20+ Funny Office Pranks To Pull On Annoying Coworkers

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Aug 4, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

Some of these pranks took major dedication. If I had the kind of follow-through that these folks had, I would definitely go as far as these people. I mean, if one can barely get through one's work tasks each day, how does one find the time to play a prank on one's annoying coworkers?

 

However, if I could find that time and motivation, I'd be taking lots of inspiration from these Redditors, who shared their office pranks via this r/AskReddit thread. Some of these pranks include the classic "stapler in Jell-O" move, but we also have my personal favorite which is taking a screenshot of your coworker's desktop, hiding all the folders from view, and making the background the screenshot. You'll have your coworker clicking on that screenshots and stuck in a state of complete confusion for at least five minutes.

 

Moments like this can add some unexpected joy to office dynamics, but they can also add to friction. Perhaps you don't care and you're ready to start a fight with Karen from Communications. Or perhaps you're surrounded by a bunch of bored employees who merely need something entertaining to fill their days. Regardless of what your situation is, if you're looking to pull a prank on someone in the office, this list is for you. For more content like this, check out these horrible bosses who made their employees' lives living nightmares!

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  • 01
    Font - r/AskReddit . Posted by u/ArmoredAmir ( What office pranks have you pulled on your co- workers and how did it go?
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  • 02
    Font - littleredhoodlum. One of my Co-Worker has a ton of family pictures all over his desk and walls. I was slowly changing them all to pictures of me. I worked really hard to find similar pictures to replace them. I even traveled to some of the places to replicate them. I just about had them all when another guy we worked with asked him why he had so many pictures of me. He thought this married guy had a crush on me or something. 3.5k Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 03
    Font - JedLeland. I gave this response to a similar question about a month ago, but I'll repost. There's a guy in my office who often comes to work in jeans and a t- shirt and changes into his work clothes in his office. He's taken over half of a closet next to my cubicle with his dress clothes.
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  • 04
    Font - A few years ago, on March 31, I came into the office around midnight and swapped his clothes for some Hawaiian shirts, checked pants, basically a whole wardrobe of the loudest clothes I could find at a thrift store.
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  • 05
    Font - When I got there the next morning, he was closed up in his office. His secretary told me that he'd been having a pretty rotten week in terms of workload and was in a foul mood. Finally, he emerged wearing his jeans and t-shirt. He sort of grunted a hello at me, opened the closet door,
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  • 06
    Font - and just stood there for probably 10-15 seconds trying to wrap his brain around what was in front of him. Finally he just started cracking up laughing, and put on one of the more "understated" outfits. He spent the rest of the day trying to figure out who had done it; meanwhile, people from all around the office came to behold my handiwork. I finally fessed up at the end of the day. He swore revenge although he still hasn't made his move. Best April Fool's prank I'll probably ever play.
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 07
    Font - IrishGuyGolfer I made 20 copies of a paperclip and put them in the paper tray of copier. A woman in my office made a copy and got the paperclip in the pictures and thought there was a paperclip in the copy machine somewhere. She was searching and searching and even went and got a flashlight and started looking everywhere in the machine. She was opening up drawers and panels for 20 minutes. It was pretty fun to watch. ↑ ↓ 1.9k Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 08
    Font - FinalEdit You know how you can fray Duct tape and pull off long little sticky threads of it? So I pulled off a single long piece of it, and put it down the side of my manager's brand new car. Looks like a deep, horrifying scratch on the paintwork. The look on his face when we went out for a smoke. He threw his hands onto his head, his knees went weak and he basically crawled over to it, and pulled the thread of sticky duct tape off easily. Harmless and fun, that one. ↑ 1.9k ↓ Share ...
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  • 09
    Font - [deleted] Not an office but it actually got pulled on me. Working as a new EMT and I'm put on a truck for training with these two guys who loved with rookies. Most ambulance bays have a keypad to type in the code to get in. We were pulling into a hospital I hadn't been to yet and I preemptively ask him what the code would be so I dont look like an idiot. My partner tells me " They have a retinal scanner here, just put your eye in front of it".
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  • 10
    Font - stupid and Im believed him. I don't know why, I was just so worried about doing anything wrong that I was trying to do everything right so I didn't even question it. We take the patient over to the doors, I see the lil camera and pop a squat and stare at it for about twenty seconds. Meanwhile, my partners and patient are dying of laughter behind me and grabbed a picture of it. I ended up famous on an EMS Facebook page, but I was pretty cool with it. Cant say I wont do the same now when I
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  • 11
