25 Cleverly Evil Pranks That People Successfully Pulled Off

Reddit, the internet’s melting pot of stories and confessions, recently posed a tantalizing question: “What evil prank have you pulled off?” As expected, the answers ranged from hilariously mischievous to downright diabolical.

#1

Image source: fredzout, MART PRODUCTION/Pexels (not the actual photo)

My coworkers in the Chicago office asked me to bring back a phone book and the hotel stationary from my business trip to Kansas City. They were preparing for another coworker’s bachelor party for the night before the wedding. The groom was known for drinking to an extent that was considered legendary. After a night of drinking, he woke up on the morning of his wedding in a hotel room. He checked the nightstand and found the Kansas City phone book. the desk was stocked with KC stationary. His friends had clued the front desk staff in on what was happening and convinced them to answer his room phone “Good Morning and welcome to the Kansas City Holiday Inn.” It was 5 hours till the wedding, and he was actually only a couple miles from the venue, but the freakout was epic!

#2

Image source: McSmashley, Karolina Grabowska/Pexels (not the actual photo)

I was nine. My dad just had hernia surgery the day prior and was recuperating on the couch. Before I left for school, I put the Martha Stewart channel on and left the remote just beyond his reach. He spent eight hours learning how to arrange pillows on a bed.

He exacted his revenge fifteen years later. I’d just had my emergency c-section and he put Frozen on and left it on a loop while the entire family left for the mall and left the remote just out of my reach.

Revenge is indeed a dish best served cold.

#3

Image source: molnarg1102, Kindel Media/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Two of my friends have never met each other. Before they spoke I told both of them that the other one was a bit deaf. They shouted at each other for a few minutes before they realized that I’m an a**hole.

#4

Image source: Troidin, Christina Morillo/Pexels (not the actual photo)

My mum’s laptop wallpaper was a picture of her granddaughter. I copied the picture 100 times and made her wallpaper a slide show of the same picture over and over again, so the file would change but nothing would change visibly on the monitor. The pictures would change every 10 seconds. On one of the images I painted a tiny little curly moustache on her. So randomly for 10 seconds my niece would have a moustache. My mum thought she was either losing her mind or had a computer virus and everytime the moustache popped up, it was gone by the time she tried to show anyone.

#5

Image source: mc_freak2013, Tommy Wong/Flickr (not the actual photo)

People in school used to always take my Gatorade. So I took an empty bottle, filled it with dyed salt water, and let them take my drink. Not gonna lie, it was hilarious watching one person to spit salt water in the middle of class only for their unbelieving friend to do the same.

#6

Image source: itsEDjustED, Marta Dzedyshko/Pexels (not the actual photo)

At my high school senior class picnic way back in the late 80’s, I spread a rumor that the brownies I brought were pot brownies. Half a dozen kids went to the nurse because they were ‘so stoned’.

#7

Image source: cryslea, Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels (not the actual photo)

One summer in college, I worked in the registrar’s office, registering all the incoming freshmen. A prof who was a mentor to me was teaching freshmen seminar and asked me to hand pick a class for her. Straight A students, high SATs, whatever. So I did. 15 students, all named Sarah.

#8

Image source: debtincarnate, shellhawk/Flickr (not the actual photo)

I used to work at a science tutoring center when I was in college and my gap year before professional school. One of the things we taught very often was anatomy. So naturally we acquired a few skeletons and various skulls with some variation in how they looked or were marked etc. Well I was closing one night, and I knew my co-worker was opening the next morning early, so before I locked up I assorted ALL of the skeletons and skulls in a…welcome party near the front door. I had one *immediately* at the opening of the only door into the room with several back up skeletons and skulls just behind at a table together watching on. The best part was that you have to turn on the lights manually and that switch is immediately to the side of the door opening, so when she reached down to turn on the lights she had to come face to face with some lifeless skeleton skull in the middle of the shady opening. Needless to say she screamed, and it was loud enough to make our boss come to see if she was ok.

Woke up to some colorful texts lmao. Still proud of that one honestly.

#9

Image source: CapaxInfini, Marko Blazevic/Pexels (not the actuall photo)

I can meow just like a cat. In fact I can do it so well that people will often look around for the cat that is not there. This has resulted in several hilarious instances of strangers running around frantically looking for the cat and me sitting off to the side watching. Stray cats will usually stare at me for a couple seconds before continuing doing whatever. Pet cats will usually hold a conversation with me, particularly if they’re chatty.

