# Want to help me play a prank on someone? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 19, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721 "2019-06-19T00:11:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/1 "2019-06-19T00:11:53Z")
Someone I have a friendly competitive relationship with has played a prank on me. It was a good prank. A funny prank. A clever prank. The details are classified. Suffice is to say that it is, in the immortal words of the poet Ice Cube, on like Donkey Kong. I would like to know if there exists a small expendable speaker I could deploy at various locations in a room or building which will play a sound file I loaded into it. Preferably, it would have a long the battery life and be at least adequate at playing the lower frequencies of the human voice. If it’s time-delayed or remote-controlled in some way, that would be even better. But mainly, it must allow me to load a sound file, be small and low cost. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/2 "2019-06-19T00:30:19Z")
How close will you be to said speaker after you place it? Could it be bluetooth which would eliminate the need for any data storage & also make it remote controllable? I got something like [this](https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/manna-trade-bluetooth-speaker-28-oz-water-bottle/5275480) as a promotional giveaway so it didn’t even cost me the $20 that it retails for. The speaker is only the cap so it’s pretty small in size, too. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/3 "2019-06-19T20:10:38Z")
GoGroove made a small unit with a rechargeable battery several years ago. There are newer and better units now from many manufacturers, but I’ve seen used GoGrooves on eBay and other sites for low $$$. It sounds pretty good and will run for a long time on a charge. You could create blank MP3 files and load them to the USB/SD media so the unit would be silent for variable periods. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/4 "2019-06-19T20:14:12Z")
I just looked on eBay. They are called a Sonaverse and I see a couple for $20. You could go slightly more and get a Doss or some other type of unit, I guess. I’d just hate to dispose of a better player for a prank…violates my sense of balance. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/5 "2019-06-19T20:39:43Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > I just looked on eBay. They are called a Sonaverse and I see a couple for $20. You could go slightly more and get a Doss or some other type of unit, I guess. I’d just hate to dispose of a better player for a prank…violates my sense of balance. Could you show me a link? I’m seeing many items when searching for it and I’m not sure which it is. I don’t know much about speaker gear so it all looks the same to me. ---
**Author:** ![motu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/motu/32/259_2.png) [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/6 "2019-06-19T21:21:03Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > How close will you be to said speaker after you place it? Could it be bluetooth which would eliminate the need for any data storage & also make it remote controllable? > > I got something like [this](https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/manna-trade-bluetooth-speaker-28-oz-water-bottle/5275480) as a promotional giveaway so it didn’t even cost me the $20 that it retails for. The speaker is only the cap so it’s pretty small in size, too. [https://www.indy100.com/article/hidden-speaker-prank-imgur-user-chefshwasty-stayin-alive-bee-gees-7810131](https://www.indy100.com/article/hidden-speaker-prank-imgur-user-chefshwasty-stayin-alive-bee-gees-7810131) ---
**Author:** ![HeiLo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c77e96/32.png) [@HeiLo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeiLo)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/7 "2019-06-19T21:30:50Z")
> [@motu](#): > > [https://www.indy100.com/article/hidden-speaker-prank-imgur-user-chefshwasty-stayin-alive-bee-gees-7810131](https://www.indy100.com/article/hidden-speaker-prank-imgur-user-chefshwasty-stayin-alive-bee-gees-7810131) From the reaction, this is mobbing, not pranking. ---
**Author:** ![HeiLo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c77e96/32.png) [@HeiLo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeiLo)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/8 "2019-06-19T21:36:33Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > I would like to know if there exists a small expendable speaker I could deploy at various locations in a room or building which will play a sound file I loaded into it. Preferably, it would have a long the battery life and be at least adequate at playing the lower frequencies of the human voice. If it’s time-delayed or remote-controlled in some way, that would be even better. But mainly, it must allow me to load a sound file, be small and low cost. How about something like this? [https://www.amazon.com/Icstation-Recording-Light-Module-Christmas/dp/B01L1OI2VM/ref=pd\_aw\_sbs\_229\_3/147-2803222-9963762](https://www.amazon.com/Icstation-Recording-Light-Module-Christmas/dp/B01L1OI2VM/ref=pd_aw_sbs_229_3/147-2803222-9963762) It’s a light activated device that you can record 30s of audio onto, runs on button batteries and costs $8.39 it seems. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/9 "2019-06-19T21:48:54Z")
> [@HeiLo](#): > > How about something like this? > [https://www.amazon.com/Icstation-Recording-Light-Module-Christmas/dp/B01L1OI2VM/ref=pd\_aw\_sbs\_229\_3/147-2803222-9963762](https://www.amazon.com/Icstation-Recording-Light-Module-Christmas/dp/B01L1OI2VM/ref=pd_aw_sbs_229_3/147-2803222-9963762) > It’s a light activated device that you can record 30s of audio onto, runs on button batteries and costs $8.39 it seems. Oh, that’s good. Thank you. Combining it with a programmable light and placing several of those in a location could give him the proper schizophrenic experience. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/10 "2019-06-19T22:02:30Z")
If you want to add smell to sight and sound, a coworker came up with a great one. He got one of those aerosol air fresheners that periodically shoots out a loverly scent. He hid it under another guy’s desk up and behind the middle drawer. It was literally peachy for about 4 days till he figured out where it was coming from. I thought it was classic! ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/11 "2019-06-19T22:49:08Z")
How are you planning to set it off? Remote controlled or bluetooth seems to be what you’d need. [This is cheap enough to be disposable](https://www.amazon.com/Remote-Controlled-Bluetooth-Speaker-Built-Tuscom/dp/B075CKCTSN/ref=sr_1_22?crid=2ELYSYGP8PG05&keywords=remote+controlled+speaker&qid=1560984256&s=gateway&sprefix=remote+controlled+spe%2Ctoys-and-games%2C219&sr=8-22), if you have the proper location. Or something [like this.](https://www.amazon.com/Speaker-Wireless-Waterproof-Bluetooth-Hands-Free-Speakerphone/dp/B07D9DCBFK/ref=sr_1_43_sspa?crid=2ELYSYGP8PG05&keywords=remote+controlled+speaker&qid=1560984438&s=gateway&sprefix=remote+controlled+spe%2Ctoys-and-games%2C219&sr=8-43-spons&psc=1) StG ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/12 "2019-06-20T00:05:35Z")
I’d like to set it off either 1) When he’s alone, which would suggest time delay. 2) When there are a lot of people in the room, which suggests remote control. I should mention that I don’t currently have a smartphone. It could be useful in the future but it would really be best if it didn’t require a phone to activate it. Thanks all for your info, please keep it coming if you know of more. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-to-help-me-play-a-prank-on-someone/835721/13 "2019-06-20T14:35:20Z")
How’s your electronic diy skills? [https://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Annoy-a-thing-Annoy-a-tron/](https://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Annoy-a-thing-Annoy-a-tron/)