It’s the stuff of legend. Office pranks that carry the day and live long in your company’s oral tradition, handed down from cube dweller to cube dweller.

These activities often give rise to that authoritative rain cloud on your prank parade: “Don’t you have anything better to do with your time?”

Thanks goodness, no.

Small acts of tomfoolery will amuse the prankers, and hopefully, the prankees. Suggestion: Don’t try these stunts on the office stick-in-the-mud, thinking it’ll loosen things up.

Three thoughtful ideas:

• Wrap it up. Try it while the victim’s at lunch or gone for the day. Wrap everything you can (phone, keyboard, chair, trash can, pencil cup, etc.) in some wonderful material, like plastic wrap, aluminum foil, shrink wrap from the loading dock, toilet paper, newspaper — the only boundary is your imagination.
• Jello with that?  This gag involves encasing a co-worker’s stapler in Jello. The stunt was featured in the pilot for the TV show “The Office.” This one is visually impressive, as well as oddly stunning. For a step-by-step primer on how to put it together, go to: jellostapler.com
• Help me get rid of this! This one takes a little bit of technical expertise, but the payoff is great. This’ll teach co-workers to shut down their computers when they’re away, too. First, using the victim’s computer, create a number of (empty) folders on the desk top with suggestive names (in other words, cut loose). Then, take a screenshot of the desktop. Next, set the new screenshot as the monitor’s wallpaper. Finally: Sit back and wait for your victim to return — then watch your victim go into a dead panic trying to delete the new folders.

substance

Tags: keyboard, monitor, prank