To celebrate April Fool’s Day, here are some of the best pranks from Jim Halpert, the world’s greatest prankster.
Jim’s constant pranking of Dwight is one of the highlights of The Office, featuring some of the most legendary practical jokes ever put to film. Here are just a few of my favourite pranks that Jim (and Pam) have pulled on Dwight over the years.
Asian Jim
One day when Jim is off work, he and Pam hire their actor friend to impersonate Jim. He signs into Jim’s voicemail, knows all about Jim’s sales and is surprised that Dwight never realized he was Asian after all the time they worked together. Jim even goes so far as to change the photos on his desk to pictures of Pam and the actor’s family. Dwight’s face when Pam and fake Jim kiss is priceless.
Christmas Wrapping
One year for Christmas, Jim gift wraps Dwight’s entire desk — and everything on it. Dwight is pretty unphased by this prank, but when he sits down on the chair the entire thing collapses, sending Dwight and all his belongings crashing to the ground.
Vending Machine
Jim puts all of Dwight’s belongings into a vending machine, and Dwight is forced to buy them all back. When he moves too slow, some other office members start purchasing his things, refusing to give them back because they paid good money for them.
CIA
As a Christmas gift to Jim, Pam convinces Dwight that he is being recruited by the CIA. Jim gets to decide what Dwight’s first mission is, and they tell him a helicopter is coming to pick him up and take him to an ice cream social to meet the other recruits. He waits on the roof for hours before he gets a text saying that he’s been compromised, and he needs to destroy his phone — resulting in him flinging it off the roof.
Red Wire
Jim buys a spool of red wire and connects one end to Dwight’s computer, running the spool all the way through the office and to the outside. Dwight ends up climbing to the top of a telephone pole, trying to figure out what the wire is.
Hotel Room
While in Florida on a business trip, Dwight enters Jim’s room to wake him up, only to find the room in disarray and writing on the wall that says “it was Dwight”. Dwight predicts that Jim got mixed up with some bad people. When Jim’s limp body falls out of the closet, Erin and Dwight run out of the room in fear.
Tear-Away Suit
Jim finds out where Dwight gets his clothes dry cleaned, and custom orders the same suit — with a slight modification. When Dwight shows up to work wearing the modified suit …
Altoids
Jim decides he wants to test out the theory that dogs can be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell, and uses Dwight as his guinea pig. Over the span of several weeks, Jim conditions Dwight to crave mints at the sound of a computer chime by offering him an Altoid every time he reboots his computer. It gets to the point where Dwight reaches for the mint as a reflex without even realizing that he wants one.
Bestest Mensch
This prank is heartwarming and sweet, and this scene is considered one of the best overall moments of the show. Jim is Dwight’s best man for his wedding to Angela, and he promises that there will be no pranks on the wedding day, except for “guten pranks.” For his final prank, Jim tells Dwight he actually cannot be Dwight’s best man and Dwight panics, wondering who will take over. That’s when Jim reveals a surprise guest: Michael Scott. This scene never fails to make me cry.