Let’s face it. Everyone wants to have fun at work. Unfortunately, for many of us, the daily tasks and responsibilities limit the amount of fun and laughter we get to have. For teachers especially, many of us only get a few precious moments with adults throughout the day, which, granted, could be a good thing.

So what happens when you spend every day with the same people for years on end? What happens when you have had the same conversation with the same person day after day, year after year? What happens when your boring, mundane conversation inevitably turns into one of you apologizing for the smell of your lunch stinking up the room?

Pranks happen.

In order to stay sane at the workplace, there must be at least one jokester that isn’t afraid to crack an inappropriate joke or pull a prank that borderlines on harassment. For some reason, everywhere I work, that person seems to always be me.

So, what are my favorite pranks to pull on my unsuspecting co-workers? Continue reading for the 11 best pranks that even a novice practical jokester can pull off to liven up a boring workplace.

(NOTE: My place of work happens to be a school, however, many of the pranks can be tweaked so that you, too, can be funny at your awful place of employment that does not have weekends, holidays, summers, week long vacations, snow days, extreme cold days, and extreme hot days off.)

WARM UP JOKE: Just a little warm up to get your LOL on. If ANYONE, AT ANY TIME YOU ARE AT WORK……. EVER…….. starts a meeting/announcement/sentence with the phrase “Well, I don’t want to bore you to death…” the ONLY way to respond is by screaming “TOO LATE.” And, yes, it is imperative to scream it. You must include the presenter in the joke, and make sure they hear it, otherwise, they may hear everyone around you laugh, and you may hurt their feelings. This is especially true if they are actually forced to tell you about something that literally may bore you to death. It is the perfect way for everyone to get out a big, hardy LOL, before the snooze fest begins.

11. Late to Meeting / Leave Meeting Early

This first one is so easy that even a newbie or a rookie could do it. All it takes is just a little bit of courage, and an unfortunate co-worker. The only bad thing about this joke is that some people get ultra sensitive if you make fun of them in front of their co-workers and/or boss, so make sure you refrain from using this joke on anyone that will get their panties in a bunch if you make fun of them in front of a room of their peers and bosses.

If one of your co-workers is either late to a meeting, or leaves a meeting early, simply say “I didn’t know we could be late,” or “I didn’t know we could leave early.”

Say it just loud enough so you do not completely disrupt your boring meeting, but instead garner the laughter from the co-workers sitting around you (as well as a middle finger from your co-worker that has such a busy life that they can not attend the entire meeting).

Occasionally the joke may backfire if your co-worker needs to go to a funeral or wake, and everyone will mad at you for being so rude, but the reward for when the joke successfully lands, far outweighs the risk.

LOL Potential  = 6

10. What’s With All the Junk Mail?!?

Although the need for them are significantly diminishing, many schools still have mailboxes for their staff. Due to more and more districts and/or companies becoming green and going digital, most of the items in our mailboxes are junk mail. I get hundreds of Scholastic Magazines in my mailbox on a weekly basis, and I can not dispose of them quickly enough. So, what I typically do, is place them in a co-workers mailbox that has even less of a need for them than I do, and let them deal with them. This typically happens in the morning when I already have my hands full with my own personal items, and can not be bothered with junk mail that will only increase the likelihood of me dropping my iced coffee before arriving safely at my desk.
I particularly love putting my Scholastic flyers in the P.E. teachers’ mailboxes and watch as they stare dumbfounded as to why Scholastic Weekly Reader sends them so much material.
I am sure that if your office or place of work has some sort of mailbox or “cubby” for its workers, you can think of plenty of useless mail to throw in your friend’s mailbox.

COMMON SENSE ALERT: Make sure your name isn’t on the mail that you throw in someone else’s mailbox, or it will just get redelivered to you, and your cover will be blown.

LOL Factor = 6.5

9. Blocking Co-Workers In at the End of the Day

There is no better feeling than walking out of your workplace at the end of each workday. ESPECIALLY if it is a Friday and you and your co-workers are heading to the nearest watering hole.
In this prank, you will sacrifice a few moments of your own free time, and risk not getting a good seat at the bar, but it is almost guaranteed to make all of your co-workers (besides the poor soul that you are playing the prank on) LOL .

