The Art of the Paperclip

We all know that elaborate, epic office pranks can be hilarious. You know, the ones involving sixty-thousand post-it pads and a rather unfortunate work station, or, Jen in the cubicle down the hall taking out an extra mortgage on her house in order to pay for turning Jerry’s office into a golf course.

Yes, people will definitely go the extra, most dramatic and pricey mile when it comes to pulling an office prank. But, it doesn’t always have to be so elaborate, expensive or arduous a job.

Take, for instance, two simple, virtually effortless pranks involving paperclips that garner genuinely hilarious results.

For the first prank you will, of course, need a paperclip, a photocopy machine and some clueless coworkers.

First, you simply make a bunch of copies of a paperclip. Then, you leave the copies in the copy machine. Then, you watch as your coworkers attempt to make photocopies and gradually become more and more irritated as each copy comes back with a photocopied paperclip on it. An added bonus to this delightful prank is watching your coworkers pull the copy machine apart in order to finally find the phantom paperclip.

The second paperclip prank is even easier. Simply, grab all of your coworker’s paperclips when he/she is out to lunch or isn’t looking and hook all of them together. Put them back and watch as your coworker tries to grab one, and they all come out hooked together. This prank is actually the prank that keeps on giving, because your coworker is going to have to manually unhook one every time he/she needs one throughout the day (unless, of course, they feel like sitting around for half an hour unhooking the entire thing; either way, they’ll be annoyed and you’ll be eternally amused.

So, the next time you’re considering paying Laurence Fishburne seventy-five grand to come down to your office and convince one of your coworkers that this is actually The Matrix and he is The One… consider the paperclip, instead. It’s the cheaper, easier, and, often, funnier alternative.