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Original poster

The meanest joke/trick anyone has ever played on you?

305 replies

StarShop · 15/12/2019 16:10

I randomly got thinking about this event which led to my second story below and I wondered if it would make a for a good thread.

My first cruel joke was when my husbands workmates arranged the Christmas night out in a nearby city. We were going out in fancy dress, to a comedy club and then staying over. They decided we would go in fancy dress, the theme being the 70s. DH and I bought our outfits and when we turned up to the meeting point we discovered it was a joke on my DH and noone was wearing fancy dress until later in the evening. I got change into my 'next day' clothes which being in my 20s and being someone who made an effort was smart but as a young Mum who didn't go out much or ever stay away, I was robbed of a change to get dressed up nice for the earlier drinks.

The second story was on my wedding day. Our two photographers were DHs friends. We went for a shoot away from the venue in the back of one of their cars and they gave us a scratchcard as a wedding present. I scratched it and we had won £10,000. Everything went in slow motion, we were 21 and this would allow us to put a deposit on a house and start our married life off really special. It felt really magical to win that on our wedding day. A minute later they started giggling and I realised it was a fake scratchcard.

I'm glad to say none of these pranksters are in our lives anymore!!!

OP posts:
QueenOfCatan · 17/12/2019 22:13

Oh and the tone where we did secret Santa at college and I was given a massive dildo. I was shy and I was also running late so they all knew what I had and gathered everybody around as I opened it.

QueenOfCatan · 17/12/2019 22:19

And first boyfriend told me he had cancer. I remember the cold feeling as the words sunk in. Then he laughed about how I looked when he said it Angry

Waterlemon · 17/12/2019 22:41

sonographer at my 12 week scan with dc#2

Now if you look on the screen, you can see one heart beating here....
And..... (dramatic purse whilst she moved the cursor across the screen)
.... Ha ha - that’s it - just 1 baby! That’s my little joke with 2nd time Mums.

I seriously did not get the joke!
I had only found out I was pregnant a week before my scan. DC1 was under 1 year old at the time, and I was really struggling with the idea of having 2 under 2 but at the same time I felt so guilty for feeling that way.

I’ve never ever wanted to slap someone before - but i really had to restrain myself!

PixieDustt · 17/12/2019 22:45

@Waterlemon that's awful and not at all funny!

twoshedsjackson · 17/12/2019 23:03

A nice one to lighten the tone; a colleague of mine had a really lovely class, but like all teachers, she was dreading April Fool's Day. So she got her retaliation in first.
When the children arrived in the morning, she announced in a husky whisper that she had lost her voice, and would have to write instructions for the day on the board.
I don't know how the hell she managed it, although they were, as I said, a really lovely bunch of kids, but when it got to 12 o'clock, and she announced, in her normal voice, that it was time to go to lunch break, they went nuts!
And a prank that fell flat. One of my DF's work friends thought it hilarious to ring our home, and ask "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" which, if you're not expecting it, is a bit disconcerting. But he wasn't very inventive, and as the first time my bewilderment was so funny, he thought he'd do it again. My German isn't brilliant, but I managed "Bitschen" (ie "just a little") and went on to explain that, if he spoke slowly, I could understand, but could not speak a lot. Agonizing pause. "Is that twosheds?" Me (still in German) "Yes, would you like to speak to my father?" It transpired that "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" was the sum total of his German vocabulary.

Catsinthecupboard · 18/12/2019 04:26

This happened to me last spring. My ds (grown) and I went to local feed store for meds for our dog. I picked up a bottle of "blueing" a disinfectant for horses to see of we could use it on our dog.

Someone had carefully SET the top on the bottle so when I picked it up, the bottle fell from my hand to the floor.

I was covered with blue gooey inky solution. My skin was covered on my hands and forearms; From my face to my feet. It ruined my clothes.

I felt attacked. It was not aimed at me but I was very upset. It took forever to get myself clean enough to go to our car to drive home.

I did get money for my ruined clothes. I am glad a child didn't pull the bottle onto their face. My ds was very kind to me and his presence helped while dealing with retail staff while covered in blue ink.

Purplequalitystreet · 18/12/2019 05:07

My dad was a lecturer in a 6th form college. Years ago, when I was about 16, he received a message at work to say that I had been in an accident was seriously injuered. He raced home in a panic, only to find me absolutely fine at home. Some idiot teenager had thought it would be funny to prank call the college. Some people have a really sick sense of humour...

Sawwhet · 18/12/2019 05:51

Now if you look on the screen, you can see one heart beating here....
And..... (dramatic purse whilst she moved the cursor across the screen)
.... Ha ha - that’s it - just 1 baby! That’s my little joke with 2nd time Mums.

Surely she's joking about you having twins? I think I'd have laughed at that as the tension from her impluing there was a second heartbeat would have been too much - I couldn't cope with twins! So I'd have been left feeling relieved at one

Sagradafamiliar · 18/12/2019 07:27

Waterlemon that is shocking. I hope you complained.

