How to Prank Your Sister

Custom-Creating the Perfect Prank for your Sister

Reflect upon your sister's personality. Of course you know your sister—she's your sibling after all, and you probably live together and have grown up together. Nonetheless, before you zero in on the perfect prank, it's important that you think about your sister's character and temperament: What kind of person is she? How do you think she'll react to being tricked? Is she a jokester? Does she find nearly anything funny? If so, you probably have a bit more free reign in deciding how to prank her. Is she sensitive and/or easily embarrassed? If so, you should be careful about what kinds of jokes or pranks you want to pull on her. You don't want to cause lasting hurt feelings that could put your relationship in jeopardy.

Think about your sister's special interests. In your effort to tailor a unique prank, don't forget to identify your sister's interests and hobbies. You'll make a lasting impression if you can find a fun way to joke around with her about something she's really into. Is your sister a jock? If so, then you could design a prank aimed at this, while being careful to not cross the line and destroy something that really matters a lot to her. For example, if your sister is a soccer fanatic, you can let a little bit of air out of her ball each night. She'll have to continually re-pump the ball (which will be fun to watch!) but you won't have destroyed her property. As another example: perhaps your sister is book lover who scorns pop lit. If so, you can remove her favorite classics from their dust jackets and replace them with the Hunger Games series. She'll be in for a surprise when she pulls Great Expectations down from the shelf and instead is confronted with Katniss's dilemma! And who knows—she may decide to read it and see that the series is popular for a reason!

Reflect upon your relationship with your sister. Just as it's important to design a prank which is sensitive to your sister's personality, it's also important to think carefully about the dynamics of your relationship together. You may think of yourself as very easy going, but if you and your sister don't always see eye-to-eye (perhaps she isn't as laid back), then choosing the wrong prank or pranking too often can hurt your relationship. Try to think of ways in which you and your sister connect: if you both love to cook, for example, then choosing a prank which plays upon this shared interest could result in a prank you'll be able to laugh about together.

Find pranks that don't make your sister the butt of a mean joke. The best pranks are those where everyone involved is able to laugh together (at least eventually). What you don't want to do is set your sister up to be laughed at. Finding the fine line between pulling off a prank where your sister is mildly embarrassed, surprised, or confused and those where she is mortified or terribly scared can be tricky. Nonetheless, it's important to not move into this cruel territory. One guideline to keep in mind to help keep you from crossing that line is to think about how you would react if the tables were turned. For example, if your sister hacked into your phone and switched her contact info with your girlfriend's, would you be mildly annoyed and/or embarrassed, or would you feel that your privacy had been violated? If you would be unable to trust or forgive her for pulling a particular prank on you, then don't pull it on her!

Find pranks that don't put your sister in harm's way. Just as you don't want to cause any hurt feelings, you also want to avoid causing any physical harm to your sister. You can find lots of prank ideas which set people up for physical falls, or which have you set up booby-traps where things will fall upon the unsuspecting victim. When nothing goes wrong, and no one is hurt, then these can be funny. Keep in mind though, that it's typically out of your hands as to whether or not the prank will work as designed. For example, there will be nothing to laugh at if your sister falls the wrong way and hits her head on the counter because you greased up the kitchen floor.

Be inventive. In what follows, we offer some tried and true ideas for pranks, many of which are classics. Once you've thought about the unique characteristics of both your sister and your relationship, feel free to pick and try those that appeal to you. Keep in mind that the very best pranks, though, are those that are inventive, creative, and designed specifically around the particular person you're trying to prank. With that in mind, stretch your creativity to find unique pranks that will have your sister asking you “How did you think of that?” instead of “How could you do that to me?”.

Messing with Her Food

Put salt in her cereal. This is an oldy-but-a-goody. When your sister isn't looking, sneak a few dashes of salt onto her morning cereal and be prepared to watch her confusion as she takes her first sleepy bite! If your sister is more cautious (maybe she's on to your pranking ways?) and guards her bowl, you can always premix the salt into the cereal, but you risk wasting an entire box or accidentally having one of your parents get to it first.

