h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We used to have a real *joker* in our old office who loved to phone up your extension and would hang up as soon as you answered.

Oh how we laughed

Or, you can use twisty-ties to connect the base of the two ends of the phone cord, so that when they answer, they jerk the phone right off the desk.

Also, taping down the reciever button works, so that it holds it down even when the reciever is off the hook.

And if there are two identical phones side by side, swap place the receiver of one on the cradle of the other, and vice versa. Hours of... erm... fun.

We had a 'real joker' who'd phone & hang up in our office too. Got him back though. I repeatedly called his phone via the modem in my computer.
It got to the point where he'd insist all the other telephones in the room were in his range of view and yet his phone would still ring anonymously. All it took was a few discreet mouse clicks on my computer and I didn't always bother to wait until he picked up the receiver. Drove him bananas. Don't think he ever worked out who it was.

Or you can ring up someone you don't like, and then when he comes on, conference call him through to another person you don't like. Always good for a laugh.

B

We used to play a game called "Pass the Pete". Pete was an engineer who usually worked late in a lower floor to us on the opposite side of the building so that we could see straight into the section where he worked.

When everyone left at night we peered from behind our blinds and rang an extension on the opposite side of the office where he worked and he would haul himself out of his chair and lumber across to answer the phone. As he was about to answer it we hung up and immediately dialled another phone close by and Peter would then lumber over to that one then we hung up and dialled another phone close by and Pete would ........... you get the picture.

The objective of the game was to see how many times you could get Pete to cross the office before he got fed up and sat back down at his own desk. We got him on a roll once and I think we got him up to eleven before he quit

That's really nasty!

There's always the 'mouse-dropping' game:

Sprinkle some chocolate hundreds-and-thousands on someone's notepad, and tear bits of paper off theages to make it look 'nibbled'. Tape a toy, furry mouse under the handset before replacing it.

Wait for you victim to enter the office, give them thrity seconds to digest the fact that there may be a mouse present, then ring their number. Expect screams.

B

next to genius!!1 that made me chuckle to myself imagining the reactions of the mouse-shocked!!! hee hee!

I had a friend who would unscrew the mouthpiece cover on an old Bell phone, and remove the microphone (or just disconnect it), on the victims desk, killing talk ability on the phone. When the unknowing victim got back to his desk, my friend would go over tell him something like the boss wants you to call him. Immediately.

The victim would call, and the phone would be answered but of course all they'd say on the other end was "hello? hello?" then hang up. The victim of course would sit there in a panic cause he could never figure out why his boss wouldn't talk to him. Some victims would call several times before eventually figuring out what was happening.

I worked in an office where the phone numbers were especially unmemorable. One day, two colleagues, who sat opposite each other, went to a meeting. While (whilst?) they were away I put a post-it on Jason's desk asking him to call ext 8351, which was his colleague, Andrew's, number.
When they got back from their meeting, Jason looked at the note and looked at Andrew and said, "Who's on 8351?". "I don't know," replied Andrew, "You'd better ring it and find out", which Jason did.
The only one not to appreciate the joke was Andrew. Can't think why!

Hey, replying to my own message.

Some months later we were discussing the on-line phone directory. Andrew asked, "Has anyone ever used it?"
"Yes," I replied, "Once."

I worked in a call centre and one of the team leaders used to annoyingly leave his mobile on, on the loud setting and take loads of phone calls at work.

We took great pleasure in waiting until he got to the other end of the office then we would ring his mobile, watching him leg it back to his desk then hanging up. We did this over and over again and he never once picked up the mobile and took it with him.

On a somewhat related note...

I work in a library, and we have various 'dummy' borrowers set up so that we can test things, and it's always fun to call someone up, put on an accent and ask to renew the books on a particular card number. The bafflement when they find that you are a 'Mr Clark Kent' from Metropolis or 'Miss F Nightingale' from Italy can be heard quite clearly down the telephone line?

David

This works best if your intended victim has short hair, a beige-coloured telephone and goes out for lunch.

1. Go to Mcdonalds for lunch.

2. Grab a sachet of mayo while you're there.

3. Return to office while target/victim/collegue is still out.

4. Liberally apply the contents of mayo sachet to the earpiece of targets/victims/collegues telephone.

5. Wait for target to return from lunch.

6. Dial their extention number.

7. Quitely laugh to self as victim smears cold wet slime in own ear by answering telephone.

8. Deny all knowledge.


Disclaimer: The author takes no responsibilty for damaged phones... blah... blah.... blah.... etc... etc...

We used to play something similar in a company I worked for. There were little offices for various purposes all over the building (shop floor planning, pattern dept, shipping/receiving, Dept 65, etc, etc), and all the phones were black. The big game was to sneak into someone else's office when it was empty and scribble all over the ear piece with a black ink marker, replace the phone, run off, go about your business. Sooner or later the victim would be running around with a black ear. Went along with plastic wrap over the toilet.