    Font - _Surf_Ninja_ Emptied out my boss' largest desk drawer (1 ft x 1.5 ft x 1 ft), used heavy-duty-staples to secure a shower liner to the inside of the drawer, and filled it with water and aquarium rocks. Then I placed 4 live goldfish and a crab in the drawer, and partially closed it. I also bought him a fish tank and fish food, so after he dismantled his fish tank drawer, he would have new office pets.
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 12
    Font - It worked out perfectly. No damage to his desk or office. All fish survived the overnight drawer life. And I did not get fired. It was a part of a long and well-fought prank war that lasted several years, but this was definitely my favorite prank.
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 13
    Font - ElToberino Printed out 9 pictures of Nicolas Cage, hid them throughout a coworker's cubicle, then admitted it was me that hid 10 pictures of Nic Cage. ↑ 1.1k ↓ Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 14
    Font - Burrito Bass Well, i didn't pull any pranks, but when i walked in this morning, every computer background in the office had been changed to a picture of me from middle school.. I still don't know who it was, but i have guesses 953 Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 15
    Font - batty3108 Not me, but a guy I know. He stole a coworker's novelty giant pencil, then started emailing said coworker in-character as the pencil, with photos of the pencil in different locations around Europe. He even got another coworker in on the act to deflect suspicion away from himself, and used proxies to ensure the emails couldn't be traced back to him.
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 16
    Font - The original owner of the pencil got so pissed off, it initiated a company-wide hunt for the perpetrator. So far as I know, it was never resolved, and Pencil McPencilface roams the world to this day. 932 ↓ Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 17
    Font - suitology Helped my friend move an entire cubical up a space. It was difficult because they wanted it to be perfect not like they just switched desks. To achieve it we actually took the cubical apart and moved the walls so none of the decorations moved even an inch, next we took up the 9 carpet squares (why I was brought it) and switched them that way the big coffee stain and whiteout explosion stayed.
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  • 18
    Font - Everyone then shuffled so guy in seat one was now in 2, 2 in 3, ... 20 in one's spot. Now the only thing to cue him off was that his cubical was directly under the fan and he hated being cold. A friend told me he worked for 2 days before starting to claim that they moved the fan. took him almost a month to notice that the "other row shifted because the guy directly next to him before was now one desk back". During this time he started wearing jackets and sweaters because of the fan. 875 S
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  • 19
    Font - Missteeze. I used to work in this restaurant in the downtown area of my city which had several restaurants near by. Whenever we would get a new dishwasher or inexperienced cook we would say something like "Hey, we're out of ice mix, head to restaurant X and grab some." The other restaurants were in on this and the poor kid would be sent restaurant to restaurant until he caught on.
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  • 20
    Font - Another good one is to send them for the "long stand". Same kind of thing but they come in and ask for the long stand, then they are basically left to stand there as long as it takes to realize that they are an idiot haha. 667 Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 21
    Font - [deleted] Over the years I've played my share. My favorites are as follows: 1. Press CTRL+ALT+DOWN to flip the monitor. 2. Make a screen shot of a persons desktop, then delete all the icons and make the screen shot the desktop and watch the humor begin. 3. Place a piece of tape underneath the mouse so it doesn't work.
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 22
    Font - 4. This one is a long con. Every day for a few weeks, slightly increase how much work is required to move the mouse. I guess that's the DPI settings. Anyway, up this number over the course of weeks if not months. THEN one day place it back to where it initall was and watch the reaction 560 Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 23
    Font - Caruthers. I work in an office full of millennials with a really casual dress code. Well, no dress code. You will never see panic like circulating a fake dress code memo in an office of 20- somethings who wear t- shirts, ball caps and jerseys to work every day. 562 Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 24
    Font - XIGRIMXREAPERIX. Guy made this HUGE deal about being the "Safety King." He went on vacation for 2 weeks. I spent that two weeks building him a card board castle in his cube. Got to work at like 6am to try to beat him and get a reaction. Someone tipped him off and it was torn down by the time I got there. 511 Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 25
    Font - thelittlegnome I put my co-workers stapler in jell-o and it took me so many tries to get it to work. He didn't really get it because he hadn't seen the office. But it's okay, because I laughed enough to make it worth it. 436 Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir
  • 26
    Computer - -Ee METION PILE CAR SECTION-PILE CAP Q EA A ABAM Ho Sundae S *** DELL . TE
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  • 27
    Font - pm_me_ur_habs_nu When I worked at Burger King we had new employees look for charcoal for the gas grill. 434 Share
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  • 28
    Font - blipsman Had a co-worker who had a thing for some actress (Kate Bekinsdale, I think?) so we used to print pictures of her and replace the photos of his girlfriend/fiance in frames on his desk w/ photos of the actress and see how long before he'd notice. Usually took a day or two, sometimes it'd take a week! 409 Share
    via u/ArmoredAmir

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