How to pull April Fools’ pranks from a distance

Although social distancing has become the new norm, there’s no need to drop those pranks you had had in mind when you can go online with them. Thankfully, there are hundreds of pranks you can pull off over text, FaceTime, or even in person with your unsuspecting family. However, keep in mind that pranks relating to the recent coronavirus may come off as insensitive or spread misinformation, so as usual, be smart! On that note, here are some harmless pranks you can pull from a safe distance:

• You may be seeing this trend over TikTok and Instagram, but go ahead and give your victim (preferably your parents) a scare. Put a small piece of uncooked pasta in the back of your mouth, have your victim examine your neck and help you crack it, and then CRUNCH — bite down at the same time and absorb all of their horrified faces. This prank will work equally well over FaceTime if you just casually tilt your neck to the side and make a terrible crack.
• Channel your boredom into cooking a nice meal for your family to take the load off of mom and dad. While you still have their trust, serve them dessert of a small batch of chocolate chip cookies…made lovingly with salt instead of sugar. If you’re not comfortable baking, try filling Oreos with toothpaste.
• Text your significant other or best friend the dreaded “We need to talk” and keep them on the edge of their seat for hours by sending a “typing” gif. 
• Post on social media that you broke up with your significant other and don’t let them in on it. Okay this one is really mean, use at your own discretion. 
• Act like you dyed your hair by getting a picture of a crazy colored box dye and sending it to all your friends. They’ll be bound to believe you with the cloud of boredom shrouding our good judgement and all. 
• While we’re on the topic of hair, check out a YouTube video on how to manipulate your hair to look like you cut your own bangs and send a picture to manipulate all your friends. The worse you do in the tutorial, the better the horrified responses or sugar-coated, “You look great!”s you’ll get. This is how you sort out your true friends. 
• While you’re trapped in the house with all your siblings, take this opportunity to terrorize them. If you have the time (Who am I kidding, I know you have all the time in the world right now) replace some of their favorite possessions with miniature versions. A similar version of this is taping a picture of their least favorite celebrity on every item they encounter during the day (including spoons, and the inside of the peanut butter jar). This is truly the prank that keeps on giving, as they’ll be angrily ripping the pictures off of their possessions well into April. 
• Here’s another one you may have seen around social media: Pull the good ol’ bad internet prank on your teachers and classmates and keep them hanging on the rest of your presentation.
• Rick roll your entire Google Meet class. Need I say more.
• To give your Google Meet class a pleasant surprise, dress your faithful pup or cat up in glasses and a nice button down and put them in front of the webcam. Considering your little critter sits still, your class will hopefully get a good laugh!
• Start the day off by confessing you’re going to pull a really big prank. Send your victim cryptic messages all day, warning them to watch their back so they’ll never know when you’re going to strike. But then, do nothing at all. The perfect prank is a prank that never comes.
• If you really want to freak your friends out, get a fake stick-n-poke (courtesy of Photoshop or a thin black pen, some patience, and a bit of plastic wrap to top off the look) and FaceTime your victim.
• Finally, pull out some of your nicest clothes (preferably that prom dress or tux you may or may not get to wear) and pretend to cut them up while on FaceTime with your friends. If they try to stop you, spontaneously cry and say that you’re gonna be a fashion designer. Who are they to crush your dreams?

April Fools’ Day is supposed to be fun, so know when you’ve gone too far and expect a little pranking in return. If the joke takes an unexpected turn, apologize immediately. And don’t forget: they can’t get too mad at you from six feet away. Happy pranking!