Freeze her cereal. Here's a twist on the cereal surprise: fix a bowl of your sister's favorite cereal at night after she's gone to bed. Be sure to place the spoon in the bowl, and then place the bowl in the freezer. Be sure to get to the kitchen before her in the morning and set out her cereal for her. Watch her struggle to figure out what's going on as she grabs the spoon and picks up the entire bowl! You can also freeze her orange juice at the same time.

Surprise her with a soda. Your sis will think you're such a sweetheart when you bring her a soda. Little does she know that you gave it a few good shakes on the way to her room. Yes, this one is a classic too, but it's remained a classic prank for a reason! Nothing beats a surprise syrupy spray in the face!

Try a twist on the soda prank. Does your sister hoard her favorite soda or sparkling water? If so, this simple prank will be right up your alley: just rotate the pull tab on her soda cans 180° and watch with glee as she tries to figure out why her can won't open. You can step this one up by actually prying off all of her soda tabs and then watching her discover that every one of her precious drinks is “defective”.

Leave her a sweet surprise. Does your sister have a sweet-tooth? If so, she won't be able to resist the bowl of candy you leave out: buy bags of Skittles, M&Ms and Reese's Pieces and mix them all together. These colorful candies are all great on their own, but mixed together? Yuck! This is a great one to keep in your back pocket for when your sister has a slumber party but won't let you hang out. You can prank both her and her friends at the same time!

Offer her a donut surprise. This is also a good prank to play when your sister is having friends sleep over. Buy a dozen cream-filled donuts and use a large syringe to suck out the cream (go ahead and save it for yourself—you deserve it!). Then, replace the cream with mayonnaise. When your sister and her friends come down for breakfast in the morning, they'll think that your parents left them a special treat. Have your camera ready to snap pics of their first (and only!) bites! You can buy jelly-filled donuts instead and replace the jelly with barbecue sauce: disgusting!

Prepare a caramel “treat” for your sister. This prank is great for Halloween: Your sister won't be able to resist the tray of caramel “apples” you leave out on the counter. This prank takes a little bit of preparation but is not too hard: Peel a few raw onions (making only one will probably look suspicious) and place a popsicle stick in the end of each one. Take a 14oz bag of individually wrapped caramel candies and unwrap them. Place the candies in a microwave-safe bowl with 2 tablespoons of milk and microwave until melted (about two minutes, stirring once or twice). Dip the onions into the caramel, making sure they are fully coated, and then place in the refrigerator until they firm up.

Messing with Her Beauty Routine

Make a sweet face. Your sister needs to be a fairly sound sleeper for this one: sneak into her room once she's soundly asleep and quietly drizzle honey over her face. Be ready to be woken up by her shrieks in the morning! Be sure to hide the evidence: put the honey back in the kitchen and wash the spoon you used.

Make a savory shower. This is a great prank to do along with the sweet-face prank: Remove the shower-head in the bathroom that your sister uses, and place a chicken bouillon cube in it. When your sister rushes in to wash the honey off her face (and hair and hands!) she'll be doused with warm broth! It may help to grind the bouillon cube up a bit so that it will dissolve more quickly once the water runs through it and so that you'll be able to screw the shower-head back on tightly. This pranks works best if your sister has her own bathroom; you don't want to accidentally prank your parents! Otherwise, you'll have to slip into the bathroom right before you know she'll be using it. If you want to be extra devious, try a sugar cube instead of a bouillon cube. She'll probably be really mad (and sticky), so plan your escape route!

Prepare a surprise hair treatment for your sister. Here's a variation on a shower-prank: Swap out your sister's favorite shampoo with honey. When she's ready to suds up, her hair will be a tangled, sticky mess! You want your honey “shampoo” to be thin enough to actually squeeze out of the bottle, so you may want to experiment with mixing it with a bit of water, or even mixing the honey in with a small amount of shampoo or conditioner to get the right consistency. Make sure that it's still mostly honey, though!

