20+ of The Most Unhinged White Elephant Gifts Employees Have Given: 'Someone brought a rotisserie chicken'

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Nov 14, 2026 5:15 PM EST

Sometimes you need a little inspiration for the perfect office prank. 

The undisputed king of office pranks is, of course, Jim Halpert. The minute he put Dwight's office supplies in Jell-O, he was crowned in that instant. Office pranks are starting to seem like a thing of the past, though. With remote work on the rise, there is not as much opportunity to get under your coworker's skin by putting a whoopee cushion on their chair. This is a bit of a shame. The right prank in the right moment can really lighten the mood and put everyone at ease. The office holiday party is a perfect venue to do that. And the white elephant gift exchange is the perfect opportunity. White elephants are all about the element of surprise. You want to have some good gifts and some bad gifts in order to make it interesting. If you're the office prankster type, you might be going for the bad gift. But there's a difficult line to strike when it comes to jokes in the workplace. You would hate to get called up by HR and reprimanded for something that was supposed to be taken in jest. You have to keep it above board. That's where these ideas came in. 

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    A group of office workers in funny hats annoy a coworker
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    A group of office workers in funny hats annoy a coworker

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    What's something a coworker brought to a white elephant gift exchange that was unhinged?

    I'm in the US and my work is doing a white elephant gift exchange. I want to bring a gift that's "work appropriate " but kinda not. There's about 10 of us ladies and ages late 20's- 80's.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    badbunnyno45 A co-worker wrapped up her own placenta painting (a painting made with her own placenta) for our staff white elephant gift exchange
    via u/No_Try1999
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    MyTiny Venus A squatty potty. It was the most fought over.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    duderdaisy98 We do like a garbage gift exchange. Stuff you just really don't want in your house. I brought a ceramic angel that was left in the house from when we moved in. Someone else brought an apron that they had been gifted that the didn't want. Just crop essentially and it's supposed to be funny because some of the stuff is outrageous.
    via u/No_Try1999

  • Two heads are always better than one, especially when it comes to jokes. There's a reason we have writers' rooms. You need to bounce ideas off of each other, and see what lands in the room. When you're thinking of the perfect office prank to pull, you might need a little bit of inspiration to get you going. And if you're looking for the perfect white elephant gift that's going to raise an eyebrow but not get you fired from your job, then you're in the right place. I appreciate the spirit of wanting to make your coworkers laugh. We need a little bit of levity in the workplace, because things can get to be too much sometimes. You want to have a little bit of something funny to keep yourself going. The perfect irreverent, funny, and cost-effective white elephant gift is the perfect way to do that. Or maybe you just have some stuff that you wanna get rid of flying around your house, and wrapping it up in a bow means that it will never clutter your desk space again. So keep reading to see what these people had to share in terms of ideas and stories. 

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    Gail_the_SLP My husband's work does a white elephant exchange every year. The first year, someone brought this incredibly hideous clock. I don't even know how to describe it except to say it has large brown flowers made of leather. The person who won it that year brought
    via u/No_Try1999
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    it back the next year and passed it on. Every year since then, the clock has returned, usually in disguise (like a small gift bag with some candy along with a picture of the clock) and it goes to a new guardian for the year.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    A group of of colleagues celebrating Christmas and New Year in the office
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

    Scene is illustrative and does not depict actual individuals or events.

    A group of of colleagues celebrating Christmas and New Year in the office

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    jighlypuff03 I got a fish one time. A live one swimming around in a little container.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    JustCallMeMoose_49 My husband LOVED doing his white elephant at work and got so excited trying to come up with weird gifts. He would do things like tape a gift card to a spatula, then wrap it so it was obvious what it was but the gift card couldn't be seen. Or take a roll of toilet paper, unroll a bunch, reroll it with scratch offs and dollar bills inside, and wrap.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    Mandymanderz I once brought the cookbook "50 Shades of Chicken". It's written in the style of 50 Shades of Gray (so lots of buttering of thighs and trussing and such), but apparently it's actually a good chicken cookbook. It was the final stolen gift, but the guy was super embarrassed about stealing it 2
    via u/No_Try1999
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    boomerang_87 I gave a 10 lb bag of potatoes once. Just put it on a box and wrapped the box up nice. The guy who got it didn't care much but everyone else loved it.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    MainAccountGotHacked Someone brought a rotisserie chicken; it was really funny at the time!
    via u/No_Try1999
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    cindyluvslabs I worked in a call center and one year we had a bed bug problem with some of the chairs. It was a big deal and the company spent a ton of $ on a bed bug sniffing beagle, new chairs, cleaning etc.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    Fast forward to the mgt Christmas party at the VPS house with a white elephant gift exchange. I ordered a giant stuffed bed bug and wrapped it up. The VPs wife got it. She was furious because after the incident at work, they found bed bugs in their house.... I had no idea. It was hilarious to us all at the time but there was never another party at their house.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    Unforgettable Bevy I had a boss who was completely horrific, to the point where his harassment created a tangible employment action. He wanted our division to have a Christmas party and do a white elephant exchange.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    I'm a part time elf at the North Pole (kidding but kinda not, I love to decorate and wrap presents and now I'm working on making that a business), so I got the World's Largest Pair of Underwear as my gag gift. I wrapped it as beautifully as possible, made a wire bow of the kind only seen in Hallmark commercials and Christmas movies, and put it in with the mound of presents.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    When the gift exchange started there was a fight for the gift, and he stole it from someone else. He was so delighted to get it, his gleefulness turned into embarrassment and anger when he realized what it was. "Who brought this?!?!" No one said anything, and no one outed me for it either.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    It sat in its packaging in his office, displayed for all to see, until he retired. He also wanted a retirement luncheon where he wanted people to pay for their plate of food.... and no one signed up to attend that either.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    There was collective rejoicing when he left the office, and the legend of the underpants remained a nation-state secret to this day.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    teragram333 Toilet light. A light you put inside a toilet bowl that changes colors.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    MyEyesltch247 My own MOTHER brought her WISDOM TOOTH that had been recently removed. She was in her SIXTIES so it was a gnarly, ugly tooth! And guess who picked it?? Her boss!!! I told her I thought it was grossly inappropriate. She still thinks it's funny at 89!
    via u/No_Try1999
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    rachelmig2 I once got an industrial sized jar of miracle whip from walmart and we did it so that everyone stole the gifts. while still wrapped, and then then unwrapped at the end, and everyone wanted the heavy one. The reveal at the end after everyone was fighting over it was hilarious.
    via u/No_Try1999
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    SomeQuiltyGardener I brought an autographed charity firemen calendar one year. It was fought over and hung in the winners cubicle for the year
    via u/No_Try1999
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    claudia_grace A corn baby. It was a can of hominy with a can of cornmeal on top, dressed in a baby onesie. It was not popular at the white elephant party, but later was named Cornelius and was put in a prominent place between two cubes in the office.
    via u/No_Try1999

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white elephant gift exchange presents employee gift office pranks christmas presents Office
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