Surprisingly Successful Halloween Office Pranks

Fred is one of d.trio’s founding partners. And our resident comedian.

I’ve been known to be somewhat of a prankster (no, really) and have a couple office pranks from my repertoire that were particularly effective.

The rubber bat.  I had a jumpy coworker that startled easily.  Someone had brought in a really gross, soft rubber bat (flying, not baseball) attached to a stretchy bungee cord.  I used push-pins to firmly attach the bungee to the inside of a sliding cabinet door in her cube.  The bat was then loosely attached to the back wall of the cabinet, so that when the door was opened the bat would release and fly straight out at the victim, snap back rapidly and then dangle on the bungee.

I waited patiently for a couple days. When the trap was finally sprung, the scream could be heard for three floors.  I was thrilled.  The victim was not.

The floating voice.  I had another coworker who was prone to getting creeped out.  I had a miniature voice recorder and recorded about 30 minutes of dead, silent air followed by a ghost-like voice repeating the victim’s name, waling in pain, pleading for help etc.  I waited until a few minutes before the victim returned from lunch and planted the recorder in a hidden spot in her cube.  After she was back from lunch for about 20 minutes the ghostlike voice began, quietly and slowly at first, then becoming gradually louder and more urgent.

Not seeing anyone nearby that could be making these sounds really freaked her out.  Much whimpering and hand wringing ensued.  Along with an anguished plea of, “can’t anybody else hear that”?  It was a thing of beauty.

The key to success with both pranks was setting them up so as not to have to be hanging around to witness the execution, which usually blows your cover.

Have a good office prank? Please share your story.

-Fred