Harmless Pranks to Do on Friends
Put plastic over the top of their shampoo bottle. Unscrew the top of your friend’s shampoo, put a little piece of plastic wrap over the top of the bottle (so it’s blocking shampoo from coming out), and screw the top back on. Then, just leave it in your friend’s shower; the next time they use it, they’ll be stumped when nothing comes out!
Buy the same hat in slightly different sizes, to throw your friend off. While this prank isn’t difficult to pull off, it’ll cost some money—so keep that in mind! You’ll need the same hat in at least four different sizes. Start off wearing the smallest version of the hat (while spending time with your friend). Every so often, step out of the room and switch to the next-largest version of the hat…until, eventually, your hat looks inexplicably silly and floppy.
Put tape on the bottom of your friend’s computer mouse so it stops working. This simple trick can stop your friend’s mouse from working for a little while (without permanently breaking it, of course). All you need is a roll of scotch tape (or something similar) to cover the bottom of the mouse with—or, if you want to be extra cheeky, you can tape a picture of yourself there!
Hide silly notes in your friend’s clothes and belongings. Take some time to write up a few totally goofy notes for your friend. Then, when they’re not around, hide the notes wherever your friend is sure to find them eventually—in a sweater or pants pocket, in their bag, or even somewhere in their house. Each time your friend finds a note, they’ll laugh out loud at what you wrote! For example, you might make a love note from their favorite celebrity, a joke treasure map, or a fake coupon for a crazy imaginary snack food.
Gradually stuff their shoes with napkins or socks. Make your friend wonder if their shoes are inexplicably shrinking (or their feet are getting a sudden, miraculous growth spurt) by gently padding the toes of their shoes with a clean napkin or sock. If they still don’t suspect anything, add more napkins or an extra sock until they notice their shoes shrink! If you want to be extra elaborate, try doing this with every pair of shoes they own.
Pretend to see something out the window. This prank is totally simple (and a classic), but you might just be able to trick your friend into looking wherever you point! All you have to do is pretend to see something in the window—either something normal but interesting to look at, like a herd of deer, or something a little more startling, like a big, hungry bear.
Get a convincing (and ridiculous-looking) temporary tattoo. Find a temporary tattoo that looks silly but could totally be real, and apply it somewhere on your body. Then, show the tattoo to your friend while acting like it’s an actual tattoo you just got, and see how they react to it—and if they believe it’s real. For some extra laughs, if you and your friend have ever talked about getting matching tattoos, you could suggest they get a tattoo to match yours. Of course, if they’re a nice enough friend to agree to a matching tattoo, be sure to show them it’s temporary and you’re just joking!
Swap their hand sanitizer with glue. First, take a small bottle of hand sanitizer and empty it out (into a different container, so you’re not wasting any of it), then rinse out the empty bottle. Refill the bottle with clear glue and let it dry overnight. Then, leave the sanitizer bottle out for your friend to use—and when they try, nothing will come out, no matter how hard they squeeze! Only use non-toxic and non-hazardous glue that can easily be cleaned with water. Don’t use any glue with cyanoacrylate (an ingredient in Super Glue and Krazy Glue) for this prank. Make sure the glue totally dries before springing your prank since you don’t want anyone getting wet glue on their hands.
Let the air out of their air mattress at night. The next time your friend is sleeping over on an air mattress, wait until they’re asleep and then undo the plug keeping all the air in their mattress. They won’t notice anything right away because the mattress will lose air slowly—but by the morning, they’ll be lying on a deflated mattress.
Leave a bunch of water cups outside their door. You’ll need a pack of paper cups (ideally at least twenty or so, though you can use as many as you like) for this prank. Just fill each cup with water and position the filled cups outside your friend’s door. When they open the door, they’ll have to figure out a creative way around the cups without spilling the water (or pick them all up one by one). You can do this outside your friend’s front door, bedroom door, or any other doorway that seems like a fun pranking spot to you.
Plant a whoopee cushion under your friend’s seat. Whoopie cushions are a classic for a reason; there’s just something timelessly hilarious about seeing your friend’s face when they sit down on one! All you have to do is get a whoopie cushion and hide it somewhere you know your friend will sit, then wait for them to do so—simplicity itself.
Turn all of your friend's clothes inside out. When they're not around, sneak into your friend's room and raid their dresser or closet. Turn every single piece of clothing, from jackets to socks, inside out, and then put them back where you found them. Sooner or later, your friend will realize their wardrobe is out of order!
