April Fools! 10 Facebook Pranks You Can Pull Off in Seconds
Updated: Feb. 02, 2023Anyone who leaves their Facebook profile unguarded on April 1st is a true April fool.
Facebook fun
If you really want to mess with someone’s day-to-day life in 2021, tampering with their social media is the way to do it. These sneaky Facebook pranks are fun, harmless ways to cause a little social media mayhem for April Fools’. You can do some of these easy April Fools’ pranks from your own account, while for others, you’ll need access to your friend’s account. Of course, as with any prank, make sure to assess your relationship with your prankee beforehand to be as sure as possible that they’ll take the prank in stride. If they do, ramp up the April Fools’ fun with the 40 funniest April Fools’ pranks to pull this year.
You have 437 notifications
Here’s a beautifully annoying prank you can knock out during lunch hour. Go to your victim’s Facebook profile, and “like” every single thing they’ve ever posted. That’s it. The next time they log in or check the app, they will find hundreds of notifications waiting. This is especially effective if they get live updates to their phone, which will be bombarded with alerts while you’re doing your dirty work. This might not be the most appropriate prank for work friends, so try one of these best office pranks for April Fools’ Day instead.
Big news!
This is an oldie but a goodie. On your own page, post an effusive status: “OMG!!! Congratulations to my bestie [your friend’s name here] on her engagement/pregnancy/new job/wacky new tattoo!!!” Tailor it to your friend’s interests and stage of life, of course, to really make people fall for it. Don’t forget to actually tag their account rather than just type their name, so that it shows up on their profile. They’ll get swarmed with stunned, congratulatory messages and have to let all of their well-wishers down easy. And because this is one of the easy April Fools’ pranks that’s probably easiest to see through, you could try getting a few other of your and your victim’s close friends in on it. Have them post a congratulatory comment on your post, or make a post of their own, to make the “news” more believable. Do you know how to see who unfollowed you on Facebook?
The biggest jerk on Facebook is…
With this easy April Fools’ prank, you can prank a whole bunch of your friends at once! Step 1: Copy this link: http://facebook.com/profile.php?=733 (note, you can swap out the number combination in at the end—just make sure everything up to “php?=” stays exactly the same). Step 2: Paste it into a status update. As the preview picture will reveal, this link directs you to your own Facebook profile; in fact, anyone who clicks on it will be linked to their own account. Make sure you remove the link preview box from your post so your cover isn’t blown. Step 3: Write a clever lead-in to the link—something scintillating, but also a little nasty. Example: “Police are desperately searching for this monster—please spread the word. [link]” or, “At long last, I think I’ve found the biggest jerk on Facebook: [link].” Step 4: Post it. As you wait for legions of unsuspecting friends to click through to their own profiles, go bake some cookies for all the people you’re about to annoy.
“Nobody reads anymore!”
Step 1: Post this link from NPR, titled “Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore?” Include in your status a generic comment like, “So sad,” or, “Seriously, what is wrong, people?” Step 2: Wait. This “story” is actually a prank devised by NPR on April 1, 2014, to poke fun at serial commenters. “We sometimes get the sense that some people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven’t actually read,” the article says. “If you are reading this, please like this post and do not comment on it. Then let’s see what people have to say about this ‘story.’” If you see a friend post this same link, like it and keep the joke going. Check out these fun Facebook groups and easy April Fools’ pranks to play on your parents, too.
You’re everywhere!
An incredibly easy but effective Facebook prank is to tag yourself in a whole bunch of your friend’s photos that you’re not in. Tag other, untagged people as you; tag their pet as you (that’ll really drive them crazy!); or, if they don’t tag themselves in their own photos, tag them as you. Or any combination thereof. They’ll be spammed with notifications that you’re tagging yourself in their photos. For some, er, subtle nudging, tag yourself in photos of get-togethers they had that you weren’t at. All in good fun, of course. Here are some April Fools’ Day jokes to make everyone laugh.
The unguarded profile
For the next batch of easy April Fools’ pranks, you’ll need access to your friend’s profile while they’re already logged in, so that you can make some sneaky tweaks. If you work in an office, chances are you can navigate to Facebook on any coworker’s computer and find them already logged into their account. If they are, now’s your chance to really alter their profile (and probably their opinion of you as a person). The first quick prank you can pull with an unguarded profile: Change your friend’s name and profile picture to reference an inside joke. If you’re stuck for ideas, just go with one of these dog memes.
Shalom, mayhem!
Go to “Language and Region,” under Settings, and change your friend’s display language to Hebrew or Mandarin—really any language that uses a completely different alphabet than ours, leaving your victim no clues how to change it back. Or, to really make them do a double-take, change their Language to “English (upside down)”—yes, Facebook offers that. All of the text on their screen will show up upside down! For some more April Fools’ visual fun, check out these April Fools’ Day memes to make you laugh after getting pranked.
Don’t I know you?
Friend request EVERYONE in your friend’s “people you may know” page. This feed refreshes endlessly, so keep adding to your heart’s content (just don’t get caught). Your friend will be baffled by the influx of new friends over the next few days. If you want to protect yourself from potential pranksters, remember these 16 Facebook page secrets you need to know.
Merry un-birthday!
Change your friend’s date of birth to tomorrow, confusing them with a tide of erroneous well-wishes. The real butt of this April Fools’ joke? All of your friend’s friends who have no idea when their actual birthday is. If you want to prank your friends on multiple channels, check out these April Fools’ text pranks.
Keep it hidden
This is a great one for that vain Facebook friend who loves racking up the likes. Head into “Privacy Settings and Tools,” under “Privacy,” and in the drop-down under “Who can see your future posts,” click “Only me.” None of your friend’s friends will be able to see their new posts—see how long it takes them to notice they’re not getting any likes. If you want to take your pranks offline, try one of these 15 simple April Fools’ jokes that are great for kids or adults.
Source:
- Mashable: “10 Awesome Pranks to Play On Your Facebook Friends”
