April Fools

This year, I looked forward to April Fools Day for the first time in a long time. In past years I’ve always planned to prank my friends, but this year, I actually did it. Usually I get really excited and plan out these intense pranks but can never follow through. Sometimes it’s logistics that get in the way, other times I get worried my prankee will get upset. It really just depends. However, this year was different. I compiled a list of must-do pranks, and I tested all in one random day. Friends didn’t know what hit them, and I was pretty pleased with the results. Here are a few pranks that I tested out before the big day came.

Rearranging Various Objects

This was my first prank. I got very lucky and did this on a day my little sister didn’t have school, which meant no one was up. This allowed plenty of time for me to get to work. I put some olive oil in the fridge in place of the orange juice and moved around the coffee pot and stand mixer. I even swapped the dinner room and eating nook chairs, and switched plastic colorful eggs with actual ones from the fridge.This is definitely a prank I will do in the future; it’s very easy and can be done so many different ways. Plus, the degree of difficulty can be as easy as swapping toilet paper with paper towels to completely rearranging the living room.

This one probably made me the most happy. I had to text my mom to make sure she got all the tricks, since I didn’t want to give the family salmonella if the eggs were out for too long. Apparently my sister enjoyed hunting for the tricks and I always enjoy stumping her, so everyone wins for this prank.

Time Warp

This is a classic. Change the time on all the clocks in the house and the result is extreme confusion. I’ve always wanted do this – you know, wake my little sister up in the middle of the night and tell her it’s time for school. However, I never have enough energy. For this prank though, since it was an actual school day, I didn’t want to get too intense and cause the unthinkable — a tardy — for my sister. Instead, I only changed the microwave clock – but there’s also unchanged oven clock literally right under it, so I don’t know how effective it was. Think it’s 7:05 AM? Oh wait! It’s actually 1:05 AM! Ha! What fun! Unfortunately I had to go to school and didn’t get to see my family’s confused, and probably pretty mediocre, reactions.

“Delicious” Cupcakes

This…did not go well. I admit though, I’ve already pulled something similar when I tricked my English class with spicy cupcakes for my deception presentation. As a result, my classmates were wary. I even went so far as to ask a friend to pretend they were hers before passing them out to the class. Already imagining my friends’ disgusted looks while they chowed down my “delicious” cupcakes — cupcakes with an icing concoction included copious amounts of turmeric, spicy chili powder and garlic powder — thrilled me for this moment. But things did not turn out. First off they were stepped on. Totally squashed. Sparkly little orange cupcakes turned into a goopy orange mess. Not to mention the smell – the “triple threat” stunk. Sometimes a little waft would float over to me and I fought the urge to run far away. I avoided saying exactly if these were doctored or not, so when an unsuspecting friend took a huge bite I had to look away or else my stifled laughter would give up the gig. A quick swallow and two seconds later he was in the hall taking a large drink. After that no one would eat them, but what can you expect?

I would stay away from this prank if you don’t have a lot of time. I mean you can always choose another treat to “poison,” but I probably spent about an hour and a half making the cupcakes. I didn’t mind it, but throwing them all away is fairly wasteful. I must admit though, an evil glee I didn’t know I had surfaced as I rummaged in my cupboard looking for the next poisonous ingredient to add.

Nicolas Cage It Up

Depending on how many Nicolas Cage photos you want, this can be very time-consuming or not at all. For me, I spent one Gossip Girl episode slowly cutting out 25 little Cage heads – goodness, that sounds creepy. Whenever someone’s back was turned, I stealthily placed a little picture on their laptop or in their lunch. I’ll admit though, I lost my bag of pictures for several hours, so I continued the shenanigans onto day two. Day two wasn’t as fun though, and I often forgot to slide one into someone’s folder. In fact, I don’t know if this even counts as a prank, maybe more of a nuisance.

The main reaction I received was confusion. After all, why was there a picture of Nicolas Cage in their lunch box? My laughing response of “it’s for April Fools!” didn’t make much sense considering it was March 28.