Fill their umbrella with confetti. Open up your friend's umbrella and pour confetti into it, then stash it back where you found it so they won't suspect anything. The next time they open their umbrella on a rainy day, they'll get covered in confetti!
Food-Related Pranks to Do on Friends
Bake oatmeal raisin cookies and pretend they’re chocolate chip. Some people prefer oatmeal raisin to chocolate chip—but they’re usually in the minority! For a chocolate-loving friend, prank them by offering them an oatmeal raisin cookie, while insisting you made chocolate chip cookies, and savor the look on their face when they take a bite. Just in case you need to earn your friend’s forgiveness for this oh-so-cruel prank, you could always keep some chocolate chip cookies nearby!
Sprinkle salt on some cookies (instead of sugar). For a different (but just as sadistic) cookie prank, offer your friend a cookie that looks like it has sugar sprinkled over it—when that sugar is actually salt! It’ll only take one salty bite for your friend to realize they’ve been pranked, and you’ll get to see the silly look on their face when they taste it. Just make sure you’re aware of any allergies or food restrictions before you pull a food-related prank on your friend. You don’t want to trick them into eating something that’s unsafe for them.
Turn a sponge into a brownie. For this prank, you’ll just need a sponge and some chocolate icing (and some sprinkles for an extra colorful touch, if you like). Cut the sponge so it’s roughly the shape of a brownie, then spread chocolate icing over the top and sides of the sponge. Finally, throw some sprinkles on top to complete the look—and offer your friend a fresh “brownie.”
Add googly eyes to the food in the fridge. Grab a few sets of googly eyes, open up your friend’s refrigerator (or yours, if you have friends coming over), and stick googly eyes on as many different items as you can. The next person to open up the fridge will have a goofy sight waiting for them! This can be especially funny if you stick googly eyes on food labels that have faces on them already.
Squeeze a bit of lemon juice in their water. All you need to do is slice up a lemon and keep a slice or two with you (but hidden, so your friend can’t see them). When your friend isn’t looking or gets up to go to the bathroom, squeeze some lemon juice into their glass of water—and the next time they take a drink, they’ll get a tart surprise.
Freeze a bowl of cereal. Fix up a bowl of your friend’s favorite cereal and pour in the milk, then put the bowl in the freezer overnight so the milk freezes completely. The next morning, offer to get your friend a bowl of cereal for breakfast and give them the bowl with the frozen milk. When they try to eat the cereal, they’ll quickly realize they can’t actually get anything on their spoon!
Pretend to get them a box of donuts (or a similar treat). Buy a box of donuts that isn’t see-through (like one from Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme, or a local favorite donut shop). Then, remove all the donuts and refill the box with something much less appetizing, like raisins or prunes, and give the box to your friend while announcing you bought them a sweet treat. You can also pull this prank with any kind of baked good your friend enjoys, as long as they can’t see what’s inside the box. Just make sure to actually share the baked goods you bought afterward (to make up for the prank!)
Make some caramel onions. Caramel-covered apples are a popular (and delicious) festive treat. Instead of making caramel apples, try making caramel-covered onions instead! Tell your friend it's an apple and watch them bite into it—only to get a rude awakening when they taste the onion.
Give them a fake glass of juice. Whip up a batch of Jell-O (which comes in many different fruity flavors) and pour some into a drinking glass. Then, let the Jell-O set and serve it to your friend—while telling them it's a glass of juice. Just make sure the Jell-O actually looks similar to the juice it's supposed to be! This is also a nice prank because Jell-O is a tasty treat, so it's not like your friend can be too upset about it!
Swap out their tea with gravy tea bags. If your friend is a tea drinker, swipe a couple of their tea bags to use for this prank. Take a tea bag and shake the tea to one side of the bag before carefully cutting a small slit in the side of the bag—wide enough that you can empty the tea out of it. Then, pour some gravy granules into the tea bag and re-seal it with double-sided tape or sellotape. Slip the gravy tea bags back into your friend's tea stash; when they eventually use a bag to make "tea," they'll actually have a mug of very watery gravy!
Household Pranks to Do on Friends
Replace household photos with pictures of celebrities. If you live with a friend or two (or have access to their house when they aren’t around), print out some silly photos of a celebrity or character. Then, place those photos in as many picture frames around their house as you can so they’re covering up the original photographs inside. See how long it takes your friend to notice! Some popular examples of this prank include replacing family photos with pictures of Nicolas Cage, Danny DeVito, and Steve Buscemi—but you can get creative and choose any celebrity or character you want.
