April Fools is the day for playing pranks on unsuspecting victims. Usually these pranks are harmless, but sometimes, they are taken too far.

The ideal prank should amuse both participants, not just the one who organized it. Understanding the type of person you are trying to play a prank on is also important in knowing what their reaction might be.

Every person is different, so any reaction you get from a prank will also vary. People who have a more serious personality will likely find pranks to be less amusing, and vice versa. If you want to prank a serious person, scaling back the severity will help ensure they are amused rather than angry. Additionally, choosing the right type of prank for the person is important.

There are three main categories of pranks that you should consider: misleading, irritation and scare. Misleading pranks are good to use on more serious people while irritation and scare would be better for less serious people.

Misleading pranks work by falsely claiming something. Some examples would be pranks, such as that they passed/failed a test, accepted/declined from a college or won/lost a competition. By understanding what is normally expected from you, you can claim that the opposite happened instead. Corporations such as Google and Apple do this a lot when they announce a fake new product.

Irritation pranks work by fooling your victim to enter an annoying situation. Some examples would be switching the salt and pepper so they use the wrong one, looking down a water bottle so water is squirted in their face or changing the time on all the clocks. If a victim would likely not find the humor in being irritated, these pranks should not be used.

Finally, scare pranks are meant to startle the victim. Some examples would be hiding fake animals in areas they shouldn’t be, triggering loud noises when something happens or claiming someone injured themselves. These pranks should be used even more cautiously than irritation pranks.

Some people believe a prank can go too far. However, I believe that as long as there is not any damage caused and the person being pranked finds it amusing too, there is no problem in designing elaborate pranks; it is just important to think about what reaction you might receive.