable the feature that turns off the screensaver when you bump the mouse. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/76 "2006-11-12T22:12:24Z")
Another fun one, if you’re using Macs and your officemates aren’t too familiar with OS X: Command-F5 turns voiceover on; sure to drive them nuts or at least ruin their music-listening options by forcing them to mute their computer. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/77 "2006-11-12T23:16:01Z")
[QUOTE=Cuckoorex] Another fun one, if you’re using Macs and your officemates aren’t too familiar with OS X: Command-F5 turns voiceover on; sure to drive them nuts or at least ruin their music-listening options by forcing them to mute their computer. [/QUOTE] But what does Voiceover do—repeat whatever’s said within range? That’d drive me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/78 "2006-11-13T13:24:02Z")
A subtler word substitution is replacing “public” with “pubic.” Few people will catch it. One of the funniest moments at my office was when an employee was standing at my desk, talking to a customer on his cell phone. He had no idea the customer had come in through the back door and was now slowly creeping up on him. When the customer yelled “GOTCHA” in his cell phone and put his hand on the employee’s back, I thought the employee was going to have a heart attack. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/79 "2006-11-13T18:20:17Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl] But what does Voiceover do—repeat whatever’s said within range? That’d drive me nuts. [/QUOTE] It’s actually a handicap-accessibility feature of the OS; so if you click on, say, a Photoshop document on the desktop, it will say, in a very annoying voice, something like, “racooncake dot pee ess dee, desktop” and if you click on a web browser it will start reading the tags on it “Straight Dope Message Board, Reply to Topic, Mozilla Firefox”, then start reading the content of the page to you. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057/80 "2006-11-13T20:00:31Z")
[QUOTE=Cuckoorex] It’s actually a handicap-accessibility feature of the OS; so if you click on, say, a Photoshop document on the desktop, it will say, in a very annoying voice, something like, “racooncake dot pee ess dee, desktop” and if you click on a web browser it will start reading the tags on it “Straight Dope Message Board, Reply to Topic, Mozilla Firefox”, then start reading the co bedtntent of the page to you. [/QUOTE] In that same voice that Stephen Hawking has, I bet. Oy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-any-good-work-pranks/379057.md?page=5)