Hide a few of their possessions, then lie about how much you hid. Pick two objects belonging to your friend, steal them, and hide them around their house. Then, tell your friend what you did—but say you stole and hid three things, not two. Your friend will keep running around trying to figure out what third thing you hid, at least until you reveal your prank!
Stash fake gold coins around the house. Buy a pack of fake pirate coins and find clever spots around the house (or in the yard) to hide them. When your friends first spot a coin, they’ll think they’ve found something valuable—until they take a closer look, of course.
Fill their bedroom with balloons. Get a pack of balloons, blow them all up, and place as many as you can in your friend’s bedroom (or office, if it’s smaller and easier to fill). Balloons are colorful, festive, and fun to pop, anyway—so your friend might enjoy getting surprised with a room full of them! If you want to go the extra mile (and possibly make the prank more annoying to clean up), you could put confetti or glitter inside the balloons.
Paint a bar of soap with clear nail polish. If your friend uses bar soap (or they’re coming to your place), take the bar of soap and coat it with clear nail polish, so nobody can tell it’s been painted. Then, put the soap back where it belongs, as if nothing is wrong. The next person who tries to use the soap will discover they can’t actually get it to lather!
Change the TV channels on your friends in secret. This prank will require you to spend money on an extra TV remote—but it can definitely be worth the laughs! To pull it off, get a matching or universal remote that’ll work with the TV your friends are using. Then, while they’re watching something, discreetly change the channel (or go to a different streaming app) with your spare remote. If you’re sneaky and only pull this prank once in a while, you can keep it going for months—or longer!
Hide an alarm clock in their room. Get an alarm clock of some kind (or even use your phone if you live together) and set it to go off sometimes in the early hours of the morning, like 4 or 5 AM. Then, hide it in your friend’s room at let it go off. If you want to be extra evil, you could set multiple alarm clocks and hide them around the house, so your friend has to go hunting for them after a rude awakening!
Use a Bluetooth speaker to play creepy noises in their room. If an alarm feels too harsh, try this prank instead. Hide a small Bluetooth speaker somewhere in their room and use it to play very faint, creepy-sounding white noise (like creaking floorboards or spooky, ominous whispers). Then, sit back and watch your friend search for the source of the noises! You can find lots of horror sound compilations on platforms like Spotify and YouTube.
Decorate the house for the holidays while they're sleeping. 'Tis the season...even when it's not! While your friend sleeps (or while they're out of the house), grab any holiday decorations they have and start putting them out, from string lights to ornaments, stockings, and holiday music. Ensure their house is decked out in decor by the time they wake up.
Put a creepy-crawly sticker inside their lampshade. Get a sticker of a cockroach, lizard, or some other creepy critter, and stick it inside one of your friend's lampshades. The next time they turn on the light, they'll see a shadow shaped like a bug or lizard on their lamp—and probably get quite a shock!
Online & Texting Pranks to Do on Friends
Send them a fake email from a reality show. Pretend to be a talent coordinator or scout for a reality TV show your friend watches and write an email letting them know they’ve been chosen to appear on the show (or that they’re a finalist and need to send in an audition tape or formal application). Just make sure the show you’re using for the prank is still airing! For example, you could pretend to invite them on a dating show like Love is Blind, a cooking show like Guy’s Grocery Games, or some other popular show like Shark Tank or Survivor.
Install a weird Chrome extension on their computer. If your friend uses Google Chrome, find a joke Chrome extension and install the extension without them knowing. The next time they use the internet, they’ll see the effects of whatever strange extension you installed! Here are a few extension recommendations: Cornify. This extension adds unicorns and rainbows to websites! Custom Doodle. This extension lets you add custom doodles and animations to the Google logo. Cenafy. With this extension, there’s a 1 in 100 chance your friend will get a John Cena video instead of the page they were trying to load. Trollface Everywhere. This replaces images on Google with the trollface image! Farts Link. This extension plays a fart noise every time a link is clicked on.
Adjust the autocorrect settings on their phone. Ask to use your friend’s phone for some innocent reason (like texting someone because yours is dead, or using a food delivery app). Then, go into their phone’s autocorrect or text correction settings and have the phone start replacing common words with weird or silly phrases. For example, you could have the phone replace every “hey” with the word “chicken nuggets” or every “lol” to “That’s what she said.” iPhone: Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement to change the phone’s settings. Android: Go to Settings > Language & Input > Personal Dictionary (or Text Shortcuts, depending on the device) to change the autocorrect settings.
