Office Pranks
Devious Office Prank #1: Bookmarks
Most people in an office situation have a very tedious and routine work-flow. Pranks that disrupt this work-flow are, well just plain funny at times. This prank doesn’t require any special software, just spend some time changing some website URL’s in all of their bookmarks. 
Usually a co-worker has a fairly organized and structured set of bookmarks in their web browser of choice. Hopefully it is Firefox, but we won’t judge them if they use something else.
Accessing their bookmarks, change all of your co-workers URL destinations for each bookmark to remove just one letter of the .com in each URL. Make it a ‘.cm’ or ‘om’, etc. Every time they attempt to follow a bookmarked link, it will come up as “server not found”, or “error in ‘/’ application” or whatever. You can even just add stuff the to URL that shouldn’t be there such as an extra ‘t’ in the ‘http’ part of the URL.
You can take this prank a little further by switching the URL’s in their bookmarks. So that they still get to an actual website with out any errors, just the wrong website.
Machiavellian Office Prank #2: Saran-Wrapped Toilet
The toilet: feared by janitors, abused by men. When it comes to office pranks, this one isn’t just dirty in the sense that it’s a mean prank, it’s dirty as in, it makes a mess. Take a wide strip of Saran-wrap or generic brand cellophane and put a single layer around the bowl of the toilet. Lift the lid and the seat up all the way before wrapping, then put them both down. Nothing gets out, and nothing gets in. Result: An extremely ‘pissed off’ and smelly co-worker.
Aneurysm Creating Office Prank #3: Screen shot of Desktop
Hit ‘Print screen” on your co-workers computer, save the image as the desktop background. After you do this, create a folder and drag every icon on the desktop to this folder, then hide the folder however you choose. This gives the appearance that the desktop looks the exact same as normal, except the icon’s they keep trying to click on are actually just part of the background image. The start menu will keep working, so confusion can be minimal if they are a smart cookie, but choose the office ‘blond’ and hopefully after a few help-desk calls you will have had your giggles.
The Evil Office Prank #4: White on White text/links/background
I had this one pulled on my by one sneaky co-worker. When you look at your computer desktop, your tool bar has a color, background has a color, and the text for everything is contrasted so you can easily read it. If that contrast changes to something like, white on white, it’s impossible to find difference between text, background icons, etc. etc.
The dirtiest part of this prank, is how nearly impossible it might be to reverse the effect. Your coworker will have a completely white screen but it will be filled with icons, folders, and every program you decided to leave running when you did this, so their frustration is going to be really high. My coworker left the ‘display settings’ folder open in the top right hand corner so it would be easy to change back. Well, it was supposed to be easy to change back. I got flustered enough that I just started clicking and dragging and moved everything. Luckily he was smart enough to find a way to change things back, let’s hope you are too.
The OCD Killer OfficePrank #5: Calendar Events
This may not be the most destructive prank in the world, but it has its place in office pranks. Many people live at their desk from 8-5. They might have a scheduling routine or work-flow that they depend on so much, you might consider if they are O.C.D. If they are O.C.D., then making these changes will be even funnier. Change their scheduled calendar events. On either the desktop calendar, wall calender, or Outlook Calendar. Add important meetings with high-ranking people in the company or just add worthless teasing reminders. Go crazy with the reminders, or make just a few so as to make the few they have seem that much more believable.
Throw off their routine just a little with lunch break 20 minutes early, or if you suspect they have odd secrets, call them out on it by posting a calendar event to ‘Pay off pimp at 4th and Main St.’ It is like moving their tediously placed pencils or tilting a picture on the wall. Go through a stack of papers and lightly tear the whole stack in just a corner.
Work Disturbing Office Prank #6: Muscle Memory Retraining and Keyboard Tweaking
The keyboard is something that most people don’t need to look at anymore to type, but they do anyway. How weird would it be to not see “QWERTY” in the top left anymore, but actually have a message from the prank puller; “ZESTY”, “GOATBUM”, or whatever you can think of. Surprisingly most keyboards only require just a little bit of pressure to pop off a few keys. Arrange them however you like. Possibly just switch two commonly used ones like “A” and “E”. Spend a few minutes to think of something that would really get to the keyboard user.
Got a favorite office prank?
Leave a comment with your favorite office prank, or suggestions of a joke you are too chicken to pull yourself.
i’m so not good at pranks, but i’ve had two mild pranks played on me at the office. #1, my whole effing office was covered in plastic wrap. Fun colors too, but every dang thing? Come on people. #2, my assistant advertised my job as available and put my email and phone number in the ad and I kept getting tons of calls. It was very frustrating.
Okay, so I used to have a coworker who is easily freaked out. Knowing this, I knew he would enjoy the preview for the movie “White Noise”, which is about a guy who contacts dead people through television and radio static and things of that nature.
So he watches the preview, then berates me for sending him a “creepy” movie clip. That day, I go home and make several recordings saying things along the lines of “get out of my office” (to parody a line from the preview where a ghost says, “get out of my house”). In one of them, I mention him by name. Thanks to my crappy microphone, they sounded pretty staticky, adding to their creepiness.
I then load these sounds onto his computer when he’s not looking, and attach them to Windows events (minimizing, opening programs, etc.)
The coworker returns and, at first, is not particularly creeped out. He thinks that there is an errant Flash file looping in the background. I walk in and notice that his speakers are unplugged. I ask him about it and he tells me that his computer keeps making weird noises. He plugs them back in and says, “Here, listen for a couple minutes and you’ll see.”
Sure enough, every once in a while, I hear my (ghostly) voice come over his speakers. Then, after a bit, he finally does the required action to set off the recording where I mention his name. Upon hearing his name, he was so freaked out he literally leapt out of his chair wanting to know how in the *#@! the voice knows his name!!
Ahh… good times.
I have a really really blond co-worker that is INCREDIBLY computer illiterate. While she was out to lunch the other day, I accessed her control panel and changed up her mouse settings. I reversed her right and left click buttons, and reduced her mouse sensitivity. When she got back from lunch she was going bonkers. She finally asked me for help. I went over (knowing that the buttons were reversed) and showed her that everything was functioning normally. It was awesome! After about 20 minutes of restarting her computer, she walked away, and I went over and changed it all back. To this day, she still doesn’t know I was messing with her..