Employee pulls prank on entire office by making them think there's a cat in the ceiling, causing the office to shut down, the boss to reprimand, and theories to be made: 'I found an eight hour video of cats meowing that was perfect.'

Mariel Ruvinsky • Writer and Editor

Feb 6, 2026 10:00 AM EST

If this prank had been pulled on us, we would have lost our minds.

Listen, it's funny, okay? We can admit that. We can read through this story and say that is an objectively successful, harmless and funny prank. On most people. For us, it would not have been harmless. The thought of a cat being stuck in the ceiling in our workplace, right above us, where we cannot reach and help the kitty out… might have made us cry. You laugh, but you know where we work, right? As we write this, we are sitting in a room full of people who are every so slightly obsessed with cats, and this would have been bad for our mental health.

Sigh. It probably is unique to our office though. Just the thought of a cat in distress would have had our entire office hopping up our of our chairs and trying to go help. But for the of humanity, people who are less obsessed with cats than we are, this probably does count as a harmless prank. We don't know what took over this employee on this day that made him decide to do this, but we can appreciate the intent.

This man has decided that work it boring, and it is time for some fun. Except, instead of what people normally do in offices, which is bring snacks or more coffee, this man decided to find an 8-hour video of a cat meowing on YouTube, turn it on, and tuck the speaker up into a ceiling tile. He turned the volume as low as it could go, so that you could barely hear the meows through the ceiling, precisely placing the speaker so that people could hear the cat but not be able to pinpoint where the kitty is.

Honestly, the way that this situation unfolded is actually one of our favorites. It's funny now, but it would have been absolutely devastating had the people in the office heard the sounds of this distressed meowing kitty and not done anything. If they ignored it, this prank would have been the worst. But the fact that they responded, the fact that they made such a ruckus, that they got people to come and try to save the cat… we think that points at the fact that the people in this office are kind of pawsome.

Either way, this is one of those days and things that happened in the office that would never be forgotten. Months would pass, even years, new employees will come in, and this story will still be one that people talk about. It will become the story of this office. The day during which there was a cat in the ceiling but also wasn't. Heck, all the people who were there when the incident happened could be gone, but the incident itself will still be remembered.

Also, we definitely would have been one of those people in the office who would continue hearing the cat even after the video was over and the whole thing was behind everyone. We would have been one of the traumatized ones who came up with all the theories. Bad for our mental health. But hilarious.

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"[Today I messed up] by pranking my office à la Jim from The Office"

via Unsplash / Eean Chen - zhouyudesign

^{This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
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