30 Funny April Fools’ Pranks for Your Boyfriend

April 1 may just be the most hilarious day of the year, especially if you pull these April Fools' pranks for boyfriends

Calling all practical jokers! Don’t let your annual opportunity to play a harmless April Fools’ Day joke on the most important man in your life slip by without a good laugh. (Don’t forget to check this list of other holidays and observances in April.) Since April 1 is just around the corner, now’s the perfect time to start planning a funny April Fools’ prank. Use these April Fools’ pranks for boyfriends as inspiration for your big moment.

Of course, don’t forget that turnabout is fair play, so be sure to keep your guard up all day long. You never know when someone will play an April Fools’ Day prank on you.

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Where’s my prank?

Build up the anticipation for weeks, promising a mind-blowing April Fools’ prank to your boyfriend. Then on the big day, sit back and enjoy the suspense as he waits for the prank that never comes.

Fake tattoo

Get creative with a bold, over-the-top tattoo in his honor. Whether it’s real or a convincing fake, it’ll surely shock him. The more outrageous, the better—a fake tattoo of his face, perhaps? Suggest he get matching ink for an added laugh.

Sugar or salt?

salt on spoon going into black coffeewestend61/getty images

This April Fools’ prank for boyfriends will add a twist to your boo’s morning routine: Swap sugar for salt in the kitchen. When he reaches for his coffee, he’ll get a surprise he won’t forget. Want out of the doghouse? Have a fresh cup of his morning Joe ready to make amends!

Car trouble

Admittedly, this April Fools’ prank for boyfriends may give your partner a bit of stress. Sneakily move his car overnight. The next morning, when he asks about it in a panic, tell him he must have misplaced it. Just be sure to reveal its whereabouts before he calls the cops!

Birthday switcheroo

If you’re tech-savvy, play a harmless Facebook prank by changing his birthday to April 1. Sit back and watch the confusion unfold as friends flood him with well-wishes. Looks like you pranked his Facebook friends too!

Shopaholic horror

Is your boyfriend horrified by how much stuff you order online? Take it to the next level by saving 20 or more empty boxes from your recent deliveries (break them down and hide the stack of flat boxes somewhere he won’t look). Get up super early on April 1, tape all the empty boxes back together and cover your front porch and sidewalk with these “new deliveries.” Then watch the blood drain from his face as he mentally calculates how much money you must have spent online.

Early bird wakeup

alarm clock that says 6am with sleeping man in backgroundgorodenkoff/Getty Images

This is a great one if you don’t mind suffering through a ridiculously early wakeup—because you’re going to need to play along to properly sell this April Fools’ prank for boyfriends. First, set all of the clocks in the house a few hours ahead, including the alarm clocks. When the alarm goes off ridiculously early, get up and start doing your normal wake-up routine. Yes, get in the shower, get dressed and start the coffee. Your boyfriend will likely follow suit, and it probably won’t dawn on him how early it is until he notices how dark it is outside. Come to think of it, this may also be one of those great April Fools’ jokes to play on your kids.

Spider in the loo

Print out a picture of a huge and realistic-looking spider (or whatever bug he’s afraid of). Cut it out very carefully so that none of the white paper is still visible—cut tightly around each leg. Next, tape it to the wall above the toilet and wait for the screams—bonus points for timing this discovery to a middle-of-the-night bathroom run.

Technology takeover

If your boyfriend relies on technology to turn on the lights, adjust the thermostat and crank the volume of his music, this one is for you. Every time he gives Alexa a voice command, override it by using the app on your phone. So if he says, “Alexa, lights on,” turn them right back off via the app. He’ll think the device is broken and waste a whole bunch of time trying to troubleshoot.

Embarrassing ringtone

Change his ringtone to a song that would embarrass him, be it “Milkshake” by Kelis or “Baby Shark.” Set the volume to “max” and then send him out on an errand. Once he’s in public, call him. Chances are, he won’t even realize it’s his phone that’s making all that noise, which means it’ll be even more embarrassing as people keep staring at him.

Sold sign

Gettyimages 172436035 Sold Sign Jveditajcasanova/getty images

For this prank to work, you’ll need to be living together in a house you jointly own. Find a friend who’s a real estate agent and borrow one of his or her signs. Place it in your front yard and add the “Sold” sign underneath. This is one of those April Fools’ pranks for boyfriends you can take as far as you’d like. Feel like packing a few boxes to really sell the story?

