4 hilarious ways to prank friends and family using tech: using modern technology updates and devices in clever ways to bring about unsuspecting stupor and laughter.
Pranks are a great way to lighten the mood, break up boring monotony and, perhaps, remind your family, friends, and work colleagues why they hate to love you. Whether it’s April Fools’ Day, a birthday, a revenge prank, or just a random act of loving meanness, good pranks will bring bouts of heartfelt laughter once the initial dread and angst has passed.
Technology has unprecedented efficiency to modern living, but you are probably missing out if you aren’t wielding tech to your prank career’s advantage. Here’s a look at the different methods you can use to get tech turbocharging your pranking pursuits.
1. Texting Overload
Use the Blow Up the Phone service to level up your text pranks, tricking your victims by sending them numerous hilarious messages. It’s especially bewildering for the target because the messages come from different numbers. They will never guess it was you, given how random it will all seem. The first text they receive will look like it was sent from the wrong number. But as the dozens of texts come in quick succession, panic and confusion will firmly set in.
Blow Up the Phone allows you to send as many as a hundred texts while choosing from diverse comedic themes. With a $0.50 processing fee and a flat $0.06 per text, the most you can pay for a single campaign is an affordable $6.50. Not bad for something that will induce total turmoil in your unwitting target.
2. Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)
The BSOD has attained legendary status thanks to its decades-long history among users of the Windows operating system. It signified a serious fault had occurred and would send a chill down the spine of techie and non-techie alike. It can be especially worrying if it appears in the middle of something you were working on but hadn’t saved.
The BSOD is a nice prank to pull if you are looking for something shocking but fleeting. The effect will last only as long as the target doesn’t hit a key or move the mouse. How do you do it? Download the BSOD screensaver on your victim’s PC, then install and launch it. It not only displays the blue screen but also mimics the system boot and startup screens for maximum effect.
3. Change Your Wi-Fi Name
Wi-Fi naming has regularly been used to send not-so-subtle passive-aggressive messages and to settle scores between beefing neighbors. From ‘Don’t Steal My Wi-Fi’ and ‘Your Music Taste Sucks’, to ‘Shut Your Dog Up’ and ‘No One Likes You’, almost nothing is off the table. But you can use Wi-Fi names for less hostile, albeit more shocking purposes to get your neighbors doubting their sanity.
How about renaming your Wi-Fi network to ‘NSA Surveillance Van #7’? They are going to be peeping out their window constantly to see which van out there appears the most suspicious. It is not a prank whose results you’ll necessarily get to see directly unless you are friends with one or more neighbors, but it’s still exciting.
4. Mouse Control
This is pretty unforgettable for an office prank. How it works is you connect a wireless mouse to your colleague’s computer via their USB port. Leave their own mouse plugged in, so you don’t make it obvious.
Now, with the wireless mouse, control their cursor remotely but from a position where you can see them. It’s going to be incredibly frustrating for them when they try to point at something, but the cursor heads somewhere else.
Pranks can go wrong, so it’s always important to have a good understanding of the targeted person’s tolerance limits. Go for milder pranks when dealing with individuals you haven’t pranked before. Test the more eye-popping pranks on persons who have experience. Above all, have fun!
