…that your family, friends, colleagues and other loved ones will never see coming!

It’s coming.

Friday, April the 1st.

April Fools’ Day 2022.

One day every single year when we take that solemnest of solemn oaths…

Gif via giphy.

…and proceed to put on our thinking caps and seriously make plans on pulling off the most mischievous pranks we can think of, on your family, friends and loved ones.

Now of course there are the all-time classics like putting a whoopee cushion on a chair, or sending out prank calls, and they’re relatively easy to pull off with little to no prior planning, BUT

If you want to get a leetle bit more innovative, and pull off a few hijinks that will draw out genuine surprise and belly laughs, we’ve dug out 10 absolutely hilarious April Fools’ pranks that they will never see coming!

Coffee surprise!

Image courtesy Unsplash.

Best aimed at close ones in the family, early in the morning.

Here’s the deal: swap out coffee sugar with salt, and watch as your target groggily reaches for their cup of morning brew and takes their first sip.

Their tastebuds will get an unpleasant surprise. On the positive side, it’ll jar them into consciousness a lot more effectively than their usual morning caffeine ever could!

Warning: Might lead to the ‘coffee’ being violently spat out and landing on other in the near vicinity.

Pro tip: Maybe keep a nice freshly brewed coffee, complete with cream and whatever other goodies they like, ready to mend fences?

Surprise order

Image courtesy Unsplash.

A great choice if you’ve got friends over. This is a two-person prank; you may find it difficult to pull it off on your own.

With a friends’ gathering, someone has to order the food, right?

Once they’ve placed the order, get someone to distract them. Then you take their phone, call up the restaurant, and change their order, to something completely unexpected.

For example, if they’ve ordered pizza, ask for as much of pineapple toppings as possible.

And then make sure your friend who ordered stays distracted and doesn’t ask for or look at their phone.

Imagine the surprise when they open their package!

When things go upside down…

Gif via giphy.

An awesome fit for the office, for those who’re not very laptop-savvy.

Here’s the deal: there’s a keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + DOWN arrow key that flips the laptop screen upside down.

For Mac’s, it’s a little bit more complicated: System Preferences -> Command + Option while clicking on Display -> ‘180’ option.

Ask your target to go to another to bring you something, and flip their screen upside down while they’re gone.

While the fix is easy (hitting Up instead of Down for Windows, and hitting 180 again on Mac’s), many people will start to panic.

Tip: Sometimes, people restart their laptop if they’re unaware of the fix. Reveal the prank and fix it before they do that, otherwise they’ll lose all work they couldn’t save.

How a professor joined in on the fun

Image courtesy Unsplash.

Apparently, this was a prank played by a Virginia Wesleyan University professor on her students.

She placed a link with the name Final Exam Answers to the students’ coursework page.

Students were pleasantly surprised, and most clicked on the link…only to be met by a video of Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up.

Done during the pandemic, this prank proved effective at countering all the tension students were under.

If you teach or tutor, this is something you can definitely do!

The carmonica

Image courtesy Unsplash.

Buy a harmonica, and duct-tape it under the front bumper of your target’s car.

They may not notice it at first, but after some driving, they’ll undoubtedly notice a peculiar, wheezing kind of noise coming from the engine area.

You can join in the ride too! Just remember to be as surprised as everyone else, and don’t start giggling or it’ll give the whole show away.

Even better - record the whole thing on your phone for an awesome social media post!

How long do you give them before they stop the car, and look under the hood to see what the problem is?

Pro tip: Be tactful. Don’t play this prank on someone who is driving to a meeting (meaning they’re on a deadline) or something. In that case, they’ll end up wasting time, spoiling their clothes and getting flustered.

Tip: If they decide to take the car to the mechanic and you want to capture their reaction when the mechanic pulls out the harmonica, it would be a good idea to split the bill!

Food that won’t come off

Image courtesy Unsplash.

Can be played on anyone, including young kids.

Order burgers and fries for them. For younger kids, chocolate might prove a better choice.

Take the food out, and paste it on the plate. It’ll take time to do it, especially for the fries, as you’ll have to go piece by piece. 

And then hand the plate over to your target.

Most people don’t take long to realize what's going on, but the transition from pleasant gratitude at you for having got them food to the realization that it’s all a prank can prove extremely entertaining!

“I shopped till I dropped”

Image courtesy Unsplash.

Best played on your partner/spouse/boyfriend or girlfriend.

You can also play it on your parents.

All those orders you have delivered? Save them somewhere, and don’t let your target know about them.

If you don’t have actual deliveries, talk with your neighbors, and ask them to keep their delivery boxes aside and sit with them to stuff the boxes with paper, and tape them shut.

On April Fools’ Day, have all those boxes placed by your door, as if you went on a shopping spree.

“Use the other door”

Great workplace prank.

There’s an easy way and a hard way to do it.

Easy way: arrive a lot earlier than everyone else, close every door, and attach “Sorry, this door is broken. Please use the other door” signs on every entrance and lock them. And then send out an email blast saying there’s an emergency meeting at the office.

Harder way: once everyone is in the office, lock all the doors, place the “Please use the other door” signs on them, and watch as people walk around in circles, trying to find a way out.

Just make sure you reveal the prank before anyone does something like try to smash glass to unlock a door from the other side or try to escape through windows.

Rearranged stuff

Image courtesy Unsplash.

Targets: the Monica Geller types, who get off on keeping things organized.

Best done in the kitchen.

Just rearrange stuff, like switching forks and spoons in the utensils drawer, or putting every jar out of place in the ingredients cupboard.

And then watch as they frantically try to make sense of what’s happened.

Tip: A nice present or an event out on the town in the evening may be needed to fully make up for the hurt in this one.

Cracked screen

Image courtesy Unsplash.

Seeing your phone’s screen is cracked? Agony.

Finding out it’s a prank? Relief, and lots of laughs.

And that’s all this prank is.

Follow the steps mentioned in this website, and watch as your target deflated before your eyes thinking their phone is cracked.

And plan the reveal to get the maximum kick out of it!

Post-April Fools’ prank treat

All the 10 pranks we’ve listed here are completely harmless, and should cause zero lasting pain or damage to anyone.

Regardless, they might still be smarting over being pranked, and they might even think about getting back at you.

Just to be on the safe side, we suggest a post-prank treat.

If you’re in Chicago, we can suggest a joint mission at an escape room near you, followed by deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s, and milkshakes at Devil Dawgs.

Do tell us what pranks you pulled off on April Fools’ Day (we’re @foxinaboxCHI on Twitter, and @foxinaboxchicago on Facebook).

And finally, if you found this post useful, make sure you bookmark Chicago’s best events and escape room blog for more such content!

Featured image by DONT SELL MY ARTWORK AS IS from Pixabay.