April Fools Party Games

Trick games that fool the whole room at once and nobody in particular: press Pick 3 new games.

April Fools Party Games

  1. The Unsmiling Waiter1. One player is the waiter and stands at the head of the table with a notepad. 2. In turn, each guest orders an impossible dish with a perfectly straight face: a boiled bicycle, lightly salted. 3. The waiter repeats each order back gravely and recommends something to go with it. 4. If the waiter smiles, the guest who ordered takes the notepad. A guest who smiles while ordering does the dishes in mime. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: a notepad.
  2. Sealed Orders Relay1. Hang an envelope for each runner at the far end of each lane. 2. A runner sprints out, opens the next envelope and finds out how to come back: backward, hopping, singing, in slow motion. 3. Every team gets the same orders in the same sequence. 4. The last envelope in every lane says, walk back and take a bow. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: an envelope with an order in it for each runner.
  3. Backward Along the Line by Hand Mirror1. Tape a gently curving line on the floor, about ten paces long. 2. A player stands at the start with their back to the line and holds a hand mirror up to see it. 3. They walk backward along the line, looking only into the mirror. 4. A helper walks beside them and counts the steps that leave the tape. Fewest wins. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: tape and a hand mirror.

Next step More clean, silly games

How it works

These April Fools party games are built on fooling everyone at once. No game hides, breaks or soils anyone's things, and none chooses one person to be the fool. April Fools' Day is April 1.

Read the full guide

Set the tricks before anyone arrives

1. Three games in Spot the fake are prepared in secret: the changed room, the relabeled jars and the borrowed thing on the shelf. 2. Write backward name tags for the door. 3. Hard-boil the eggs the day before. 4. Keep the bell and the clothespins where you can reach them.

Indoors or out

Relays that fool the whole team want a yard or a hall. The other three sets are played in a living room or at the table.

Tips
  • Say the number of changes in the room out loud. Without it, guests search for hours.
  • Put right whatever you changed before the last guest leaves, with everyone watching.

Questions and answers

What games can you play on April Fools' Day without upsetting anyone?

Games in which the trick is shared. In Eight Things Wrong With This Room every guest hunts the same eight changes, and in The Eggs Were Never Raw every team is fooled by the same eggs.

Which games work at the dinner table?

Yes Means No Until the Bell runs for ten minutes of the meal. The Jars Are Mislabeled, One Question Behind and An Earnest Toast to the Left Sock are played from the seats, and The Unsmiling Waiter needs only a notepad.

What are good April Fools games for a big group?

Call Me Ylime and The Photo Nobody May Smile In take forty guests. For teams, most of the relays work with six to thirty players in two or three lanes.

More tools

Browse Holiday Games

All 32 games

Spot the fake 8

  • Eight Things Wrong With This Room 1. Before guests arrive, make eight small harmless changes: a picture hung upside down, a clock an hour off, a book spine to the wall, a fork where the knives go. 2. Tell guests the number and nothing else. 3. Each guest keeps a private list through the party. 4. Before dessert, read out the eight. Most found wins, and everything is put right together. Players: 4 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: paper and pens.
  • Find the Original Among the Copies 1. One player leaves the room. A second draws a simple picture in thick pen: a house, a boat. 2. Three others each copy it as exactly as they can on the same kind of paper. 3. Shuffle the four sheets and pin them up. 4. The player comes back and has one guess at the original. The best forger then draws the next original. Players: 5 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: paper and identical thick pens.
  • Introduce Your Neighbor, One Fact Wrong 1. Neighbors talk in pairs for two minutes and learn three small things about each other. 2. Each player introduces their neighbor to the room with those three facts, one of them changed on purpose. 3. The neighbor keeps a straight face and says nothing. 4. The room votes on the wrong one. Then the neighbor puts it right. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 15 min. Props: none.
Show all 32 games (29 more)

