Easy April Fools’ Day Pranks

Today is April Fools’ Day, the one day of the year when playing tricks on others is not only expected, but also somewhat encouraged. And it's not just an American tradition – in France and Italy children celebrate "Poisson d'Avril" or "Pesce d'Aprile," respectively, by taping pictures of fish to each other's backs.

Are you planning to prank someone on April 1? Tell us in the comments.

If you are planning to prank a family, friend or co-worker, please play nice and consider some of these relatively harmless ideas:

Tape magnets to the bottom of an empty coffee cup, and attach it to the top of your car. Laugh at all the people who frantically try to get your attention as you drive by. – April Fool Zone 

Superglue some coins to the sidewalk or any spot that gets a lot of traffic. Make sure it's an appropriate place, then watch people try to get the coins. – Kidz World

“Foil” a co-worker - Instructables

Guyism offers several April Fools’ Day suggestions:

• Borrow someone’s cell phone and change the language setting to a foreign language, or change the language on their Google home page to "Klingon." (Google itself gets into the fun every year – today, I'm guessing Google Racing, with its self-driving car, is probably not really going anywhere)
• Add several odd appointments with alarms set to go off during the day to a co-worker’s Outlook calendar.
• Hide all of the desktop icons on someone’s computer and replace the monitor’s wallpaper with a screen-shot of their desktop.
• Place a small piece of Post-it note over the ball under someone’s computer mouse so that it won’t work.

Other ideas from Patch Columnist Heather Kempskie:

• Toilet messaging. Write a message on a few sheets of toilet paper with permanent marker and place it in the toilet bowl. Some message ideas: "Who goes there?" and "The joke’s on poo!"
• Problems with the pipes. Hopkinton mom Julie Capello used colored bath tablets to trick her kids. “We put them in the bathroom and kitchen sink pipes and tricked the family!” It’s easy to do: Unscrew the rim of the bathroom faucet and place an Easter Egg Dying tablet in there.
• Mom and/or Dad have lost their minds. When the kids were young I came downstairs dressed in my husband’s work shirt and tie. He came down wearing make-up. The kids were completely confused and equally delighted.
• The shoe doesn’t fit. Bunch up toilet paper and stuff it in the toe of the victim's shoes. They'll wonder why their shoes suddenly don't fit.
• Surprise door. Blow up some balloons and place them over the top of a door with the door slightly closed. Your little one will walk in and release a colorful balloon surprise.
• Hit the sock drawer. Use large safety pins to string together several pairs of socks. When your son or daughter goes to retrieve their socks in the morning they’ll get more than they bargained for.

Are you planning to trick someone on April Fools’ Day? Take a photo or video and share it with Medfield Patch readers by clicking on the “Upload photos and videos” icon.