No time to type my story right now, but I pulled a little joke today at work that backfired and essentially ended in tears. I thought it was going to be a funny, but it wasn't and now I feel bad about it. Tell me your stories of work pranks/jokes that went bad. I figure there are some good ones, knowing the crowd here. It will make me feel a little less guilty if I can try to rationalize my actions by saying that some random guy on the internet did something meaner than what I did.
Had a salesman rub red ink from a stamp pad on the receptionist's chair cushion, which was also red. That went over like a lead balloon.
Tell us your story T.J. and we'll tell us ours (kinda like I'll show you mine if you show me yours 
)
Pranks at work aren't a good idea...don't try to rationalize it. apologize to the person and move on.
Based on the tears, I'm assuming the coworker's name was not Harvey, and he's not a welder or pipefitter, now is he?
Like Stuart in MN said...
I hate "practical jokes" with the power of one billion exploding supernovas. Personally, I consider stuff like the "Jerky Boys" or "Jackass" or "Cheaters" folks do worthy of capital punishment. When the berkeley did people forget how to mind their own business?
My last contact with local law enforcement officers was actually due to something SWMBO did to me on April 1st, about 10yrs. ago (about 5yrs. before we "hooked up".).
She had attached a sticker I found offensive to my car. I didn't see her do it, she said, "..hey, come look at this!" as a "joke".
I took the aluminum baseball bat I had stashed in the car, and proceeded to wander down the street looking for a neighbor's car with the same sticker. Lucky for me, I lived in a poor neighborhood at the time..and the car I actually attacked was an abandoned one.
I'm still wondering if she & I got together later than sooner because she was afraid of me, or sooner than later because she dug that "bad boy" busting the E36 M3 out of that POS in our crappy neighborhood.
Long story short: "pranks" suck the ass of dead popes, even when committed in private. IMO, trying to attempt something as magnificently reckless in public (the workplace) is a recipe for disaster.
Does anyone know that you did it? If so, apologize. Next time, target someone like the poster above me.
some of the best pranks end in tears.. and then comes the glorious retribution..
since no one else is going to offer up anything good because they are above this sort of thing, i will offer up a good prank from my days building trusses for houses.. we used to save the sap that would ooze out of the boards and smear it on people's pop cans or hammers or whatever.. one day, i managed to smear sap on the triggers of the nail guns on all 6 floor truss machines- including my own- without anyone noticing. it was fun to just sit back and watch as each nailgun was picked up..
and did you know that an LP powered forklift will run for 5 minutes or so with the gas shut off, and that you can get take the tank off when someone is driving it while your partner distracts the person driving it.. they can go a long ways in 5 minutes and have to walk back and get the tank..
Man up, apologize or whatever it takes. You could lose your job. (in some venues)
novaderrik wrote: some of the best pranks end in tears.. and then comes the glorious retribution.. since no one else is going to offer up anything good because they are above this sort of thing...
Not me 
I had an ongoing battle with a coworker many years ago. I used to ride my bicycle to work. After I got him good one day, he put my bike on the forklift, lifted it to the ceiling (industrial unit) and strapped it to the girders in the ceiling. It took me a while to find it.
A while later, on April 1st, I enlisted the assistance of the production supervisor. He called him in and proceeded to list all his mistakes, and screw ups (that he couldn't possibly know about) over the last few years, and tell him that's why he has no choice but to let him go. When he was given the release paper to sign, it said APRIL FOOLS.
At the end of my last day at that job, I went to wheel my tool box out to my truck to leave. It wouldn't move. He had pulled the drawers out of the lower cabinet, drilled 2 holes in it, and lagged it to the wall.
He and I went on like that for years.
Some people might hate practical jokes, but I feel sorry for people with no sense of humour.
SVreX wrote: Based on the tears, I'm assuming the coworker's name was not Harvey, and he's not a welder or pipefitter, now is he? Like Stuart in MN said...
Maybe if the prank was awesome enough!