Abstract art

If your guy has a place for everything and likes everything in its rightful place, it’s time to rearrange his world with this April Fools’ prank for boyfriends. When he’s not around, take each hanging picture off its nail and switch it with one from another room. At the end of this game, each painting will now hang in a different place. When he notices, act like he’s wrong and they’ve always been in those spots. This could also join the ranks as one of the best April Fools’ pranks to play on your parents, especially if they’ve lived in the same house for decades.

Funny fake news

Visit Break Your Own News and create an outrageously false “breaking news” story that will catch your boyfriend’s attention—say, his favorite sports team lost an important game 100–0 or the actress he has a crush on will be filming a movie in your town. The options are as endless as your creativity. You’ll add a headline, ticker copy and an image. Download the image (aka your “proof” of the news) and share it with your boyfriend.

Neat freak nightmare

Cover the desktop of your boyfriend’s PC with shortcuts to random files. Then copy and paste them until there are at least 10 copies of each icon on top of one another. Take a screenshot of the desktop (with all the icons) and set it as the desktop background image. When he first discovers it, he’ll be annoyed by all the icons and start deleting them—and for a while, it’ll look like it’s working. Eventually, he’ll no longer be able to select the icons (because they are in the background image) and be “stuck” with a cluttered desktop until you reveal your secret.

Caramel-covered what?

Caramel caramelized apples with pecan nuts on sticks sweet candied food dessert on retail display in candy store shop cafe in Key West, Floridakrblokhin/Getty Images

This April Fools’ prank for boyfriends is only for good sports. Take a large onion, peel off the skin and cover it in ooey-gooey caramel sauce. Then roll it in his favorite chocolate candies or chopped nuts. Place this irresistible-looking concoction on a plate and offer him the first bite (but don’t let him cut it into wedges). Look thoroughly shocked when he discovers it’s not an apple.

Autocorrect loop

If you like April Fools’ text pranks, then you’ll love this April Fools’ Day prank for boyfriends. Go into his phone and change the settings to autocorrect common words (such as “the,” “and” and “love”) to silly or obscene ones. Try to anticipate the words he’ll type upon noticing that something’s wrong (like “why,” “help,” “wtf” and “no”) for an extra layer of frustration.

Fake cake

Make two big, round meatloaves. Put one on a pie plate, spread a layer of mashed potato “icing” and top it with the other meatloaf. Now cover the entire “cake” in whipped mashed potato “icing.” Finally, make a heart or some other decoration with ketchup. Yum, what a dessert!

Doughnut disaster

Top view Inside of a Tim Hortons six donuts box, with a: Dulce de Leche, Chocolate Truffle, Strawberry, Vanilla Dip, Chocolate, Maple Dip Donut.Marvin Samuel Tolentino Pineda/Getty Images

Leave a nice big box of his favorite doughnuts on the kitchen counter—but only after you’ve squirted an unpleasant condiment into each jelly- or cream-filled cake. Does sour cream or mayo gross him out? Add those to cream-filled treats. Does he hate spicy foods? Go with wasabi or sriracha. Yes, it’s painful to waste a perfectly good doughnut, but it’s worth it for a funny cause. Offer him a real, delicious donut afterward.

Auto uh-oh

Tie an empty soda can to the bottom of his car—make sure it’s tied to a non-moving part! He’ll hear the weird noise and drive around slowly trying to figure out where it’s coming from. Bonus points if he drives straight to a repair shop and the mechanics discover the source of the noise (after laughing at him, of course).

Tape it up

Some April Fools’ pranks have gone terribly wrong, but never this one (we think)! Put a little piece of clear tape over the sensor part of the TV remote or his computer mouse—or both! The signal will be impaired, and he’ll go nuts trying to figure out why they won’t work. Try not to laugh while he keeps swapping out batteries, starts tearing the insides apart or eventually throws the device in the garbage.

