Are You an Office Prankster?

[StuH]

Nothing makes for a better more uplifting work environment than an office prankster. What are some of the best office pranks you've been involved in.

Here's three of mine from my past 21 rotation at the mine.

1. There's a fake plant on the fridge at our office. My boss is an avid golfer so I put up an informative sign on the plant describing it as the typical divot made by the boss.

2. Our mine planner had a nature type calendar up in his office with all kinds of creatures on it. April proudly displayed a mountain sheep in all his brilliance standing atop a mountain. I couldn't resist so I taped a huge male appendage to the sheep and nobody realized until the calendar had to be switched from April to May.

3. I posted memo in company letter head on all the washroom doors stating that as a result of environmental policy those who were taking viagra needed to urinate in sealed buckets because standard washroom practices produced too much hard water and signed the mine managers name to the memo.

Share some of yours as I'm running out of material.

[boogaloo]

I was a cop for 16 years- so my "office" was often my vehicle. Anyway this prank stands out to me and to many of my contemporaries:

I started out in patrol in a borough in Pa. surrounded by rural townships. One such adjoining township did not have 24 hour police coverage. Anyway, one day a fellow township law enforcement type (and friend) had answered a call for a raccoon that was acting in a peculiar fashion on a resident's porch. On arrival, my friend, who we'll call "Stan", mounted the porch and came face to face with the "perp". Said raccoon "launched" himself at Officer Stan, and literally scampered up Stan's body. Stan ended up shooting the raccoon off of him; in the process, some blood and entrails ended up in Stan's nose and mouth.

Upon testing the decedant, it was found that Mr. Raccoon had rabies. And Brother Stan subsequently underwent the prescribed series of antidote shots, with a few days off in the interim.

Stan finally returned to duty on a particular Saturday. There was no midnight shift the preceeding evening in the township and Stan then had to retrieve his vehicle from a locked municipal garage, via a secured "man" door. As fate would have it, I am on duty as a patrolman the midnight shift before in the adjoining Borough. I am North on Fifth street IN THE BOROUGH when I catch a glimpse of a raccoon by the side of the road. Curiously, the varmint does not move upon my approach. Further investigation reveals the animal is dead by unknown cause- but is "in state", in perfect condition near the sidewalk. Out come the rubber gloves and soon the critter is in the trunk of my vehicle. After a stop at the station to procure some twine, I head to the township PD's garage and rig the twine in a "harness" around the shoulders and neck so that the raccoon is "standing" on it's hind legs at the aforesaid "man" door to the garage. The other end of the twine it attached to the doorknob of the door.

Well, I wasn't there when Stan showed up for duty at 7AM that morning, but a friend who is a township crewman was. He described the scene as this: "Stan walked up to the door with his briefcase and a cup of coffee in hand. Just before he reached for the door, he suddenly recoiled and yelled "S**T!" simultaneously dropping the briefcase and coffee, pulling his gun and back-pedaling". He ended up on his rear-end and thankfully the gun did not discharge when he dropped it after landing sharply on his butt.

According to the cop's axiom: "Admit nothing, deny everything, demand proof" to this day I have not admitted complicity in this incident.

All meant in good fun, and in memoriam to my friend Stan who died three years ago from serious lung / heart disease.

Brian

[ibobunot]

I put a tiny cat bell on my daughters keychain, she's very sensitive to high pitched sounds.

it drove her nuts all day at work...

The Office Prankster

[markothefish]

I broke into one my supervisors office and taped every draw shut ,evry filling cabinet draw shut and everything on his desk (stapler, pen/pencil cup coffee cup , calculator ) I taped down with 2' clear packing tape ,I also taped over his computer keyboard completely. He never did make anyone own up to it.
I also enjoy filling the arms of peoples winter coats with balls of paper and taping the cuffs , so when it's time for them to leave they can't get their arms in their coats (I like to do that one to the News Anchors ,it's fun to watch them struggle) .
I'll try to think of more ..

[Mark N]

Yeah I am the office clown for sure. We had a new guy start with us a year ago and he's got a great sense of humour. I have pulled more pranks on him than anyone else in the building. I decided one day that I would change out his family photos on display in his office for a new family. I printed off a buff looking fireman holding his axe, muscles ripped, big smile etc...cut it to fit in his frame and then switched it out replacing the lovely photo of his wife and kids. The funniest part of it all was that he came into his office with a couple of customers and hadn't noticed the picture. We were all walking by and doing our best not to lose it as the fireman pic was in plain sight of the customer's view but his back was towards it. Finally the customer pointed it out and when he saw it he totally busted a gut!

[Telenator]

Years ago when smoking was allowed in the office, I ran a long piece of clear vinyl tubing from my desk to the recptionists desk and up under her typewriter. Then I went back to my desk and asked her to type something up for me. I lit a cigarette and blew smoke into the tube which of course gave the impression the typewriter was on fire, and she screamed! Nothing like a good prank!

[StuH]

Now the replcae the picture one is great, that's on my list.

Mark N I have quite a few relatives in the Woodstock area. Seely's.

