Best practical jokes thread

[realityhack]

So, what are the best practical jokes you've played on someone or had done to you over the years?

As mentioned in another thread, I once mixed Veet into someone's shampoo, and put silicone sealant into their toothpaste tube. This was in a student houseshare where this was a sport between us.

Also, the same lad used to love cooking pancakes... so I ran a scalpel round the base of his 1kg bag of flour he kept in an overhead kitchen cabinet. It's an old trick but it was quite dramatic.

[Old Greg]

When I was a student, we'd been 'smoking' and managed to subvert a Watchdog article on people scalding their mouths on hot pop tarts. It was a great moment when Lynn Foulds-Wood declared breathlessly, 'And we are hearing reports from Manchester of a family whose kitchen was burned down by a flaming pop tart.'

[bless 'em all]

When I was a student, we'd been 'smoking' and managed to subvert a Watchdog article on people scalding their mouths on hot pop tarts. It was a great moment when Lynn Foulds-Wood declared breathlessly, 'And we are hearing reports from Manchester of a family

whose kitchen was burned down by a flaming pop tart.

'

The estate of Michael Jackson refute any accusation of arson, intentional or otherwise, in the Greater Manchester area of the UK. Further more his estate rejects you calling him a tart.

[vetran]

we had an engineer that spent 30 minutes in the toilets every morning, just before the mandatory time everyone went out on the road. It was a little annoying so we decide to help him out early.

A large electrolytic cap, some bellwire and a high voltage. Just outside the loo windows. Fastest H. ever was in the loo, he ran out after the first bang. he went in 15 minutes earlier next day.

When working in a TV shop connecting the ht lead to anything metal was very popular (with every one but the victim).

One of my colleagues we screwed his desk drawers up from the underside.

We frequently added substances to peoples lunch (not body fluids or anything yukky but vanilla flavoured ham sandwich is odd). Or relocate them entirely, some one shouting you B*stards where they hell is my chilli gave us a certain juvenile thrill. Especially when they find it hanging 50 feet up on the warehouse ceiling.

Swapping mice so your mouse drove your neighbours PC was incredibly popular. As was modifying test leads so they gave odd results (inserting a diode in a component tester lead makes for fun).

[d000hg]

Not mine, but my dad used to get into the habit of playing with an electrical component and leaving it lying around when working as an electrical engineer.
Once it became routine, he would sometimes 'accidentally' leave a charged capacitor on someone's (main the boss') desk.

[bless 'em all]

A lolly-pop lady (crossing attendant these days) worked the crossing just up the road from the office and would stand next to a phone-box.

We got the number to the box and called her up one morning telling her she'd won the 'lolly-pop' lady of the year, nominated by the kids at the local school, and someone would be along with Champagne and flowers for her.

She waited quite a while after the kids were in school ...

[Old Greg]

A lolly-pop lady (crossing attendant these days) worked the crossing just up the road from the office and would stand next to a phone-box.

We got the number to the box and called her up one morning telling her she'd won the 'lolly-pop' lady of the year, nominated by the kids at the local school, and someone would be along with Champagne and flowers for her.

She waited quite a while after the kids were in school ...

I would be thoroughly ashamed of myself if I'd been involved in that.

[BrilloPad]

I once called a number at random from a phone box.
"Is Mr Walls there?" No
"Is Mrs Walls there?" No
"Are there any Walls there?" No
"So what is holding the roof up?"

[TestMangler]

Levering the G & H keys from peoples keyboards and swapping them. Makes it hard for the unix guys to lohon......

Had one contractor once, who had been a useless tit all through his time and he was flying off on a golf holiday on his last day so had all his luggage with him. I was talked out of buying an air pistol and a couple of bags of baking powder and stashing it in his case. Instead, a couple of blokes filled his golf brolly with soggy teabags, coffee grounds, a packet of tortilla chips and other various smelly tulipe from the bins. Never found out if he opened it.......which was a shame.

[eek]

In the days before we internet one of my colleagues organised a transfer to our Sydney office.

Upon acceptance of all the paperwork we organised for new instructions to be sent changing his transfer to a very grotty mining town in the real middle of no where. This did not go down well so we continued on the path by organising a conference call with said colleague and both senior partners both there and here to lay it on thick how important this job was going to be.

This carried on for three months while the guy tried to find any means possible to get out of the transfer and remain in his current job. Finally one week prior to departure the full story was revealed when we revealed the full stash of Australian letterheads a colleague had previously returned with, the fact that the Australian "senior" partner was that colleagues Australian based brother and that everyone in the UK had been in on the joke all the time.

To say that the guy was not amused was a slight understatement.