Free llamas

Post an ad on Craigslist offering free llamas and specifying that anyone interested just needs to text the number you’ve provided. Oh, did we mention it’s your boyfriend’s phone number? Enjoy watching him wonder why everyone’s texting about his nonexistent llamas. Alternatively, skip the llamas and place an ad about a (bogus) contest to see who can do the best impression of Chewbacca, then wait for those phone calls to come pouring in. Be sure to take the ad down come April 2.

Four eyes

modern stylish eyeglasses for reading, viewing and more eyeglass-relatedImam Wibowo/Getty Images

Does your sweetie always have smudges on his glasses? If so, this April Fools’ prank for boyfriends is for you! Take the glasses off his face and offer to clean them. Head into a different room, where you’ve stashed a Sharpie and apply marker all over the inside of the frames. Then put them back on his face, where they will stain his skin with drawn-on glasses (and he won’t even know until someone else points it out). If you don’t want to completely ruin his day with permanent marker, apply mascara instead.

Bad bet

For boyfriends who can never say no to a little dare: Tell your man to put his palms down on the table and create a friendly bet that he can’t balance a glass full of water on the back of each hand. As soon as you have the full glasses balanced on his hands, stand up and leave the room—he’ll be trapped with no way to escape his position without spilling all over himself. Note: Make sure his phone isn’t in the vicinity!

Soda explosion

Shaking up your boyfriend’s soda can so it explodes all over him is so junior high, so it’s time to kick this prank up a notch. Place Mentos in an ice cube tray and fill the cubes with water. Freeze them. Now you have Mentos ice bombs that you can place in his soda. At first, nothing will happen—but as they start to melt, they will fizz up and cause his soda to overflow.

Swapping spots

If you live with your boyfriend, there’s probably a place for everything in your house, whether it’s towels, clothing or even something simple like forks. Do a little rearranging when your boyfriend is out of the house. When he comes home and is unable to find anything he needs, act confused and say, “What do you mean? The towels have always been in that drawer.” He will think he’s going crazy.

Just kidding!

This is a quick and easy one. Tell him you stopped by his house or apartment to surprise him with something. When he gets outside or downstairs and is looking for you, shoot him a text that says “April Fools!”

Worst shower ever

White soap bar on plastic dish in blue bathroomFabrikaCr/Getty Images

Here’s one of those April Fools’ pranks for boyfriends that’ll make everyone laugh: Take your boyfriend’s bar of soap and paint the entire surface with clear nail polish. Let it dry overnight. Then put it back in the shower and remove all other soaps/body washes. On April Fool’s Day, he’ll spend ages in the shower trying to figure out why his soap won’t lather.

Parents

Here’s another good one if you live together. Tell your boyfriend that your parents need to come stay with you for a few weeks. Act as serious as you can. Maybe even sound like you’re annoyed about it too. If you’re worried your facial expressions will give it away, this is a great prank to pull over text.

New wardrobe

If you’re around the house, change outfits every few minutes or so, but don’t say anything. See how long it takes for your boyfriend to notice. When he does, act as if you haven’t changed clothing at all.

Chef’s kiss

Make a completely disgusting meal for your boyfriend. Load up his favorite chicken dish with salt or another spice, and pretend that you’re really proud of the meal. See how much of the meal he can stomach before telling you that the food is awful.

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Reader’s Digest has been telling jokes for more than 100 years, curated and reviewed over the past 20 years by Senior Features Editor Andy Simmons, a humor editor formerly of National Lampoon and the author of Now That’s Funny. We’ve earned prestigious ASME awards for our humor—including comical quips, pranks, puns, cartoons, one-liners, knock-knock jokes, riddles, memes, tweets and stories in laugh-out-loud magazine columns such as “Life in These United States,” “All in a Day’s Work,” “Laughter Is the Best Medicine” and “Humor in Uniform,” as well as online collections such as short jokesdad jokes and jokes so bad, they’re great. You can find a century of humor in our 2022 compendium, Reader’s Digest: Laughter, the Best Medicine. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.

Jill Schildhouse
Jill is an award-winning travel writer and editor with 23 years of experience. She covers travel cruises and hospitality for Reader's Digest and regularly contributes to Travel + Leisure, Brides, TripSavvy, Insider, USA Today, Taste of Home, and Southern Living. An avid traveler, Jill has visited 37 countries but makes her home in Phoenix, where she lives with her fiancé and toy schnauzer.