April Fool’s Day pranks 2023: 10 best jokes and tricks to play on your friends and family on April 1

Whether you love it or hate it, April Fool’s Day comes around every year - and it’s either prank or be pranked
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While some of us don’t need an excuse to play a prank on our families and friends, 1 April is the only time where you’re not only allowed to cause mischief, you’re practically encouraged to!

If you’re not sure where to begin, here are some great April Fools Day pranks to get the creative juices flowing.

Chocolate Brussels sprouts

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This is a very low effort but high reward prank - get your hands on some Brussels sprouts and roll them in some melted chocolate. Leave to harden and then you can take them into the office or leave them in your house for your family or flatmates to find, with a note that says “help yourself!”

Hopefully they’ll have forgotten that it’s April Fool’s Day and take a big bite out of what is bound to be a pretty disgusting creation.

Fake birthday

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If you’re able to get a hold of a family member or friend’s Facebook account, change their date of birth to 1 April and watch as the birthday messages roll in.

Your victim will be confused at first and will have to shamefacedly make the “thanks for the birthday wishes, but today isn’t actually my birthday…” post.

Frozen cereal

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If you’re usually in charge of sorting out breakfast in the morning for someone else, like your kids or your partner, try out this frozen cereal prank.

All you need to do is, the night before April Fools Day, place a bowl of cereal with milk in the freezer (with or without a spoon) and in the morning have it set up ready for your unsuspecting victim to either dig into a frozen plate of cereal - or lift up the entire bowl with the spoon.

Jelly juice

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If you want to add insult to injury with the frozen breakfast prank, switch out your target’s drink with that of a cup or mug of jelly.

Make sure the jelly is the right colour, so orange if you’re swapping it out for orange juice, brown if you’re swapping it out for coffee etc. The person getting pranked will be very confused when they go to take a drink and nothing moves!

Use the other door

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If you’re in the office this year for April Fool’s Day and a harmless prank won’t immediately lead you to getting fired, you should definitely try out this prank - all you need to do is print out a sign that says “Please Use The Other Door” and stick them up on all the entrances.

This prank is even better if your workplace only actually has one entrance door.

The elastic band prank

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Choose an item belonging to your target, like their phone or the TV remote, and wrap them in multiple lawyers of elastic bands. Sit back and watch as they try and release their items from their elastic band prison.

Googly eyes everywhere

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Buy yourself a pack of googly eyes and start adding them to everything around the house - the fridge, the TV, ornaments, bookshelves, even the items inside your food cupboards. Your victim won’t be able to shake the feeling that they’re being watched…

Never-ending typing

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Prank a friend or family member by sending them a message on a platform that supports GIFs, such as Facebook Messenger, which says something along the lines of “we need to talk” or “you’ll never guess what!” and then sending a GIF of the typing dots that appear when you’re typing.

Your victim will think you’re typing out a massive message and will be sitting on the edge of their seat for a message that will never come.

New photos

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Exercise your photoshop skills by changing up the subjects of the photos that you’ve got hanging up around the house - replace the family portrait with a picture where everyone has Nicolas Cage’s face, or swap out that graduation photo for one where the person is wearing a dunces cap instead.

Let your imagination run wild and see how long it takes for anyone to notice that something is amiss.

Move everything juuuust a little

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You might not be aware of it, but in our day to day life we do a lot of things just on autopilot - going to grab a fork from the cutlery drawer or milk from the fridge, there are certain things that if they were moved you might find yourself a bit confused.

Move around the commonly used items in your house just a little bit and you’re guaranteed leave your family and friends wondering what’s up as they go to grab something that’s in a slightly different spot than usual.

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