Real life pranksters know they didn’t choose the prankster lifestyle but the prankster lifestyle chose them. And once they were chosen, they decided to prank their innocent coworkers…for no reason…over and over again.
Curious of more coworker pranks? Find the original article source at the end of the article.
“This is only to my bosses, but when I know I’m due for a raise or promotion and they tell me they don’t have it in their budget/I need to wait a while, I start wearing suits to work. Not everyday, but maybe once a week, maybe twice, skip a few, repeat.
It looks like you’re going to interviews during lunch or after work.”
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“I gradually increase the pressure required to open the office door by adjusting the automatic door-closer with a screwdriver so they become accustomed to giving it a mighty shove then one day disconnect the arm altogether.”
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“I installed ‘cloud to butt’ on my coworker’s computer.
It’s a Chrome add-on that changes all instances of the word ‘cloud’ to be displayed as ‘butt.’
He didn’t notice for months. Last week he finally asked me what that customer could possibly mean by ‘uploading files to my butt.’
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“Im a 28-year-old dude and I used to put up one new kitten photograph in my cubicle per week to see if any of my managers would say anything.
After putting up enough pictures to cover my whole cube wall, and no one commented, I started to feel like I was losing it. I guess the joke was on me, or else all my managers were just super accepting.”
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“I made a new folder on his desktop called Russian Dwarf Adult Film and then took a screenshot. I set the screenshot as his desktop background.
For an engineer it took him a ridiculous amount of time before he realized why he couldn’t delete the folder.”
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“I whistle Christmas songs in months other than December. Just the first few lines once or twice an hour.
Give it a few hours and they’re questioning why jingle bells is stuck in their head mid June.”
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“I plant evil questions in their lectures and tutorials, seeding them to students we have in common.
I’ve been doing it for years, and they have no idea it’s happening. They’re just constantly baffled that the same kids each year keep asking obscure, graduate-level, often borderline unanswerable questions in person, but never quite manage that level of insight in their writing.”
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“I change their auto-correct settings in Outlook so when they type their name it adds a ridiculous title.
Example:
Tom Smith = His eloquence, master of ceremonial duck herding, and debater of microwave etiquette, Thomas ‘The Velvet Hammer’ Smith, Esq.”
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“There was this girl sitting next to me in an open plan office and we were always joking with each other. One day, she had a meeting scheduled at her desk with a male coworker I knew she had a crush on. So while she was in the bathroom getting ready, I went on her computer, found the guy’s photo on the company website and made it her desktop background. Then I tabbed back to whatever programme she had been using so she wouldn’t notice right away.
She came back and the guy arrived for the meeting. They’re talking away for about ten minutes before she goes to check something on the computer and just let an enormous shriek out of her and goes bright red when she sees the desktop.
In a way, that prank almost worked too well. Because her shock was so obviously genuine, it was obvious she was the victim of a prank (rather than a crazy stalker, which is what I was aiming for).”
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“On a Windows machine, I would go into the mouse settings and enable ‘Click Lock’.
This changes a primary button click into a toggle on/off instead of the standard press and release for highlighting and click and drag operations.
It’s infuriating as heck and obscure enough that most people assume the mouse is broken and will request a new one. But little do they know, that the new one will do it too.
Or I just microwave some fish.”
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“I found a little script a while back that would randomly open and close the disc drive on my coworker’s computer. Not incredibly often, but enough to the point where it was annoying.
He requested a new computer and I reinstalled the script as soon as he left that day.”
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“I have hidden a tiny speaker in an adjacent cubicle wall that emits a soft cat meow every 2 hours.”
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“I just keep handing them random items. 99% of the time they’ll keep accepting.
Or I’ll stare at a spot slightly above their eye, like they have a booger on their face or something.
Or I’ll slowly back up as we talk, see how far I can get them to follow me before they catch on.”
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“I grabbed a roll of stickers from the pharmacy that said, ‘for rectal use only’ and randomly attach them to pens, phones, staplers and the water cooler.
It’s all good till our director comes in and loses his marbles but also can’t help but laugh.”
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“I used to mess with a former co-worker that was always rude to me. She had an earlier shift than I did, so after she would leave for the evening I would go to her desk and rearrange her pen cup so that the moment a pen was taken out the whole thing would fall over.
I did this every night for about 2 weeks or so before she gave up and stopped using the pen cup but not before she threw the whole thing across her work area in a fit of rage.”
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“The former big boss of my oil plant works in the office with me. I noticed anytime I would mention an interesting story he would immediately fact check it and point out how wrong I was. So, if I wanted to know something , rather than look it up myself, I would just throw out a claim…
Me: x,y,z stock is $4.40 today
Him: NO IT’S NOT, its $2.17
Me: Thank you!
Me: Chicago is a 8 hour drive from here.
Him- NO IT’S NOT, it’s 12 if you do Route A, and 10.5 if you go Route B.”
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“I gradually change the sensitivity settings on their computer mouse and leave leaflets about Multiple Sclerosis and Motor Neurone Disease lying around in the break room.”
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“I have a few co-workers (myself included) that run on post-it notes. Seriously, some of our desks look like that Pepe Silva scene in Always Sunny.
That said, I take advantage of this. I do fairly well at copying other’s handwriting.
I’ll do my best facsimile of something innocuous or mildly ominous and place it among their other post-its.
My notable favorites were: ‘Ask Linda about the bees’ and ‘Knife Parade?”
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“I teach elementary school music. Once, I had a rivalry with the gym teacher. She would send the kindergarten class to mine and tell them it was my birthday and I loved birthday hugs. She would do this about twice a month.
I sent them back to her and told them she loved it when people would step on her foot. They rushed her and started stomping. She also told the kids to go into my class, say nothing, and just stare at me. It was the creepiest thing.
She won.”
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“We have two microwaves in the break room that somebody needs the time to be the same on. I used to change the time on one by twenty minutes and wait for them to fix it.
Now, I change it by one minute everyday until they fix it and I start over.”
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“I put a strip of scotch tape on the underside of their computer mouse.
It’s transparent enough that the mouse will still function, it will just kind of suck and annoy them slightly for the rest of the day. They likely won’t even notice, just be subconsciously frustrated.
And I’d add an additional strip each day until they notice.”
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Points are edited for clarity.