Pranks make the workplace a little less rigid and help people take time out to enjoy a little camaraderie. Practical jokes in the office help people have a laugh in between stressful workloads. Yet funny office pranks ideas are only constructive, if they don't embarrass people, nor disrupt the workplace. They should only be planned taking all the possible consequences into account and should not be used as a way to get back at people. Keep the pranks just what they are, pure and simple fun, and not allow them to cross the ethical or moral lines. One last word of caution, always be extra careful when using these funny office prank ideas on your boss! Some Funny Pranks That Work Pranks and jokes need to be carefully planned and prepared for. As you will be playing them on your friends and colleagues, it is always best to choose a prank that will suit the personality of the person it is played on. It would be really horrible if your prank makes a female colleague end up in tears or if a touchy colleague getting offended. The idea is to choose your victim before you choose the prank and enjoy the fun. Who Hatched My Eggs? This was a prank that we (me and my writing team) collectively played on a colleague at work. He used to have a nest with a fake sparrow and a couple of fake eggs on his desk, along with many other such weird inexplicable objects. Once while shopping with a friend, a colleague of mine came across a replica of the same thing, but with two baby sparrows instead of the eggs. The plan immediately took shape in her mind and she bought the curio. The next day, we replaced the original piece with the newly bought one and placed a board along with it asking 'Who hatched them?'. When the intended victim came to work, he worked on without a second thought and let us know that he was on to the prank. So we didn't stop there, we went ahead and bought a fake tree with two fully grown sparrows to replace the entire ensemble at his desk. This time he did acknowledge the prank and asked us if he could keep them all, the two duly grown sparrows, the sparrow with the two babies and the sparrow with the eggs. We agreed, and today, his desk is a sparrow breeding center! Ink Blots on My Important Report! I was window shopping at a flea market a few days back and I came across an amazing prank prop. Amongst the standard plastic lizards, cockroaches and all that, I saw a thin plastic sheet that looked like an ink stain. The shopkeeper showed me how to use it and voila, I had my next prank ready. One of my colleagues had stayed late for a couple of days working on a glossary that he had due. He took the final printouts and went to the bathroom to freshen up, which is when I acted upon my plan. I took out the sheet and placed it between his printouts. My unsuspecting friend did not notice it till he went down to submit his work to his editor. The editor flipped through the pages and what they saw left them flabbergasted. My poor friend could not guess what had happened to the sheet, for he had never used an ink pen. When he touched it however, the ink blot-like paper fell off and both of them realized that it was just a prank. Till today I've never told him that the genius prankster was actually me. Freaky Keyboard This prank was played on me, sometime last year, by a really close friend who happens to be the systems administrator at my office. So this was a pretty easy thing for him to do. When I came to work one morning, it was business as usual till I started typing on my keyboard. To give me some credit, I did notice something unusual but brushed it off thinking, what in the world can actually go wrong with a keyboard. I was wrong. Lots of things can happen to a keyboard and one such thing had actually happened to mine. My standard 'qwerty' keyboard had finally flipped at me and was taking revenge for all the fast and hard typing I put it through, day in and day out. My keys were all interchanged and believe it or not, despite having worked on it for so many years, I could not type one thing correctly. I struggled my lone battle bravely for half a day before I actually asked someone for help. Just imagine, had I not done that, I'd never have known who had done this to my poor, hapless keyboard. Well, I did pay him back, my sneaky network administrator friend, with the next joke. What's Wrong with My Mouse? I stole this idea from the Internet and used it successfully, so you know that it is tried and tested. I surreptitiously sneaked into the server room one day, while my friend was out and stuck a small note saying 'PRANK' under his mouse. The trackball under his mouse was rendered ineffective due to this and I knew the mouse would not work now. So I sat back and relaxed, waiting for something to happen. When my friend came back to his workstation, he found out what I already knew, that his mouse had suddenly stopped working. Just like I thought he would react, he got down on his knees and checked and double checked the system connection, the mouse wires and even the mouse controls. He finally turned his mouse around to check what in the world was wrong with it. He took the whole prank in good spirit though and our war continues till date. Where's My Wife? I haven't tried this yet but I intend to play this one soon on a married colleague of mine, who's constantly on the phone, placating his wife over something or the other. I will rope in the security guard at my office reception to help me with this one. I will give him my colleague's extension number and ask him to give him an unexpected call sometime during the day, telling him that his wife's asking to meet him and is seated at the reception. I can actually imagine him running down the stairs (not being patient with the lift) wondering why in the world has his wife come down to work, to meet him. And obviously, when he does reach the reception, there will be no wife. I will then ask the security guard to hand him an envelope which will carry a letter saying 'You've just been gulled, mate!'. Sounds nice? I will surely let you know the outcome. No! You Called Me First... Here's a funny prank that you could try. Our office phone system had conference calling facility, so I played this prank on some friends at work. I dialed my colleague's number and then immediately called another extension and very quickly pressed the conference button. Both of them thought the other guy had called and patiently said "Hello, yes..." After a few seconds, this conversation turned into an argument over who called first. I enjoyed this heated discussion for a minute, laughed out loudly and told them "You've just been fooled, guys". Before you start thinking that playing funny pranks is all that I do at work, I will end this article here and hope that you don't. I do hope though, that my office pranks and practical jokes have given you ideas of your own. Good luck with them.