Know Your Boundaries

As much fun as there is to be had in the world of pranking, there are certain areas and boundaries you should never cross. More often than not, a good dose of common sense is all it takes to realize whether or not a prank is a good idea.

Generally speaking, you don’t want to over embarrass or humiliate someone with your prank. This goes for things like disclosing personal information and exposing things that are considered private. (This is especially true while pranking in the work place.) Try to keep things professional. Remember, the goal is to simply have fun.

Another thing to keep in mind is collateral damage. You don’t want your prank to permanently break something. This would be very bad, especially in an office. For breaking someone’s desk or computer would be a complete mess. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can’t make something think you broke something. That kind of trickery is actually a great way to catch someone off guard. People tend to get anxious and (understandably) angry when they think something’s broken. Then when they realize it’s not, they get excited—making your prank a success.

You also want your victim/coworker to be able to continue their day with out too much trouble after discovering the prank. That means that ideas like water gun wars that completely soak someone at their cubicle (probably destroying the contents of their pockets and desk in the mean time) would also ruin the rest of their schedule for the day. So, while this prank is great for picnics and lazy summer days at home, it would not work for the office.

You also need to be very careful of tampering with personal property. Things such as paint and food on someone’s car are out of line and just plain destructive. (However, filling the inside of the car with packing peanuts is not only fine… it’s extremely funny.)

That’s really what it comes down to: Pranks should be funny, not destructive.