#10

Image source: Illarie, RDNE Stock project/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Well, when I was 16 and my brothers were 12, one of the twins was eating all of the delicious Yogurt clusters out of my “women’s health cereal” like a monster.

So I decided to be a monster. I got my mom in on it and I told her how I needed more of my “women’s health cereal” for my female development and period support, with my brother next door. My mom explained what female hormones do and we went on our way.

Later I found, I legitimately terrified my brother. I caught him looking in the mirrors checking his chest. For almost a week he’d put things around his chest and I caught him googling estrogen effects. It was especially funny because he was starting puberty and his voice was cracking.

It went on for about a week before my mother made me tell him.

#11

Image source: busted_up_chiffarobe, Christina Morillo/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Gradually over the course of two weeks moved my coworker’s monitors closer to the front edge of the desk. Like 1/4″ per move. Until they were so close the keyboard barely fit.

“Stupid small desk,” she grumbled, near the end.

I then moved them back, just as slowly, over a few weeks.

She never caught on.

#12

Image source: carnabas, Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Not sure if this will be seen, but my best new years was that of 1999, i was 9 years old at the time and i worked together with my dad to pull off the greatest prank in history. A few minutes before midnight i synced up a wrist watch with the countdown on tv. My dad pointed me in the direction of the breaker which was in our garage and showed me the lever to pull which would cut all power to the house. Now i dont know if you remember the hype but the year 2000 was supposed to destroy all of our computers and technology sending us back to the stone ages. So the moment grew closer as i watched the seconds tick by on my wrist watch, it soon became apparent that i wouldnt need it as i could hear all my relatives inside counting down 10, 9 , 8 … 2, 1 ! i pulled the lever at the perfect timing and everything went black. The first thing i heard was from my aunt ” OH MY GOD, IT HIT Y2K HIT!!” I was only going to leave the power out for 10 seconds or so but the lever was stuck and i couldnt get it back up for about 2 mins, during which the whole time i heard my family freaking out, then eventually they looked outside and started to wonder why our neighbors still had power, haha thinking back i really wish we would have recorded this probably could have won 10,000 dollars.

TL,DR pulled the greatest prank in history on new years eve 1999.

#13

Image source: anon, Christiaan Colen/Flickr (not the actual photo)

I made fake versions of internet explorer that turn your PC off when started in the ICT class at school.

#14

Image source: orchidlighthouse, Elena Rubtsova/Pexels (not the actual photo)

When my brother and I were in middle school, my brother liked to skateboard with our next-door neighbor. One day, my brother and the neighbor took the sheet of plywood from under my brother’s upper bunk bed (no one slept in the upper bunk) out of the house and started making a skateboard ramp out of it in the neighbor’s adjacent yard. My parents had explicitly told him that he wasn’t allowed to do that.

Now, in my defense, my brother teased me unmercifully (to the point of tears, on multiple occasions), so keep in mind that he had had it coming for a long time.

Anyway, an evil little plan hatched in my brain. I ran to the upstairs window and yelled down at them, “[brother’s name], guess what?!! Mom knows EVERYTHING and she is SOOO mad.” Then I slammed the window shut and ran to the stairs and waited while watching my mom read the newspaper.

A few moments later, my brother walks in the front door looking worried and says, “mom, I’m so sorry.” My mom (who had no idea what was going on) said, “about what?” While slowly putting the newspaper down. “For making a skateboard ramp out of the wood from the bunk bed.”

“YOU DID WHAT?!!”

At that moment, a wave of shock and realization swept across my brother’s face and our eyes met. I let out the biggest evilest little sister cackle and ran into my room.

We are adults now and still laugh about it from time-to-time.

#15

Image source: The_Mantis-O-Shrimp, Petr Ganaj/Pexels (not the actual photo)

I remember it like it was yesterday. At summer camp my cabin’s leaders found a little snake that wasn’t doing so well so they decided to put it in an old terrarium in our cabin. A few of the guys were nervous about it. So the next day when the leaders decided the snake was well enough to release, I asked that they keep quiet about releasing it. when the other guys got back to the cabin and found no snake in the terrarium, chaos ensued.

#16

Image source: wafflepark, Ron Lach/Pexels (not the actual photo)

I lived in Korea for a bit. When my mom came to visit I told my Korean girlfriend it was an American custom to greet older women by touching elbows. I told my mom the same story about Korean customs. It was a thing of beauty. They were not pleased.