Spot the fake, continued

  • The Jars Are Mislabeled 1. Put six spreads or sauces into clean jars with the wrong labels: honey marked mustard, apple sauce marked gravy. 2. Ask about allergies first, and list on a card everything that is really in the jars. 3. Guests taste a little of each on a cracker and write what it really is. 4. Peel back each label to show the true name underneath. Most right wins. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: six relabeled jars, crackers, spoons, paper and pens.
  • Three Mimes, One Is Doing Something Else 1. Three players step outside. Two are told to mime the same task, such as threading a needle. 2. The third is told something nearly the same, such as sewing on a button. None of them knows who has which. 3. They mime side by side for thirty seconds. 4. The room names the odd one out and what each was really doing. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: slips with pairs of similar tasks.
  • Two Real, One Made Up, Backs to the Room 1. Give everyone two minutes to look around the room in silence. 2. Everyone sits with their back to the room. In turn, each player describes three things in it: two that are really there and one they made up. 3. The others vote on the invented one by holding up one, two or three fingers. 4. The speaker scores a point for every player fooled. Then everyone turns around to check. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 15 min. Props: none.
  • What Is Really Making That Sound? 1. Behind a screen, one player makes a sound that imitates something else: rice poured on a tray for rain, a crumpled bag for a fire, two cups for hooves. 2. The room first says what it sounds like. 3. Then it guesses what is really making the noise. 4. A point for each right answer. The screen comes down and the next sound maker goes behind it. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: a screen and a box of kitchen things.
  • Which of These Ten Is a Visitor? 1. Before the party, the host borrows one ordinary thing from a neighbor and sets it on a shelf among their own things. 2. Number ten things on the shelf with small cards. 3. Guests study the shelf and write the number of the thing that does not belong to the house. 4. The host tells the story of each numbered thing in one sentence, saving the borrowed one for last. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: ten numbered cards, paper and pens.

Backward and opposite games 8

  • Act the Opposite, Guess the Card 1. Write a describing word on each card: hot, tiny, sleepy, loud, fast, heavy. 2. The actor draws a card and acts out its opposite. 3. The team must call out the word on the card, not what they see. 4. One minute a turn, a point a card. A team that shouts what it sees loses nothing but time. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: cards with a describing word on each, and a timer.
  • Backward Along the Line by Hand Mirror 1. Tape a gently curving line on the floor, about ten paces long. 2. A player stands at the start with their back to the line and holds a hand mirror up to see it. 3. They walk backward along the line, looking only into the mirror. 4. A helper walks beside them and counts the steps that leave the tape. Fewest wins. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: tape and a hand mirror.
  • Bring Me the Opposite 1. A bring-me hunt, turned around. Teams sit together and each chooses a runner. 2. The caller asks for something: bring me something heavy, something new, something quiet. 3. The first runner to bring the opposite, and say why it is the opposite, scores. 4. A runner who brings what was asked for takes it back and tries again. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Call Me Ylime 1. Write every guest's first name backward on a name tag. 2. For the first half hour, guests are spoken to only by their backward names, said as they are spelled. 3. Anyone who uses a forward name puts a bean in the jar. 4. When the half hour is up, the guest who can say the most backward names from memory wins. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 30 min. Props: name tags, a pen, a jar and beans.
  • One Question Behind 1. A quizmaster asks one player a string of easy questions, quickly. 2. The player says nothing to the first question. To the second, they give the answer to the first. 3. Every answer is to the question before. 4. Count how many they get through before answering the wrong one. The room is not allowed to help. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: a list of easy questions.
  • Sit When the Music Starts 1. Musical chairs, turned around. Set out a chair for every player, in a circle facing out. 2. With no music, everyone walks around the chairs. When the music starts, everyone sits. 3. When it stops, everyone must be up and walking again within two seconds. 4. Players who sit in the silence or walk to the music do one lap in slow motion. Nobody is out, and no chair is taken away. Players: 5 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: a chair each and music.
  • Write It for the Mirror 1. Give every player a card and the same five-word sentence. 2. In one minute, write it so that it reads correctly in a mirror. 3. Hold each card up to a mirror in turn. 4. The room reads it aloud if it can. Every letter the right way around scores, and a fully readable card wins. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: cards, pens and a mirror.
  • Yes Means No Until the Bell 1. Ring a bell. From now until it rings again, yes means no and no means yes for everyone in the room. 2. Carry on with the party: offer food, ask questions. 3. Anyone who catches a guest using a word the old way hands them a clothespin to wear. 4. Ring the bell after ten minutes. Fewest clothespins wins. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: a bell and a bowl of clothespins.

