While April Fool’s Day is not a national or international official holiday, it is celebrated in many parts of the world on the 1st of April, a tradition whose roots can be traced back to the Roman Empire era and also medieval times. Who doesn’t love a good laugh anyway? And why is this particular day so awesome? Because all the pranksters out there can put in practice their craziest hoaxes and gags and get away with it, as for one day and one day only, gags and jokes become legit and appraised for their originality. Kids and adults alike love to play pranks on their peers, while some (who don’t particularly enjoy being the victims of all sorts of hoaxes) live the entire day in constant fear for not becoming the April Fool.
On the other hand, the pranksters go to incredible lengths to pull an elaborate hoax on somebody, sometimes even risking that the “victim”gets upset or uncomfortable. There are, however, some decency limits to playing jokes on your kids, friends, co – workers or family members, and today we will look at ten easy April Fool’s Day pranks that are fun and harmless enough to still have some laughs together with everybody without crossing the line.
1. Mess with their phones
We heard about people changing the alarm and time settings in other peoples’ phones, thus making them wake up late, miss appointments or show up earlier in places they weren’t supposed to be, but this is a bit cruel and can lead to very bad consequences for the April Fool. But for a few laughs and some confusion to be created, you can change your spouse’s or your co – worker’s phone language settings. It will take them some time to switch back to English after trying to decrypt Chinese or Finnish.
2. Mess with their breakfast milk
This one is a classic and is usually meant for children, but you will see some puzzled face expressions even in adults. Before bringing the cereal milk to the table, add a few drops of food coloring into the box and pretend that nothing is wrong with the blue or green milk that is about to soak their cereal.
3. Mess with their coffee
It works great in the office, but this one is a bit cruel too: change the regular coffee in the coffee machine at work with decaf. By the end of the day, your zombie – like co – workers will have figured out that something very bad had been going on all day, especially if you are the only one who is fresh, awake and in control of your cognitive abilities.
4. The Oreo prank
This sounds like having fun in the summer camp, but it’s still a fun joke to play on your family or co – workers. If you choose your kids for April Fools, don’t be too surprised if they take note of this hoax and practice it in school or in the next summer camp. So this goes like this: switch the cream inside the Oreo with toothpaste. You will count at least one victim.
5. Mess with their cars
Just make sure you don’t damage the car and the car’s owner has enough sense of humor to have a few laughs and not hate you for the rest of your life. There are many pranks that involve cars, from turning all the settings in the car to the maximum level, from radio to heat and seat height, to pouring some vegetable oil in the car’s exhaust to produce lots and lots of smoke upon starting. But among all the easy April Fool’s Day pranks you can pull on a victim and a car, this one is quite fun, at least for you : add food coloring to the windshield washer fluid of someone’s car. This is going to piss them off badly, so make sure you’re in a very close relationship with the victim.
6. Mess with their minds
Pick your victim and keep her in a permanent state of suspicion and fear by leaving her anonymous threatening notes about a prank that will target her directly. If you are playing this on some co – worker, make sure the victim finds many notes throughout the entire day and watch from the distance how panic gets built up. Don’t do anything else, this is the prank!
7. Turn the office into the Twilight Zone
This might need a bit of preparation, coordination and even one or two partners in crime. To turn your office or work space into the Twilight Zone is easier than you imagine: swap the men and women bathroom signs, hide all the pens and pencils from all desks and drawers, swap the name labels on the foods in the refrigerator if your colleagues bring their own food at work, add some fake appointments to people’s calendars (Outlook appointments with ringing alarms are even better), and so on. You can do pretty much anything to create panic and confusion, but make sure you don’t cross the line.
8. Rig someone’s shoes
Fill up someone’s shoe tips with paper napkins or pieces of cloth and watch him / her being stunned by the fact that their shoes suddenly don’t fit anymore. Works great for the kids.
9. Rig someone’s computer
Getting close to ending our easy April Fool’s Day pranks list, we must add this one, not only because it is a classic in its own rights, but because it works every time, with the same effects. All you need to do is make a print screen of somebody’s desktop and set the photo up as a desktop background. The pain and horror of the victim’s constant trials of accessing programs or computer places by clicking on icons that don’t work is priceless.
10. Make them sweat!
In the beginning of this list we said you should pick up some easy pranks that don’t lead to damaging, long term consequences and which can be looked over with a smile. After all, it’s April Fool’s Day and it is all about fun, not being cruel or acting like a jerk. However, if you have some people around you who can handle a bit of tension, try one of the following: when the spouse comes home from work, act all upset and worked – up and tell them that you need to talk about “the other” woman / man in their lives about whom you just found out; wait for the kids at home and start questioning them about their behavior, as you received a phone call from school to warn you that the children are causing problems; tell a co – worker that the company’s CEO requested an urgent meeting to discuss salary cuts and personnel firing procedures. Look at them sweating, but put an end to their suffering soon.
Well, we hope you found some inspiration in these easy April Fool’s Day pranks and if you have some of your own trademarked hoaxes, do share them! When April Fool’s Day comes, are you the prankster or the fool? What are your favorite April 1st jokes and gags?
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