MrsLion · 18/12/2019 08:57

A few years ago a got me a humiliating secret Santa gift at work.
Someone had gone to the trouble of getting a photo of a man who worked in the same office as me printed onto a mug in a heart shaped frame.
We are both married, he was someone I was friends with but nothing else. We didn’t even really spend much time together, just the odd cup of tea and lunch in the office cafe.
I opened it in front of the whole office and I have never been so confused and humiliated.
Neither was he.
We barely spoke after that due to to the horror of anyone thinking there might have been something else in it.
At 37 years of age I literally went to the toilets and cried. People talked about it for days. Some people were very kind and supportive thank goodness.
I hate pranks, I don’t understand why people want to hurt others mentally or otherwise for amusement.

redastherose · 18/12/2019 09:22

@PlausibleSuit that was a really cruel thing to do to you. As pp's have said these are not 'practical jokes' these are mostly plain nasty and spiteful. Don't know how these people live with themselves.

paranoidmum2 · 18/12/2019 09:38

@MrsLion

It stems from jealousy. It’s a shame you and your friend let it affect your friendship, that was probably their aim.

Wereallsquare · 18/12/2019 09:53

@YouJustDoYou I hope they all have really, really miserable lives. They were astoundingly vicious.

Nimmykins · 18/12/2019 11:07

This was about 25 years ago when I worked in the classified advertising department of a local newspaper.

I had a call from a woman whose advert hadn’t gone in. I said I’d look for it and call her back.

She phoned back ten minutes later complaining I hadn’t called her back. In the meantime I was going through a few hundred advert slips for that week. I explained I was searching but had to go through every slip incase it had been filed wrong and then I would work through the other dates to see if it had gone in at the wrong time. Such as booked in for the following week. I was accused of “taking a tone” with her.

Ten minutes later a man called saying he was her husband, complaining I’d taken a “tone” with his wife and wasn’t looking for their advert. I promised I was and carried on looking.

I spent an hour looking and had two more phone calls. Then it turned out one of the ad reps had set me up with one of her clients in on the joke. I had wasted time looking for something that wasn’t there. They thought it was funny. I was 23 at the time.

A couple of weeks later I had a similar experience. A woman whose announcements had not appeared in the paper. They’d been booked in six months before and one was for Christmas, the other was a birthday. It was a bit odd to book so far in advance.

She kept calling as I was searching. Accused me of calling her a liar, which I didn’t do. Say Jesus knew she wasn’t a liar and the Lord was looking down on me.

The managing director saw what I was up to and spoke to all the ad reps to make sure they weren’t taking the piss again.

Know what, she was for real. I found her announcements. She’s booked them for the following week.

myshinysink · 18/12/2019 11:39

I have a phobia of fish. For a birthday I opened a present from my stepdad he said he was passing on from one of his family members. It was a raw fish head.
Another time I sat down for dinner and he had put a dead goldfish in a cup of water at my place ☹️

RunningAwaywiththeCircus · 18/12/2019 15:26

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paranoidmum2 · 18/12/2019 15:53

@RunningAway I was hoping your post would end with ‘Reader, I married him.’ Wink

silencebeforethebleeps · 18/12/2019 15:56

When I was little, my mother told me she had a present for me and asked me to put my hands out and close my eyes. She put a live slug in my hands. She was lovely and it was really out of character for her, so it shook me up big time.

BlueJava · 18/12/2019 16:12

Oh my goodness @Pomfluff that's so shocking! I am not sure my relationship would have recovered from that!

Furrybootsyecomfy · 18/12/2019 16:16

This one does make me laugh. The bowls of indignation from the students both during and at the end are so funny. Nobody gets hurt, it doesn’t drag on, done with genuine affection for the subjects

m.youtube.com/watch?v=RwnBAHtc1D0

Furrybootsyecomfy · 18/12/2019 16:16

Howls, not bowls Angry. Least it wasn’t bowels

GoodbyeRosie · 18/12/2019 16:29

Pranks are just bullying, basically

Beadles about was one of the most nasty, cruel programmes that has ever been on television. The man was hideous.

Yeah, I just don't draw a distinction between bullying and practical jokes to be honest.

RunningAwaywiththeCircus · 18/12/2019 17:48

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Fishflame · 18/12/2019 17:49

Beadle was awful... Noel Edmonds did similar on his 90s "House Party" show. I remember he set up Timmy Mallet and Mallet threw a massive tantrum and made himself look ridiculous. Another time, Edmonds set up a Member Of The Public and the MOTP said "fucking" on live TV. Noel was furious!

cricketmum84 · 18/12/2019 18:13

There was a very funny one at work today if anyone fancies a more lighthearted practical joke?

We have a colleague who is constantly taking the piss out of everyone. He is joking and is actually quite funny and everyone takes it in the right way.

He had got a rubbish and quite insulting secret Santa for someone. So in revenge they came in early and literally gift wrapped every single thing on his desk so he had to unwrap it all before he could start working 😂