Friday 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It happens at least once, but can happen up to three times in the same calendar year. Today is the second Friday 13th in 2018. We’ve put together a list of funny pranks for Friday 13th.

https://twitter.com/Jeromebilll/status/1017704311244107777

The fear of Friday 13th is known as paraskevidekatriaphobia and superstition around the number itself may originate from the story of the last supper; when 13 individuals gathered on the 13th night of Nisan (March-April), the night before Jesus’ death. Friday 13th was the date King Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of the Knights Templar in 1307: assets were seized, Templars were tortured and many were burned at the stake.

There are some rules to harmless pranking: a prank is considered safe providing it doesn’t harm anyone, it doesn’t damage property and isn’t illegal. Pranks shouldn’t be malicious. Of equal importance is that you’re there to witness the results!

Here are some funny pranks for Friday 13th which you can pull with just a little effort:

It takes a little while for the brain to catch up with taste buds, which makes food pranks a treat to watch.

  • Inject doughnuts with an alternative filling: mayonnaise, mustard or ketchup.
  • Place toy snakes or spiders in or among fruit and vegetables.
  • Toffee onions – replacing the apples with, well, onions.
  • Red food colouring dabbed onto taps will cause them to drip “blood”.

Pranks involving noises prank a wider audience, scaring everyone who hears them.

  • Attach an air horn to someone’s chair so that they trigger it when they sit down.
  • Try placing an air horn behind a door as a wall protector.
  • Slightly quieter, but disquieting nonetheless, tape a bag of dried pasta underneath a toilet seat: when someone sits down, they’ll think they’ve cracked it.
  • Hide alarm clocks, set ready to go off.
  • Hide a baby monitor – need we say more?

Pranksters love subtlety. Small amendments to things can have a big effect, once they’re noticed. And cause confusion until they are!

  • Dip pens and pencils in clear nail polish – they’re rendered useless.
  • Paint bars of soap with clear nail polish and watch people work themselves into a lather.
  • Punch a small hole in the bottom of the plastic cups at a water-cooler.
  • Pull cling-film taut over a toilet basin, and replace the seat – just consider who will have to clean the mess up!
  • Clingfilm the neck of bottles under their pop-up lids.
  • Alter all the clocks in your building – if you set them all to the same time as each other, people will assume their personal time devices are wrong.
  • Change the order of computer keyboard letters and alter language settings on someone’s device.
  • Swap personal pictures for famous (or infamous) faces.
  • Place a note on a vehicle “sorry about the damage” and let them look for it!

https://twitter.com/BridgetteWest/status/921582162939441152

Of our three favourite pranks, two rely on human nature, and it’s rare the results are disappointing.

Glue a £2 coin to the ground, then retreat to watch how many people bend down to try and pick it up.

Stick paper in the shape of giant bugs on the inside of lampshades: when people switch on the light, they think they’ve been infested.

Or create a Wikipedia entry about them.

Have fun pulling off these pranks for Friday 13th, and please prank responsibly.