Give your sister a dye-job. Get several packets of funky-colored Kool-Aid and dump them into your sister's shampoo or conditioner. Red or green are fun choices. Unless your sister is half-asleep when she's showering, she'll probably notice that her suds are neon colored, but it will still be fun to hear her screams, and she'll have to scramble to find real shampoo to get the color out!

Help your sister get the perfect blow-out. Once your sister has finally managed to wash her hair of all the junk you pranked her with earlier, she'll want to fix her hair up pretty. The surprises haven't ended yet, though: While she's showering (or the night before) carefully pour a small amount of baby powder into the nozzle of her blow-dryer. When she turns it on, she'll be blasted with a powdery spray! Back to the shower she goes! A variation: try Bentonite Clay instead of baby powder. She'll be livid, and you'll be cracking up!

Give your sister a tan. This is a great trick to play on your sister, particularly if she's devoted to slathering on sun-screen every day. It's simple, too: just empty her regular lotion and refill the bottle with a self-tanning moisturizer. In a few days she'll be wondering why her complexion looks different! To be even craftier, you can do this with her face moisturizer in addition to her body lotion. Try to find a self-tanning lotion that has a similar scent to her regular lotion or she'll be on to you before it can take effect.

Messing with Her Room

Wrap up a shiny surprise. If you've got some time on your hands, your sister will be away for awhile, and if you can afford to buy several rolls of aluminum foil, you've got all you need for this prank. Wrap up as much of your sister's room in aluminum foil as you can. Start with all of the small objects on her dressers and bookshelves, and then move to the large objects in her room, including her bed.

Photo-bomb your sister's room. Find a totally goofy picture of you and make multiple copies. When your sister is away, plaster them over every square inch of her room and wait for her reaction when she comes home and opens the door. Alternatively, you can be more subtle, and hide the pictures of you in random places. Place one over her computer monitor, another over the bathroom mirror, one in her closet, another on her pillow, etc. You don't need to hide all of the pictures all at once. This one can be a running joke, where you randomly hide one picture every day or two.

Make-over your sister's room into a fan-girl's dream room. This is a great prank to play before you sister has friends or her partner over. Choose a celebrity that your sister liked in the past but has outgrown now (like Justin Bieber, for example). Buy a few fan magazines and print out pictures from the internet, and then go wild making over your sister's room to make her look like the biggest fan-girl ever. If you can afford it, spend some cash to get a full-sized cardboard cut-out to place in a prominent place in the room. Now just be ready to watch her try to explain to her friends that she's really not this lame!

Flip her room. This prank is a bit time-consuming and fairly subtle, but is still pretty devious. When your sister is out (or even better, staying overnight with a friend), flip her room completely: For example, if her bed is on the left side of the room, move it to the right, switch all of the items on her dresser to the opposite sides, reverse her closet, etc. Make sure to keep everything neat, folded, and organized (assuming that's how it all started), but just in reverse-order. When your sister comes home and asks who rearranged her room, pretend that you have no idea what she's talking about: “Everything looks exactly the same to me—are you feeling ok?”

Messing with Her Phone

Pull a switch-a-roo with your sister's contacts. For this prank, you'll have to be able to swipe your sister's phone for a while. When she's distracted, break into her phone and switch all of the contact names in her phone. For example, if your sister has a partner, switch their name to yours in her contact list. You'll now be able to read all of her secret texts to her significant other! If you change her password, write it down so you won't forget it and she won't have to go to the store and pay to get her phone unlocked. Alternatively, you can delete all of the names in her contact list and replace them with mystery names: Guess Who #1, Guess Who #2, etc. It will take her ages to sort it all out!