[Ten Brooks]

I had a woman that did some cleaning for us, that every year on July 4th, she invited the community over to her house for potluck, homemade ice cream, fireworks, and a flatbed trailer where ear punishing local gospel bands performed. There was always over 100 people there. One of my close friends, who also is a prankster, and I got together on this one. I said "wouldn't it be funny to do something at Betty's party?" He asked what we could do as he was game. I said we could make a potluck dish that would be so horrible that it would be unbearable to eat.
On the 4th, I took a large can of sweet potatoes and mashed them up in a bowl. I then took pure cocoa and mixed it with the sweet potatoes. (that has to be the most bitter tasting stuff in the world) Then I put massive amounts of garlic salt in the mixture. We baked it in a disposable aluminum pan. We browned mini marsh mallows on the top to make it presentable.
We were able to sneak it in undetected. I promise that flies were on every dish of food except ours! We looked around and would see people getting our special homemade dessert, and the look on their faces! It was hillarious.
We called it "Chocolate Delight"

[dk]

Years ago worked in an office full of pranksters. Every day a new laugh.

On one occassion, I was on travel for a few days and came back to find everything, and I mean everything in my office was jacked up on empty coke cans. The bookcase, desk, chairs, tables, books on the bookcase, potted plants on the desk and floor, telephone, even stuff INSIDE the desk drawers.

I think they peaked with that one - it was awesome.

[Mark N]

StuH...I am sure I know some of them

[jcayer]

One day a coworker came to work with a trailer attached to his car. So a couple of us just detached the trailer from his car. During luch hour, he took his car to go for some shopping but he never realized that the trailer wasn't attached to his car. So (this is what he told us later) he went to 3 or 4 places and each time he parked straight allowing space for the trailer. The last place he went (where he needed the trailer), he realized that the trailer was missing.

So he went to the places he just go before, called the police, filed some reports, called his insurances etc... and came to work 2 1/2 hours late from lunch. When he entered the parking lot and realised that his trailer was there...

Lets just say that he didn't talk to us for a week or so

[DougieLove]

One time my Chief went TDY, and while he was gone I wrapped everything in his office up in newspaper...similar to the "tape" prank listed above. Everything was wrapped up - chair, desk, phone, pencil, even papers were wrapped up in paper. Then we place pink tissue paper in his overhead lights to give the room a nice feminine glow. Finally, we filled up 500 balloons with helium and just left them in his office.

[Scotland]

I was on holiday last week and came back to find my keyboard had all the letters mixed up. Good one and I'll get them back soon.

[DougieLove]

My best prank was this...and all you AF guys will get a kick out of this...

Back in '00, I was at a Space Command unit at Holloman AFB, NM. Our First Sergeant had already been at Holloman for close to 13 years at that point. He was one of the lucky ones who never had a remote assignment, and he only had 3 years left until retirement.
Well, a friend of mine had received an assignment notification rip telling him he was going to Camp Humphries in South Korea. So, I copied that rip word for word, in the same font that PC-III (our personnel system database) used...it was an exact copy. I had our Orderly Room get me his Social Security number and his "dream sheet" listings and his family info...everything that needed to be put on this rip. I had him going to some Intel Squadron at Camp Redcloud, S Korea...which is only a stone's throw from the DMZ.
Then, I had the Orderly Room NCOIC, the Commander, our Cop Shop and even the Shirt's wife in on the gag.
When that rip was dropped on his desk, he bolted right into the Commander's office. The CC pretended to call our assignments guy (but really just called a Capt down the hall) and try to straighten things out. When the Shirt called his wife, she started telling him that she would just move back home and live with her parents...man, he was so upset he skipped bowling that night.
The next day, we had to tell him it was a fake when we heard him on the phone with Outbound Assignments talking about the "7-day Option" - separating from the AF instead of taking the assignment.

Boy oh boy...that was a good one.

[newrider1969]

I have pulled many pranks. Most of them pretty simple. Just remove the cord from the handset of a persons phone then call them and look at the look on their face when the figure out no cord. Carmex with pencil lead shavings on the earpiece of the phone handset makes for a black ear every time. A rubber band around the trigger on the sink sprayer makes for a wet shirt every time. A tag off of underwear in the coffee grounds makes for some funny faces when it is discovered. Tape a slightly cut packet of ketchup under someones car door handle (the pull type where it is hidden underneath it). Many many doctored newspaper/magazine photos of someone wrestling with livestock with my friends face replacing the persons doing the wrestling, long standing joke of said friend being a "sheep lover". If u know what I mean lol. Our chairs at work have a handle under them for lowering the seat. I discovered if you raise the seat all the way up and pull the handle out and insert a penny in the seat that the seat will fall all the way down when sat on. No one is ready for that sudden drop lol. When someone is waiting on an important fax i like to make a copy then walk up and say were you waiting for this and when they say yes i tear it up in their face. Almost got punched for that before being able to produce the copy.

[chickenpicker]

Great pranks!

I couldn't start my motorbike one day - because my friends had put cling film over the spark plug contacts...

One of my colleagues had bought a bandsaw from a friend of a friend, and it was delivered to our workplace. It had originally come from the workshop of a large local firm, so before he had chance to check it out, a fake "condemned" notice with their logo (taken from their website) and mentioning faulty insulation, was made and dropped inside the casing.