#17

Image source: NJtoTheBay, Emiliano Felicissimo/Flickr (not the actual photo)

Over a decade ago I worked in the warehouse of a Guitar Center. We dealt with inventory, shipping and receiving. We had a dumpster behind the store in a shared parking lot that people would leave random things in even though it was not a public dumpster. One day we found a a broken beach chair in an open cardboard box. The box had a shipping label on it. It was left in such a way that it was easy to assume that the chair/box combo was left by the same person. We packed the beach chair in another box and shipped it back to the customer. I wish I was there to see the persons face when they received their trash back via UPS.

#18

Image source: doodlewacker, Minh Phuc/Pexels (not the actual photo)

I have an extra mouse in my desk drawer at work- I have the USB plugged in to the docking station of the obnoxious guy a couple cubes away. On days he is particularly obnoxious I will take out the extra mouse and move it around every few minutes… he has never realized because it’s plugged into the docking station and not his laptop. He has even had the laptop replaced. Never noticed… it brings me to tears silently laughing sometimes… I have to be careful not to over do it…

#19

Image source: CRodLad, Anete Lusina/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Feel like this wasn’t so much evil but more karma. I went to school with this homophobic/islamophobic bible-basher type. Preached absolute hate at the age of 18. So in the last week of 6th Form I ordered a bumper sticker that was a big rainbow flag with the words “I’m so gay I can’t even drive straight!” and stuck it to his rear bumper. Found out from a friend of his that he drove around for 3 days with it on, including to a job interview, a youth group and his own church, where it was discovered by his Pastor…

#20

Image source: Kevin_Uxbridge, Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto/Pexels (not the actual photo)

I made a friend believe she was being followed by a garden gnome. For *years*. Many of her friends are involved plus other helpers. She shows up at a B&B in Scotland (that we’d recommended) and there was a gnome in the garden, and it looked *exactly* like the gnome that’d briefly turned up in her yard. Then she saw it on her way to work. Then in Provence. And Germany. It really did look like the same gnome. It was.

#21

Image source: imsodumb321, Spencer Selover/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Senior year of high school, my teacher had a record player in their room. At the end of the day, we had a two minute period of silent reflection. I asked if I could play a record during this time, and he said yes. I brought in a record by The Temptations, which he approved.

The bell rings. Everything is dead silent. I place my record on the plate and lower the needle gingerly.

Suddenly, a familiar drum fill is heard, followed by cheesy synth strings. The record that I placed on the turntable was, in fact, not by The Temptations—it was Never Going To Give You Up by Rick Astley.

Everyone in class began yelling, making a ruckus. I had just rickrolled my teacher with a vinyl record. He looked me dead and the eyes and said, “If someone ten years ago had told me that one of my students was going to rick roll me like that…..I would not have become a teacher”.

#22

Image source: JUSTJESTlNG, Diego Pontes/Pexels (not the actual photo)

A friend kept trying to steal my sushi off my plate at a sushi restaurant.

So while she wasn’t looking I stuffed it full of wasabi, put a bit of fish back on top to cover my tracks, and pretended to not be looking when she started reaching towards it.

She tossed it into her mouth, started chewing down, and I just swung my head towards her to say “you f****d up”

5 minutes of coughing, muffled screaming, and copious amounts of water later, she had learnt her lesson.

#23

Image source: HustlePlays, Alexandra E Rust/Flickr (not the actual photo)

I got a Harry Potter calligraphy set for my birthday years ago, it had Hogwarts marked paper, envelopes and everything.

My brother ate all of my birthday chocolates from an aunt that night so I plotted my revenge. Next September I copied out Harry’s letter word for word in green ink, only changing the name.

I let him believe he was going to magic school for two whole weeks before I crushed it.

#24

Image source: captbadass26, Huseyn Kamaladdin/Pexels (not the actual photo)

One night I replaced every framed object in my bosses office with a picture of me making a stern face. Posters, certificates, photos, etc. Took like 3 hours because he had like 30 framed things in his office. The next day I made sure I was out doing field work to make him sit with it most of the day. He had a lot of foot traffic to look at his office that day.

#25

Image source: persistent_polymath, David Dibert/Pexels (not the actual photo)

I used to work for a cruise line. A passenger asked if the crew lives on the ship full time. I and my co-worker explained that no, the crew leaves every night to fly back to Miami and then returns each morning. She walked away satisfied. After that cruise was over, our manager was sharing the passenger evaluations with us and was confused about one in particular. It was a woman who had stayed on deck 14 and had complained that she couldn’t sleep at night because of the noise of the crew helicopter.

Fact 1: 1,200 crew do not leave every night but do live on the ship

Fact 2: that ship didn’t even have a helipad

Question: wtf was she hearing every night.