Don't Settle For Boring Pranks — Try These 65 April Fools' Day Ideas To Troll Everyone Around You

Are you a fan of April Fools' Day? We've rounded up a list of all the best harmless jokes for you to use this April. From mayonnaise-filled donuts to kitchens full of googly eyes, there's bound to be something to make you giggle.

Woman smiling and clapping, wearing a sleeveless top with circular patterns
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1.Tape a photo of Nic Cage, Shrek, or whomever else you want to the top of the copier.

Photo of Nicolas Cage taped on top of inside cover of copier machine, making a playful expression

2.Superglue a pizza box closed, then try to keep a straight face as your target struggles to get the box open.

Stack of pizza boxes with "Hot & Fresh PIZZA Made Just for You!" written on them

To make this prank especially convincing, do two things: 1) Put something like a cutting board inside the box to weigh it down, and 2) order an actual pizza so the house smells like the real deal (and so you can give them a slice post-prank)!

Patricia Marroquin / Getty Images

3.Remember when Jim pranked Dwight on The Office by putting his stapler in jello? Well, you can pull the same prank!

A transparent gelatin dessert with a stapler suspended inside, surrounded by a variety of food items on plates

Instead of using a stapler, try using a toy or keys.

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4.Here's a gross one: If you rip up a toilet paper roll, wet it, and then mash it together, it looks exactly like, well...

5.Make a plate of "sponge cakes."

Plate of frosted cake squares with sprinkles; background shows a bottle of sprinkles, a sponge pack, and a frosting container

6.Speaking of baked goods, you can always pull the classic "There's a pan of brown E's on the counter" prank.

Baking tray with cardboard capital letter E's

Make everyone in the office roll their eyes.

u/Someguy102888 / Via reddit.com

7.If you can, swap their autocorrect for something totally random.

Three people holding smartphones viewed from below

Swap commonly used abbreviations like "OMW" and play it off as if it's a bad software update.

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8.Make your kids laugh by putting googly eyes on the food in your refrigerator.

An open fridge stocked with various food items, including cartons and bottles with googly eyes
u/biggletits / Via reddit.com

9.Or get a little weirder and paste your family's faces on a dozen eggs the night before.

Sculptural art of three baby faces on eggshells in a small carton on a plain background

Then ask them to hand you a few as you make breakfast on April Fools' morning.

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10.Paint a bar of soap with nail polish, then, once it dries, tell your kids to wash their hands with it before dinner.

Hand painting a layer of clear polish on a green bar of soap, next to an open polish bottle

11.Tell them you're worried that there's a leak in the shower.

Leek positioned on a gold-tone bathroom faucet, against a tiled wall

This one's hilarious.

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12. Swap out family portraits for photos of your favorite actor.

Twitter: @claremaura

13.Replace hand sanitizer with lube.

Kroger brand personal lubricant next to a Purell hand sanitizer bottle on a desk
u/LetterExperiment230 / Via reddit.com

14.Hide bubble wrap under a rug and wait for your kid to step on it.

Person lifting corner of a textured rug to reveal wooden flooring underneath

15.Bring home bags from your family's favorite fast-food restaurant...but fill them with veggies!

A bouquet of various cut vegetables, including asparagus, presented in a red fast-food container

Your family might not be happy, but you'll get a laugh at the sheer disappointment.

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16.Swap out your family's toothpaste tube with Orajel.

Numb their mouths and make them confused!

17.Create a sweet dinner surprise using cereal.

Sliced meatloaf on a wooden board with rosemary sprig, focus on texture

18.Put lotion on your target's doorknob so they can't open it.

Woman opening a door, smiling, focus on door handle

To play it safe, put the lotion outside the door so your target can't get inside. Listen and laugh as they struggle to twist the knob!

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19.A classic sink prank: putting a rubber band on the sprayer handle.

Woman surprised by water spraying from kitchen sink, dressed in a blouse and skirt

Align the sprayer nozzle toward your target, put a rubber band on the handle to keep it down, and crack up laughing when they get soaked after turning on the water.

Grace Cary / Getty Images

20.Wrap their car in the material of your choice.

Car covered in multicolored sticky notes and plastic wrap in a parking lot

Plastic wrap, wrapping paper, Post-it Notes, you name it!

u/MC14391 / Via reddit.com

21.Surprise someone by swapping Nerds for Pop Rocks.

Watch them be surprised by the popping candy!

22.Treat your victim to a slightly messy bathroom surprise.

A toilet with plastic wrap covering the top of the bowl

This one's kinda gross, but so funny.