Here is how it’s done: You simply get into your car after work, and as your co-worker gets into their car, simply drive behind them and prevent them from backing up. Do whatever needs to be done to stay there as long as possible, whether it be pretending to check your phone, pretending to find a good song on the radio, or pretending to fix your hair. Whatever you do, do not look at your frantic co-worker that is trying to get the hell out of the parking lot and start boozing it up.

Within minutes you can watch them go from this……

 

to this…..

 

CAUTION: Be sure you do not choose to do this prank to a co-worker that is an awful driver. If they do not look in their rearview mirror before backing up, they will smash right into you, and you will feel really bad. A.K.A. Do not try this trick on me, or it could very likely backfire on you.

LOL Factor = 7.5

8. Phone Call During Meeting

This is my oldest trick in my work prank book. Most people are mortified when they forget to turn the volume off on their cell phones before attending a meeting. I feel as though it is my duty to call out these forgetful co-workers. So, during each and every faculty meeting I go through my phone and call my co-workers one at a time until one of their phones ring. This usually puts the boring meeting on hold while the entire faculty stares at them as they frantically try to find their phone in the bottom of their bag, or deep in their pocket.
After 10 years and hundreds of faculty meetings, this has backfired on me a bit, because whenever anyone’s phone goes off the entire faculty stares at me, assuming that I am the culprit, even though I may be on my best behavior at that particular moment.

NOTE: If you are not willing to stand up and shake your head in disapproval of your co-workers inability to shut their phone off before a meeting, you are not allowed to pull the prank. The standing up and shaking of the head just adds to the humiliation of your friend/co-worker, and really brings the laughs. It is also recommended that the person pulling off the prank does everything in their power to make eye contact with the boss/principal and give an eye roll and shake of the head, as if to say “I would fire them immediately if I were you, because I would NEVER leave my phone on during such an important meeting.”

FUN FACT: This joke also works perfectly in church. My cousin Paul and I have been calling each other at Christmas Eve Mass every year since we had cell phones. In a setting like church though, it may be best to not make God too mad and just send a funny text, such as “Hey buddy. Just wanted to make sure that the volume was off on your phone. Merry Christmas. Love you.” That way, even if it does go off the only people that will judge him are the few people that are sitting close to him. You don’t want your friend to get excommunicated from the church, you just want to have a bit of a giggle at their expense.

I don’t recommend it, but if you want to be a real jerk, do it during the part when the priest is turning the bread and wine into the body and blood. That is typically when the entire congregation is on their best behavior, and when it would be the most embarrassing for your friend. Whatever you do, DO NOT send it during the “peace be with you” part, as that is basically an intermission, and a free-for-all. Your joke would be useless as nobody would hear it. The only person that would know that the joke happened would be God, and I don’t think he would think it was very funny. If you are going to get in trouble with God, you might as well get a few laughs out of it.

LOL Factor = 10 (for the first 75 times) 8 every time after that.

7. The “See Me” Note

Just like when you were in school and you got back a test that had the phrase “see me” on it, this trick is sure to work perfectly. And the joke could not be any easier. All you have to do is place a note on your co-workers desk (or in their mailbox) that says…

See Me.
– (Boss’s name)

This will be sure to send your friend into a frenzy wondering what they have done wrong, and why their boss needs to see them so urgently. Of course, if you are a real jerk, you can add “ASAP”, but that is just cruel IMHO.

PRO TIP: For some reason, Post-It-Notes work best. Not sure why, but there is just something about the Post-It-Note that screams, “You are in SOOOOO much trouble.”

BONUS: If you are actually a teacher, this trick works fantastic on students as well. Instead of actually writing a “

;100” or “A+” on an exceptionally smart student’s test, simply write “see me.” Watch them panic, and stumble up to your desk. When they arrive and say “you wanted to see me,” just say, “oh, you got everything correct, but I just didn’t feel like writing that all out, so I just figured that I would tell you to your face.” Classic. Kids are so easy to fool, and believe everything you say. It’s great.

For Part 2 of the countdown click here.

If you have an amazing joke to pull on your co-workers, please leave a comment below, and I will do my best to make it happen. Who knows, if it is clever enough I may even get it on film for all the world to see!