I hate practical jokes. I think they're generally a way to cause psychological harm without societal repercussions, and the victim gets told, "Oh, you're just a poor sport."

I don't know if all practical jokes are that, but for many jokes I'd agree.

Someone once tried to enlist me in a scam to convince some poor nebbish that his car had been impounded and he had to go to the cops to get it, and I said, "Not only will I not cooperate, I'm about to go tell him what you're planning." I smiled genially and nodded when called a party-pooper.

This one definitely is wrong. It sounds cruel - it's possible the potential victim would have suffered a few hours of heavy emotional distress.

It seems some practical-joke-players are quite sadistic.

I've helped with one workplace prank, which involved re-decorating someone's office with Barney party decorations. I carefully placed napkins with Barney's face on them inside CD cases. Every couple of months, someone would sneak back into the person's office, and put more Barney napkins in more CD cases. It went on for over two years.

OK, that's funny - and exactly the sort of prank that I'd pull. Resulting in slight annoyance and a 'wtf' feeling....

I desperately want to fill my co-workers cube with packing peanuts.

I've helped with one workplace prank, which involved re-decorating someone's office with Barney party decorations. I carefully placed napkins with Barney's face on them inside CD cases. Every couple of months, someone would sneak back into the person's office, and put more Barney napkins in more CD cases. It went on for over two years.

This sort of thing happens every time someone in my office takes a vacation. If it's pulled off well, people end up finding tic-tacs in odd places for months.

At the same office as the "you're car's gone" prank, the upper management thought it would be funny to tell a long-time employee she was fired, complete with solemn interview and exit paperwork. The sobbing hysterics let them know they'd gone too far

Those kind of pranks are mean mean mean. I like pranks, but not mean ones.

Back when I had a real on-site manager, we developed a habit of pranking the cubicle of an absent team member. But what else are you going to do when the decorations in the cubicle area include a rubber skeleton in a rope hammock and the world's oldest bowl of popcorn but move them into appropriate configurations when someone's gone for a week?

At the same office as the "you're car's gone" prank, the upper management thought it would be funny to tell a long-time employee she was fired, complete with solemn interview and exit paperwork.

Yeah, I've heard of that shit -- another variation is screaming "(your latest major project) is totally unacceptable! You need to redo it all by Monday morning!"

NSM with the "joke".

At the same office as the "you're car's gone" prank, the upper management thought it would be funny to tell a long-time employee she was fired, complete with solemn interview and exit paperwork.

Had they just rented The Office?

Had they just rented The Office?

This was back in the mid-80s.

plus, they believed in cutting pay if you didn't meet production goals, and a big pay increase was a dime. Still, it was a press clipping agency and I got to wallow in as much information as I could ever want. I haven't been so well-informed since.