Tzahiv / Getty Images/iStockphoto

23.Tell your family you made cake pops, then watch as they crunch into a Brussels sprout instead.

Chocolate-covered treats with sprinkles, some cut in half showing a green interior, in a container

The sprinkles really sell it.

u/Silojm / Via reddit.com

24.Need more poop pranks in your life? Try making your family poop-shaped cookies.

Three chocolate cookies stacked on a plain surface

25.You can also put a "giant beetle" (cut out from black paper) behind your target's lampshade.

Lampshade with a shadow of a huge spider
u/ForTheWinMag / Via reddit.com

26.Serve up some ice cream — minus the cream.

Hand holding an ice cream container  with just ice and water

27.Swap out your family's orange juice with a stomach-turning mac 'n' cheese drink.

Bottle filled with an orange beverage with a metal straw next to halved oranges on a surface

Mix water with some mac 'n' cheese powder to create the most unexpected and gross "orange juice." The color is exactly the same, but the taste is most certainly not.

Tanja Ivanova / Getty Images

28.Try tricking your family into thinking you have an infestation problem by using a beetroot with a tail (or a potato and some string).

A rat scavenging food from a dirty plate in a cluttered sink

Tape a tiny piece of string to a potato and leave it on the counter, tucked away! From afar, it'll look like a rat!

Tenra / Getty Images/iStockphoto

29.Want a prank that will make your kid's heart race? Put a surprise in the mailbox.

Put a stuffed animal or balloon in the mailbox to scare whoever opens it!

30.You can also use gelatin to make an unusual glass of milk.

Glass of milk on a wooden table with sunlight casting shadows

31.Draw a spider on the toilet paper in your bathroom.

Use a pen to lightly draw the fake spider on the toilet paper and listen to your family freak out!

32.Give your kid a fortune cookie with a prank fortune.

A broken fortune cookie with the visible paper fortune on a white background

33.Set out a bowl filled with a mix of M&M's, Skittles, and Reese's Pieces.

Bowl of candy-coated chocolate candies with an angry note about replacing original contents

34.Looking for a prank that's a little more extreme? Make candied apples with onions.

Caramel apples with sticks on a tray, depicted up close

Make some real candied apples at the same time so that — after the prank is over — you can reward your good sport with the real deal.

Photoalto / Getty Images/PhotoAlto

35.Put some "melted ice cream" or a "spilled drink" on a prized possession.

Learn how to DIY an impressive-looking splatter (which won’t harm your kid’s computer or anything else) at Studio DIY. It looks exactly like a spilled drink — even you'll be surprised!

36.Switch the bags inside two boxes of cereal.

Then enjoy watching your kid realize their sugary cereal is actually Dad's boring bran flakes.

37.Try the classic mayo-stuffed donuts prank!

A variety of donuts with different icings and toppings are shown on a wooden surface

Hollow out the inside of some donuts and fill them with mayo!

Horasiu Vasilescu / Getty Images/500px

38.Put a “Sold” sign in your front yard.

Black "Sold" stamped over a red "For Sale" sign in front of a house
Martin Barraud / Getty Images

39.Sew one of your target's socks closed halfway down.

Sewing machine stitching a white sock, needle in mid-motion

If you’re the crafty type, this prank will leave you in stitches.

Spohr / BuzzFeed

40.Serve up some "spider chip cookies.”

Cookie with chocolate chips arranged to resemble spiders; text suggests using toothpick to draw legs while the chips are still warm

41.Put a few dye pellets under the cap of your faucet.

Unscrew the cap to the faucet, put a pellet from an Easter egg kit under it, then screw the cap back on. This will make colored water come out.

42.Replace Cheetos with carrots.

Open the bag from the bottom, swap the Cheetos for carrot sticks or baby carrots, then glue it back together.

43.Fill your kid's bedroom — or bathroom — with balloons.

Room filled with multicolored balloons of various sizes

Watch as they open the door to a rainbow full of balloons! This one's a lot cuter and great for parties or celebrations, too.

Frank Herholdt / Getty Images

44.Text a GIF of the "typing" symbol to make your friends wait for a response that never comes.

The GIF should auto-play so it'll look as if you're typing forever. You can save the GIF to your phone here.

45.Put a note on someone's car that says "Sorry about the damage, had to leave" and watch them look all over for the nonexistent damage.

Blank piece of paper on a car's windshield
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46.Buy a ton of rubber ducks and hide them.

Rubber duck toy on a plain background

Pick one friend or family member and start hiding the ducks everywhere that person might find them: cupboards, drawers, desks, car glove boxes. The sky's the limit!

