Getting Pranksters and Prankees Ready for April Fool’s Day

Even if you’re not a person who plans to play a prank on someone, you’ve got to be ready for April Fool’s Day. If not, you’re more susceptible to being the target and an April Fool’s victim.

I used to like to play pranks, but in recent years I’ve scaled back because I found that many pranks can be more annoying rather than funny. I feel it’s more important to make sure the person you’re playing the joke on will find it funny, and not be angry or hurt by it.

It’s got to be fun, and more importantly, it shouldn’t cause them to spend a great deal of time cleaning it up. You don’t want to leave a big mess, and you certainly don’t want to play any kind of prank that may cause injury or damage.

As a victim, the most entertaining prank played on me and my wife, Kathleen, was executed by our youngest child, Liam. Each year, he would always do something significant to get us. However, his most elaborate prank happened a few years ago while my wife and I were out for the day on April 1^st, and he knew we would be back home until after dark.

While we spent the day visiting family and friends, Liam proceeded to unpack most of our Christmas decorations and display them all over the house. This included the three light up reindeer, and house Christmas lights. It was a great prank because it didn’t hurt anything, and even though he was going to take down all the decorations, we helped him put it all away.

The best prank, in my opinion, I played on my coworkers wasn’t even in the month of April, it was in December of 2002.

The Magic 98.3 General Manager was planning a Secret Santa / White Elephant for the in-office Holiday lunch. I volunteered to print everyone’s name on a tiny piece of paper and walk around for all to pick a name.

However, in hopes to rake in the gifts during the party, I put my name on each and every piece of paper in the bowl. 23 people picked my name, and it was most interesting seeing the look on everyone’s face trying not to give away that they picked my name.

About 10 minutes after everyone chose their name, the prank was exposed. It’s important to mention that participants are not supposed to tell anyone whose name they chose. Unfortunately, many of my trusted co workers cheated and shared their secret.

As I’m sure you’ve already figured out, my prank was exposed almost immediately. It’s probably for the best, because I don’t think they would have appreciated the joke had to lasted all the way to the party, by I would have.

We all had a good laugh (and story to tell forever), without any harm done.

Sadly, I only got one gift that year.

If you ever find yourself in the position to try it, I highly recommend it. Depending on your company policy or boss’ sense of humor, you could lose your job. However, it would be worth it!