A huge part of The Office's humor is the hilarious and clever pranks played by Jim Halpert on his coworkers, especially on Dwight Schrute, his nemesis. Although some of his pranks may seem harsh or cruel, there's no denying that they're quite entertaining to watch. And although Jim is usually successful, there have been instances where his pranks have backfired.
Dwight is usually quite complacent with Jim's pranks and often tolerates them without answering back. However, when he does strike back, he does so ruthlessly. At times, it makes him the winner of the rivalry because he gets Jim in an especially impressive fashion.
Jim - Asian Jim
Asian Jim is one of the most hilarious pranks played by Jim. He hires Steve, an actor friend, and sends him to be Jim for a day while he has to go to the dentist. Dwight is certain this man isn't Jim and starts asking him about his clients, and freaks out when he realizes he has access to Jim's passwords.
He starts questioning reality itself when Pam kisses Steve and he sees a picture of Jim's kids - who are now magically Asian. Randall Park may not remember playing Asian Jim, but judging from the memes, the internet sure loved his role on The Office.
Dwight - Employee of the Month
After Jim is promoted to co-manager, Dwight plans to take him down. He "helps" Jim create an Employee of the Month program, asks the office to chip in a few bucks without telling Jim, and creates a system that makes Jim the Employee of the Month (and Pam if they go with second-best). The rest of the office is understandably furious, and Jim ends up in hot water with them.
Dwight is undoubtedly one of the smartest people in the office, despite his obvious lack of social and people skills. He even manages to manipulate Andy into taking responsibility for his diabolical plan, thus eliminating all loose ends.
Jim - Sent Dwight Faxes from the Future
Even though Jim transfers to Stamford, he still finds ways to mess with Dwight. He reveals he took a box of Dwight's stationery before leaving, and he sends him faxes from time to time - as Dwight from the future. He writes that one morning, someone will poison the coffee and tells him not to drink any.
Dwight, ever the righteous dude, sees Stanley about to take a sip of coffee and rushes to slap the cup away from his hands, saying Stanley will thank him later. It was hilarious to see him run like a maniac across the annex, but even more hilarious was Stanley's annoyed expression.
Dwight - Set Up A Soccer Match with Charles Miner
In a desperate bid to get the new boss to like him, Jim lies to Charles and tells him he loves to play soccer. When he sees Jim fumble with the soccer terminology, Dwight correctly deduces that Jim doesn't know anything about the sport, and sets up a soccer match after work to embarrass Jim.
Jim plans on staying away from the ball the entire match, but when Charles passes to him, he ducks and the ball hits Phyllis in the face, injuring her. Dwight's plan worked perfectly since Charles seemed to despise Jim even more by the end of the episode.
Jim - Dr. Copperfield's Magic Legumes
In the season 7 episode, "Garage Sale," Dwight attempts to trade up to the most expensive item in the garage sale. He manages to trade up from a red thumbtack to a $150 telescope and soon spots a packet of magic beans ("They're legumes, Dwight") on Jim's table. Jim destroys the packet in front of Dwight but seems to be astonished when the beans magically reappear.
Eventually, his curiosity gets the better of him and he trades the expensive telescope for the packet of beans. At the end of the episode, Dwight excitedly plants the seeds and Jim replaces the empty pots with fully grown plants.
Dwight - "You've Been Meatballed!"
In "Pool Party," Jim says that he likes to make fun of Dwight in front of an audience, which is now Stanley (since Pam is on maternity leave). He reveals that there's something very specific that Stanley considers funny - pranks involving meatballs. Jim fills Dwight's desk with heaps of meatballs and puts his stapler inside a huge meatball.
Dwight tells him the prank wasn't very clever and shrugs it off. Turns out, Dwight and Stanley have been working together the whole time to goad Jim into using meatballs for his recent pranks, so that they can take home free meatballs. Dwight definitely won this one, and Jim probably never found out.
Jim - The Box of Complaints
Although this isn't just one prank, it definitely deserves a spot on the list. Dwight finds out that all of his complaints against Jim have been sitting idle in a box, and none of them have ever been reported to corporate. Michael goes through the list and reveals the hilarious pranks Jim has pulled off throughout the years.
Fan-favorite pranks include hiring the office members to call Dwight "Dwayne" all day and putting a bloody glove in Dwight's desk drawer and convincing him he murdered someone.
Dwight - Snowball Fight
Dwight challenges Jim to a snowball fight after he attacked him with a snowball inside the office, which Jim readily accepts. However, Jim severely underestimates how seriously Dwight takes the snowball fight. He locks Jim out of the building and emerges from a snowman, throwing many snowballs at Jim until he has a bloody nose.
Throughout the day, Dwight keeps ambushing Jim with snowballs, first by wearing a Pam wig and then by putting one inside a spring-loaded gift box. Although Jim tries to surrender, Dwight refuses to back down, and by the end of the day, Jim is too afraid to go outside. He finds many snowmen and tries to attack them all, thinking Dwight was inside one. Dwight watches him struggle from the roof, satisfied.
Jim - Pavlovian Training
Jim spent a lot of time and money to prank Dwight, and this prank shows just how dedicated Jim can be. As a recreation of the Pavlovian Dog experiment, Jim has been offering Dwight a mint every time he boots his computer for weeks, in an effort to condition Dwight to the Windows startup sound effect.
The experiment apparently worked because when Jim restarts his computer, Dwight silently holds his hand out in anticipation of the mint. Jim asks Dwight what he is doing, to which he responds "I don't know" and states his mouth tastes bad all of a sudden.
Dwight - Orders Expensive Flowers On Jim's Credit Card
Sick of Dwight and Jim's bickering, Andy tells them their Christmas bonuses will be canceled if they pranked each other again. The two immediately set to work trying to convince Andy they had been pranked by the other. Dwight brings a porcupine in the office, but it backfires.
Jim loudly reveals his credit card information to goad Dwight into pranking him, but this backfires, too. He reveals that Dwight did use his credit - he bought $200 worth of flowers for Pam.