April Fools pranks for the puckish, Pt. 1

A small child is standing on a chair behind a door, waiting to dump a bucket filled with an unknown substance on his friend who's headed into the room. That's a classic to add to your palette of April Fools' pranks.

Get the drop on your friends and loved ones with April Fools' pranks! (Photo: ThinkStock)

Tomorrow is April 1, and that means it’s time to roll out your bag of tricks and be ready to dust off your best April Fools pranks. Don’t believe people who tell you that pranks are a bad idea. So long as you don’t kill someone or otherwise violate their Constitutional rights – including the right to payday loans – let ‘er rip. The world needs good cheer.

April Fools pranks may date back to the Middle Ages

Wikipedia suggests several possibilities for the history of April Fools’ pranks, including Geoffrey Chaucer’s 1392 reference to “syn March bigan thritty days and two,” Eduard de Dene’s 1539 poem about a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on April 1 and John Aubrey’s 1686 reference to April 1 as “Fooles holy day.” There are numerous other possibilities, but the point is that April Fools Day is made for April Fools pranks!

April Fools pranks for home and office

Wait, home AND office? Yes, that’s right. Some people seem to think that the big, bad recession has made the workplace a morgue. Poppycock. Life’s too short. April Fools pranks, tastefully done, are a fine gauge of whether you’re working in the right place. With that in mind, onward to some prank ideas (Thanks, Gather)!

At Home:

If you have a sink with a spray handle, tape the handle down so that the next person who uses the sink gets a surprise hose bath!
Rub clear liquid soap all over the door knob to your roommate’s bedroom!
Fill your loved one’s shoes with talcum powder. With all that white powder, they’re sure to be mistaken for Lindsay Lohan wherever they go!

At Work:

Cover a shallow rectangular box with cake frosting and leave it in the break room for co-workers!
Put a tiny piece of Scotch tape over the mouthpiece of a co-worker’s desk phone!
Similarly, open a co-worker’s non-optical computer mouse and put enough clear Scotch tape over the rolling pins inside the housing so that their mouse won’t work. IT departments will love this one, too!