Straight-face games 8

  • An Earnest Toast to the Left Sock 1. Fill a hat with slips naming humble things: the left sock, the spare button, Tuesday. 2. Each player draws one, stands and raises a cup of juice. 3. They give a heartfelt toast of three sentences to it. 4. The table answers, hear, hear, without a smile. Anyone who cracks gives the next toast. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: a hat of slips and a cup each.
  • The Expert Panel on Nothing 1. Three players are the panel. The room gives them a made-up subject: the history of the left-handed spoon. 2. Each expert speaks for thirty seconds with complete seriousness. 3. The room asks earnest questions. 4. An expert who laughs gives up the chair to whoever asked the question. Players: 5 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: three chairs.
  • Pass the Silly Phrase, No Smiling 1. The first player says a short nonsense phrase in a grand voice. 2. It passes around the circle. Each player must say it the same way. 3. On the second lap, each player adds a gesture, and everyone after must copy all of them. 4. A smile sends you out. The circle starts a new phrase each time it loses someone. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • The Photo Nobody May Smile In 1. Line everyone up for a group photograph. 2. The photographer gives odd directions in a calm voice: think of a wet sock, now a slightly wetter sock. 3. Take the picture. If anyone in it is smiling, it is taken again. 4. Count the takes. Print the first clean one and the worst failure side by side. Players: 5 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: a camera.
  • The Solemn Anthem 1. Each team chooses a nursery rhyme everyone knows. 2. The team stands and sings it as slowly and grandly as an anthem. 3. The other teams listen with hats off and straight faces. 4. A listening team that laughs must join in. A singing team that laughs starts its verse again. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • The Solemn Procession of the Colander 1. Each player chooses one ordinary thing from the kitchen and holds it like a treasure. 2. The group walks slowly around the house in single file, humming one low note. 3. Anyone who laughs goes to the back of the line. 4. The procession ends when the leader has kept the front for one full lap. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: one kitchen thing each.
  • Stare-Down Ladder 1. Players pair off and stare at each other. No talking and no faces. 2. The first of each pair to smile or look away loses. 3. Winners pair off with winners. 4. The final is held in the middle of the room, with everyone else free to comment from the side. Players: 4 to 32. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • The Unsmiling Waiter 1. One player is the waiter and stands at the head of the table with a notepad. 2. In turn, each guest orders an impossible dish with a perfectly straight face: a boiled bicycle, lightly salted. 3. The waiter repeats each order back gravely and recommends something to go with it. 4. If the waiter smiles, the guest who ordered takes the notepad. A guest who smiles while ordering does the dishes in mime. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: a notepad.

Relays that fool the whole team 8

  • Back-to-Front Jacket, Buttoned by the Team 1. Each team has one large jacket with buttons. 2. The first runner puts it on back to front, a teammate does up two buttons behind, and the runner goes around the far cone and back. 3. The team unbuttons it and dresses the next runner the same way. 4. First team home with the jacket on the last runner, still backward, wins. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: a large buttoned jacket for each team, and cones.
  • The Cones Keep Walking 1. Mark the finish with two cones and tell the teams the finish is wherever the cones are. 2. While the first runners are on their way, the referee picks up the cones and walks them somewhere new. 3. Every team chases the same pair of cones. 4. Move them once per leg. The last leg finishes back at the start line. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: two cones.
  • The Eggs Were Never Raw 1. Hard-boil the eggs the day before and tell nobody. 2. Run an egg-and-spoon relay with great warnings about the mess a dropped egg will make. 3. Teams carry their eggs with enormous care. 4. At the finish, the referee drops one on purpose. Every team was fooled alike. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: a spoon for each team and hard-boiled eggs.
  • Every Arrow Points the Wrong Way 1. Mark a zigzag course with five cones and lay a paper arrow at each. Tell the teams one thing: every arrow points the wrong way. 2. Runners pass each cone on the side its arrow does not point to. 3. A runner who follows an arrow goes back to that cone and passes it again. 4. Between legs, the referee turns two of the arrows around, the same two in every lane, so that no runner can learn the course by heart. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: five cones and five paper arrows for each lane.
  • The Hunt That Ends Where It Began 1. Write a trail of five clues for each team. Each clue sends one runner to fetch the next. 2. The first four clues lead around the house and yard. 3. The fifth clue reads: look under the chair you started from. 4. A small prize for the whole team has been taped under its own chair all along. Every team gets the same trick. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 15 min. Props: five written clues and a small shared prize for each team.
  • Ready, Set, Anything but Go 1. Runners may leave the line on any word except go. 2. The starter says: ready, set, goat. Ready, set, gravy. Ready, set, go. 3. A team whose runner leaves on go starts that leg one step back. So does a team still standing after a real start word. 4. Use a new word for each leg. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Sealed Orders Relay 1. Hang an envelope for each runner at the far end of each lane. 2. A runner sprints out, opens the next envelope and finds out how to come back: backward, hopping, singing, in slow motion. 3. Every team gets the same orders in the same sequence. 4. The last envelope in every lane says, walk back and take a bow. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: an envelope with an order in it for each runner.
  • Whistle Means Swap Sides 1. Two teams run an ordinary relay around a far cone. 2. Whenever the whistle blows, the two runners on the course swap lanes and finish that leg for the other team. 3. Blow it once or twice a race, at any moment. 4. Nobody knows who is ahead until the last leg. The loud cheering for the other team's runner is half the game. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: a whistle and cones.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions for an April Fools party at home, on April 1 or the weekend nearest. The wording is ours, and the player counts and times are our estimates. Every trick is on the whole room or the whole team at once. No game hides, breaks or soils anyone's things, frightens anyone or chooses one person to be fooled, and whatever is moved is put back. The date was checked against Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) on 2026-10-03: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day Licence: own work