Text them a GIF of the “typing” dots. You know how most messaging apps show a series of three dots (“...”) to show when someone is typing a reply? Fool your friend into thinking you’re writing a perpetual reply by sending them a GIF of those typing dots on an endless loop. Just make sure the GIF matches the messaging platform you’re using!
Send a text saying, “I know your secret.” Don’t elaborate if they ask what you’re talking about. If you do reply, just send a funny GIF or emoji (like ???? or ????), pretending you’re determined to keep their imaginary secret. After letting your friend worry about it for a while, let them in on the joke!
Text them about a fake countdown. Send your friend (or friend group) a message out of the blue with a countdown, saying something like, “Just 12 hours left!” without explaining what you’re counting down to. Keep sending messages every so often to continue the countdown (“10 hours to go!” then “8 hours to go!” and so on). When the countdown finishes, reveal that you were just joking around.
Take a bunch of funny selfies with their phone. While your friend isn’t looking at their phone (because they’re preoccupied, napping, or off doing something else), open up their phone’s camera and start snapping selfies. Make faces and strike goofy poses that are sure to make your friend laugh. When they look at their camera roll, they’ll have a hilarious mystery photoshoot to look at! Even if you can’t break into your friend’s phone, most smartphones will let you use the camera without entering a passcode.
Bigger Pranks to Do on Friends
Change all the contact names in their phone. Get access to your friend’s phone, go into their Contacts app, and change the name of every single contact (you could switch them to the name of a celebrity or iconic fictional character, for example). Just make sure they have a backup of their contacts list so they don’t lose all those names for good (or keep track of them yourself).
Pretend to spill milk on their computer. Make a fake milk spill using white school glue (like Elmer’s glue or something similar). Pour the glue onto a piece of wax paper, spreading it around so it looks like splattered liquid. Then, let the glue dry completely—and make sure it’s on a flat surface. When it’s done, you can peel it off the wax paper and place the fake spill on your friend’s laptop!
Make them think you cracked their phone screen. Get a cracked screen sticker for your friend's phone, and cover their screen with it when they aren't looking. Then, show them the phone and pretend you accidentally cracked it—but, of course, tell them the truth eventually.
Put fake bugs (or a snake) in their belongings. Get a pack of fake bugs (like spiders or cockroaches) and scatter them in your friend’s bedroom, kitchen, living room, or all three! Alternatively, if they’re more spooked by snakes, get a fake snake and hide it in their closet, bag, bathroom, or somewhere else they’ll look sooner or later—then sit back and let the prank happen!
Fake a spider attack. Tape a [1] fake spider to a thin string, then tape the string to the top of a door frame. You can also do this with several fake spiders to give your friend an extra scare! The next time they open the door, a bunch of spiders will fall down on them (and probably give them a major spook).
Set them up to walk into an invisible barrier. For this prank, you’ll need to grab some tape and a roll of clear plastic wrap. Unroll enough plastic wrap to fit all the way across a door frame, and tape it there (stretched so there are no wrinkles and it’s nearly invisible) right around the height of your friend’s head. Then, call them into the room. When they come, they’ll walk face-first into the plastic!
Change the date (and make them think they lost track of time). To pull this prank, change the date to a day earlier on your friend’s phone, computer, and any other gadgets they might have on hand. For an extra touch, grab a newspaper from the day before and pretend it’s still that day so your friend thinks they somehow got the day wrong!
Hide behind a door and scare your friend. While your friend is in a different room, get behind an open door (so they can’t see you as they come back into the room) and jump out at them while making a loud noise! With luck, they’ll be appropriately spooked by your antics.
Spook your friend right as they’re waking up. Get a scary mask (or a whole costume, if you’re feeling elaborate), and get super close to your friend when they’re about to wake up. As they open their eyes, they’ll see your terrifying image—and probably jump a mile in the air! You can also make scary noises or say “Boo!” if you like.
Give them a classy makeover while they’re sleeping. If your friend is a deep sleeper, wait until they’re taking a nap (or asleep for the night) and break out the makeup. See if you can give them a full face of makeup—eyeshadow, lipstick, blush, and the works—before they wake up. If you’re worried your friend won’t appreciate a makeover (or you’d rather test your interior decorating skills), you could give their bedroom or living room a makeover instead! It’s up to you how elaborate you want to get. You could move the furniture around or bring decorations (like streamers, fabric, and banners) and redecorate the whole room.
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