Joey
Zomby woof wrote: Some people might hate practical jokes, but I feel sorry for people with no sense of humour.
This
A good one at pizza places is to lay out a fresh dough, and spread sauce over it. Tell the new guy that the sauce and the dough actually react when they contact each other and start to heat up, so the pizza is warm before it gets in the oven. Tell him to hover his hand over the sauced dough, tell him he will be able to feel the heat. Then, smash his hand into the sauce....then run so you dont get a freshly sauced hand to the face
They have to know you did it. A prank is no good unless the victim has the opportunity to retaliate.
I love practical jokes but I won't do them in work. So good ones me and my friends have pulled on each other. Fill the toilet with clear jello. My friends stole the door off my dorm room and left tampons with food coloring all over the room before I got moved in. Hanging gold truck nuts off the back of my Civic (didn't notice that for a week). Condom over the exhaust pipe, shave cream in the hubcaps and dirty words written in window paint on a friend's car. We did several more.
Like I said I wouldn't do them at work. Also I agree with Zomby Woof people who don't enjoy practical jokes have no sense of humor.
A buddy of mine put a license plate frame on SWMBO's car that read - "will work for sex" - which wasnt noticed by anyone until her PASTOR saw it in the parking lot at her church...that one went over REAL well....guess who refused to marry us when the time came?!?
A few recent ones just came to mind. We have 4 computers in our shop, and each tradesman has their own login. If anybody accidentally forgets to log out, the guy who discovers it will change their background to something of their choice. Tim Curry has been featured frequently.
I was on ebay at work one night. I forgot to log out of ebay when I was done. I woke up later that day to an invoice for a silicone butt pad, and some crotchless panties. We have a single stall washroom at the back of the plant. The same guy put a pair of long rubber boots in the stall to make it look like somebody was in their taking a dump and left the door unlocked. He stood at his locker, watching people walk in thinking they interrupted somebody, then run out with a look on their face. It was pretty funny.
go up to an unlocked computer and press ctrl+alt+down arrow...screen flips upside down. Hilarity ensues
Thank you.
antidote is ctrl+alt+up arrow, btw
Pulled the MAF sensor plug off my buddy's car. I assumed he would figure it out since he was a "car guy" and went to school and paid out the butt for his knowledge. Nope. He ended up getting down the street 10 miles or so before pulling over and getting it towed thinking the motor was going to blow. He paid something like $100 for the tow. Then I pointed it out to him...
4cylndrfury wrote: go up to an unlocked computer and press ctrl+alt+down arrow...screen flips upside down. Hilarity ensues
odd... does nothing on my computer
Sounds like the old " ATF in the vacuum line" trick
I saw it done once. Fogged out the parking lot pretty good.
A buddy had bought these new work boots and was real proud of them. I THOUGHT he told me they were steel toe, so stomped one of them....with his foot in it. The toenail on his big toe never grew back. I do feel bad about that one.
mad_machine wrote:4cylndrfury wrote: go up to an unlocked computer and press ctrl+alt+down arrow...screen flips upside down. Hilarity ensuesodd... does nothing on my computer
Mine either. I was really hoping it worked because I was going to go around doing it to everyones computer when they stepped away from their desk.
I have a great sense of humor, but practical jokes on people you don't know or on the new guy are rarely funny. At my current place of emplyeement it may get you fired. I love practical amongst freinds. We had running gags when I was in college. The best I ever heard of was people hung a guy's furniture upside down in his dorm room. Best I ever did was full my roomates half of the room with newspaper. That happened because he used to scatter the paper on my side of the room when he was finished with it.
I once put a pair of women's stockings (real stockings not pantyhose) under the seat of a co-worker's wife's car. He was driving her car while she was out of town on business. I had found these stockings in an abandoned house I was doing an asbestos inspection on. After thinking about it, I went out and removed them. He was 6' 6" tall (looked a lot like Lurch) and she was about 5' but had a temper you wouldn't believe. I was scared she might kill him.
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