Now there was no way he was going to believe this, having been on the receiving end of many a prank, and sure enough he decided fairly quickly that this was a fake, although we kept denying it, as there was another part to the plan, about to be sprung: it just happened that it was that time of year when every portable electrical appliance had to be tested. So I got the guy who came to do the testing to condemn the saw, due to...faulty insulation. And this time, we got him hook, line and sinker!

A few days later, he got me back, but that's another story...

[Disastercaster]

Not really a prank but when it's quiet I walk around like this...

[popthree]

most of my office pranks have been with computers.

a friend and i wrote a few batch files that were fun to execute on unsuspecting victims computers using the 'at' command and windows scheduler.

examples...
*strange noises coming from within the PC...worrysome grinding sounds like a failing hard drive...or occasional quiet burps followed by louder ones, then a giant eruption of passing gas

*Mr. Beans head suddenly appears on the desktop..complete with huge buggy eyes that follow your mouse pointer everywhere it goes. any attempts to click anywhere on the screen cause Mr. Bean to say quite loudly "Hello!"

*during a BORING training class....targeting the instructors computer....the above mentioned Mr. Bean, Internet explorer opening funny websites, solitaire constantly pops up onscreen...what was funny about this is the instructors pc was connected to a projector, so all the class could see what was happening.

one lady thought she would get smart and defeat the burping and farting trick so she muted her sound. we followed that up with a batch file that would first unmute the sound, turn the volume up all the way, emit a large rude sound, then turn the volume back off. she was quite mystified, frustrated, and finally furious...after enduring the time bomb daily for a couple of weeks. (she never thought to simply plug in a set of headphones)

[blacklinefish]

...wait until the graduate students start posting. Those folk are creative, and have a major need for release in their environment.

We had unix terminals in the Mines building at the University of Idaho. For some reason, the default settings allowed me to send whatever I wanted to another terminal. Some times, I would open up an old school game like Galaga, but send it to someone else's computer. They are struggling in the midst of remote sensing or spatial analysis, and then "Oh sweet, Pac Man!" Usually, I would get a thank you.

One day, a guy told me that he locked his terminal down, and dared me to try to send something at it. I sent a *.wav file from the movie "When Harry Met Sally." Yeah, you know it, the cafe scene. It is a bit risqué when you watch the movie, but down right dirty if you only hear it. He got red faced, mad, and stormed out before the old woman said "I'll have what she's having."

Oh, and then there was the time that we took the special coffee mug from every faculty member in the department. We put them all together and video-taped them on a trip around Moscow, Idaho and Pullman, Washington. The mugs were returned to their offices without any of them noticing, and the video tape turned up for the department to watch. I don't think any of them thought it was funny. In fact, they didn't even seem to get it. Come to think of it, from my perspective, it really isn't that funny. Why did we get such a kick out of that?

--gh

[Johnny Caster]

Not an office prank, but a high school typing class prank. It involved replacing the home row with a certain four letter word followed by a three letter word. It required an additional 'U' from another keyboard. Also same class, sticking a twisted piece of paper in the computer fan so when the computer is booted up... These were dreadfull dinosaurs so I think of it as culling of the weak. Nice to see the expression on someone's face as their computer starts smoking.

[markothefish]

We did this one once to a news photog who was leaving for a bigger news market in the big "city". We thought we would bring his ego down a few notches... We lined the eye piece of his view finder to his camera with a black ink pencil so that when he put it up to his eye it left a round black mark around his eye.After he shot a serious interview with a local politician he didn't notice but rest assured every one else noticed in the office .We also spread peanut butter on his door handle of his car so when he left for the last time after turning in his key to Human Resources he got a handful of Peanut Butter. I think he ended up punching me for that , it was worth it.....

[Mark N]

"most of my office pranks have been with computers."

I did that once to my sales manager at work several years ago. PC anywhere was the in thing at the time for connecting to another computer and seeing it's screen and functions on your own PC. My office was located just across the hall and in plain sight of the workstation in which he was at. When he wasn't paying any attention to the computer I fired up PC anywhere and took control of his PC. He was looking stuff up on a website and while he would be reading I played with the cursor a bit...he looked at the mouse, shook it a few times and set it back down...did it again, still he looked the mouse all over and it was fine to him. Then I started to scroll the screen up and down, at first a slow scroll and then jumping rapidly up and down, switched websites, pressed the back and forward buttons etc. This really threw him for a loop so he went to get help from a lady in the office who was apparently more computer savvy than him. Of course while she was in there I didn't make it do anything, I was laughing so hard by this point and I had a couple of the other co workers in with me sharing this joke. When she started walking out I started playing with it again and he starts saying "look...there it goes again!" she comes back and nothing...so I play this on for a few more minutes til I can't take anymore laughing. He was pretty pissed at me for doing it but he laughs about it now. There were a few more fall prey to my antics with this program...it was a ton of fun!

[6942]

At the end of shift once, I parked a fork lift in front of the tool room door, which opens OUT. Poor Marty was made as hell!!

Steve