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April Foolishness: Three Ways to Prank Your Coworkers

By William Peacock, Esq. on April 01, 2013 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Before we begin, one small warning. Don't use these on humorless coworkers or senior partners. Generally, the more technophobic the victim, the more angry they will get. That being said, if you have coworkers who are still human, such as the fellow associates that you go to happy hour with on Thursday, these are all brilliant ideas for April Fool's Day.

The Telltale Heart

This works best if your coworker has external computer speakers. If so, buy a 25 foot 3.5mm audio cable and attach their speakers to your computer. Play this heartbeat noise at random times throughout the day, at a barely perceivable volume. Increase the frequency and volume until they lose it. Make it better by letting coworkers in on the prank and having them deny hearing it.

If you've got a bigger budget, are more tech-savvy, or are more sadistic, try using a wireless Bluetooth speaker connected to your smartphone.

Mouse Pranks

There are many varieties to this prank. Use a wireless mouse to control your neighbor's cursor. Cover their optical mouse's laser with tape. Go into the Control Panel's Mouse Properties and make their mouse left-handed, increase the cursor speed, or change the cursor to one of those "busy" circles that Windows 7 employs.

Blue Screen of Death

Have you ever seen the Blue Screen of Death? When your computer is crashing, the screen will turn blue and give you some indecipherable error message about memory dumps. Microsoft, the originator of the BSoD, created this imitation BSoD screensaver. Not cool, Redmond. Too soon.

To use this disturbing tool, download it from Microsoft. You can either run it once (kill it using the ESC key) or set it as the default screensaver per the instructions.

We take no responsibility for any fallout from using these devious pranks. Again, don't prank partners, nor technophobes. And if you have any other pranks that you'd like to share, give us a holler on our Facebook page.

Enjoy your day.

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