Change your sister's passwords. If you know your sister's passwords, you're in a great position to have a bit of fun. Hack into her accounts—Facebook, email, Twitter, etc.--and change her passwords to something new. She'll be totally frustrated, and if you can keep a straight face, you can watch her type away furiously trying to figure out what happened! Consider changing all of the passwords to something like “Mysisteristheworsthumanbeing”. She'll never guess it.

Change her voice-mail message. While you've got her phone, take a few minutes to record a new outgoing message for her sister's voice-mail. Choose something totally embarrassing: for example, do your best imitation of her voice when you record “Hi, you've reached Kaitlyn, president of the Justin Bieber fan club. I'm too busy following Justin on Twitter to take your call, so leave a message at the beep.” When you are done, set her phone to silent so that she won't hear calls. When her friends call, they'll be sent to voice-mail and will hear her new embarrassing message.

Change the auto-correct on her phone. If your sister texts a lot, this is a great prank. Once again, you'll have to swipe her phone, and then spend some time analyzing her texts. Look for words or phrases she uses a lot, like “I'm on my way”. Then, program her phone to auto-replace that phrase with something embarrassing or random. For example, whenever she tries to text “On my way,” it will now fill in “I love Justin Bieber forever!”. Alternatively, you can choose something random and annoyingly long, like a full paragraph from a book.

Messing with Her in General

Give her the plague. When your sister is sleeping, sneak into her room and dot her face with a lipstick or a non-permanent red marker. Then when she wakes up, be sure to be the first one to see her: gasp when you see your face and ask her if she's sick. She'll run to the mirror and be convinced that she's got chicken pox (or worse)!

“Help” your sister wake up on time. After your sister goes to bed, move all of the clocks ahead five hours (but keep your own alarm at the correct time and hide it from your sister's view). Then, set your alarm for 3am and run into your sister's room to let her know that it's 8am and she's going to be late for school. Watch her run around frantically trying to get ready until she finally notices that it's still dark out. If your sister doesn't pay attention to the days of the week or is younger, you may be able to pull off convincing her that she's late for school on a Saturday. You don't even need to set the alarms to get up early for this one!

Set multiple wake-up calls. Gather together as many alarm clocks as you can (five or six would be great) and set them at different intervals throughout the night (for example, 2am, 2:30am, 3am, etc.). Hide them throughout your sister's room in places where she normally doesn't look before going to bed (for example, in her closet, in her sock drawer, behind her curtains, etc.). Be sure to set your own alarm to go off a few minutes before the first one so that you can watch the craziness. Your sister might be a bit cranky in the morning after having lost so much beauty rest, so keep your distance!

Give her a fright. If you tried the fan-girl prank from above and splurged on a cardboard cut-out, you won't want your purchase to go to waste. To get more mileage from your purchase, sneak the cut-out into your sister's room in the middle of the night and place it right next to her bed. Then, make a banging noise sufficient to get her to wake up, and cover your ears as she screams at the “intruder”. If you don't want to spend the money to buy a life-sized cardboard cut-out, you can recycle cardboard boxes: find the largest sized boxes you can, and using strong scissors or box-cutters, cut out a human figure. If you're not great at drawing, place them on the floor and have a friend trace around you. You may need to make the figure in pieces and tape it together (use a strong tape like duct tape), but you don't need perfection. You just need a rough human shape: your sister will be mostly asleep when she discovers it.

Convince her she's had a growth-spurt. Buy a package of large safety pins and carefully fold the side seams of her favorite jacket and pin them from the underside (you're trying to make her jacket tighter). You can also fold up the cuffs of her jeans and her shirt sleeves and pin them as well. Next, put cushion inserts into her shoes. You can usually buy very simple inserts for just a dollar or two at the store: just trim them down to your sister's shoe size. The inserts should make her shoes feel tighter; if her shoes are fairly roomy, put two inserts in each. Now, when your sister tries to get dressed in the morning, everything will be too short and too tight!