Photography by Dave Bond / Getty Images

47.Bring a totally normal box of cookies or another delicious food in to work, and leave it out with a sign that says "April Fools!"

Watch everyone try to figure out what you did to it.

48.Fill a mayonnaise jar with yogurt or vanilla pudding and eat it with a spoon in front of people.

Jar of mayonnaise with a spoon inside on a white background

You could also do blue Gatorade in a bottle of Windex, but you'd have to make sure you cleaned the bottle VERY thoroughly.

Wilatlak Villette / Getty Images

49.Hide battery-powered alarm clocks throughout their room.

Person in bed reaching out to silence digital alarm clock reading 6:28

At least they'll be up in time!

Longhua Liao / Getty Images

50.Print this out and tape it next to your office's printer.

Graphic showing Canon's VoiceOver technology steps for voice commands to use a printer; summarizes three easy steps and a learning module

51.Hide a baby monitor or walkie-talkie in a closet or ceiling and meow into it.

Handheld two-way radio with antenna and digital display

You could also whisper or make ghost noises into it, but meowing will probably freak them out less. Plus, then they'll go looking around for a cat.

Yevgen Romanenko / Getty Images

52.Start placing pennies in random spots where the person will find them. Then start placing more and more pennies.

Open glass jar filled with US pennies, more scattered around it

Start with just one penny per day. Place them somewhere normal, like on a desk or on the floor. Then start placing more pennies and get weirder. Put them in the bathroom or under a pillow. And, of course, pretend that you have no idea what's happening.

John_brueske / Getty Images

53.Rearrange your roommate's dresser drawers. For added effect, continue to do it over time.

A kitchen dresser with various small items, next to a window with natural light

If you want to be a little more evil, take one article of clothing and put it in a different drawer, then escalate over time.

Kikovic / Getty Images

54.Screenshot their desktop, remove all of their icons, then set the screenshot as the background.

You can either do this on a computer, or you can do it on a phone by moving all the icons onto a different page or putting them all in a folder. They'll try tapping or clicking on the icon they want, but to no avail! *evil laugh*

55.Make Mentos ice cubes for the soda-loving person in your life.

Ice cube tray half-filled with frozen cubes

Be prepared — this one takes a while!

u/GLman16 / Via reddit.com

56.Hide a few green tomatoes with the green apples at a grocery store.

Bins of red and green apples displayed for sale

57.Fill one jelly donut with sriracha and watch your friends play dessert roulette.

Box of round pastries next to a hot sauce bottle with a label "Happy April Fools Day"

Or leave all of them untouched for an even funnier laugh.

u/yeehawjared / Via reddit.com

58.Place a container of sauce inside someone's drink for a spicy surprise.

This works best with a takeout cup. Open a packet of hot sauce at the bottom of the cup, put the straw in it, and put on the lid!

59.Place a chicken bouillon cube inside a showerhead and wait for hilarity to ensue.

Water flowing from a showerhead in a bathroom

They'll be so confused and grossed out by the smell of chicken!

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60.Do a simple condiment label swap for a very easy laugh.

A ketchup pump dispenser with the label "KETCHUP" on it, positioned over a stainless steel container

Either fill ketchup and mustard bottles with the wrong condiments, or swap the labels on dispensers!

Ahphotoswpg / Getty Images/iStockphoto

61.Replace someone's gum with Play-Doh for a really fresh joke.

Collage of chewed items by a dog, including Orbit gum, Play-Doh, and a Diet Coke can
u/Ownagetacos / Via reddit.com

62.Put a whoopee cushion under someone's chair.

A whoopee cushion with "WHOOPEE CUSHION" text, checkered pattern on top, inflated on white background

Such a classic.

Peter Dazeley / Getty Images

63.Put a piece of plastic at the opening of shampoo bottles so that none comes out.

Person pouring liquid soap onto their hand over a sink

Another classic, but so easy!

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64.Put a tiny piece of tape on the sensor of a TV remote controller — make sure it matches the color of the remote!

Person holding a remote control with an out-of-focus TV screen in the background

The person trying to watch TV won't have a signal to turn it on. They'll try to swap out the batteries and be confused.

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65.Swap the salt and sugar.

Salt shaker and sugar dispenser on a checkered tablecloth in a diner setting

Be sure to keep track of which is which yourself — they're so easy to confuse!

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This article contains content from Crystal Ro, Andy Golder, Mike Spohr, Natalie Brown, and Mallory McInnis.