Snake in a Can Prank: How to Pull It Off

The snake in a can is the purest practical joke there is: an ordinary-looking container, a lid, and a long spring snake that leaps out the moment the lid comes off. It needs no skill and no acting, and it still gets a scream from grown adults who have seen it before.

How it works

Inside the can is a fabric-covered coil spring, squashed down and held in by the lid. Take the lid off and the spring has nowhere to go but up and out — a snake twice the length of the can, launched straight at whoever is holding it. Ours is a full-size potato chip tube, 21.5 cm tall, so it looks exactly like a snack.

How to set it up so it lands

• Make it something they want. A tube of chips left by the kettle, offered at a meeting, or put in a lunch bag. Nobody suspects a snack.
• Let them open it. The joke only works when the victim takes the lid off themselves. Hand it over and step back.
• Offer it casually. "Want one?" works better than a build-up, and they will hold it close, looking down at the lid.
• Have a witness. Half the fun is the people who knew.
• Timing. The middle of a quiet afternoon beats a party, where everyone is expecting something.

Who not to prank

The point of a prank is that everyone laughs, including the person it happened to. So skip it with:

• anyone with a heart condition or a genuine fear of snakes,
• people who are already stressed, unwell or having a bad day,
• anyone holding a hot drink, standing at the top of stairs, or driving.

And never at work with someone who would not do the same to you.

How to reset the snake

Push the spring snake back into the tube, coil by coil, keeping it straight so it does not kink. Press it down firmly with one hand, then slide the lid on with the other while it is compressed. It is ready for the next victim.

Where the gag came from

The spring snake is a joke-shop classic, popularised by American novelty makers in the early twentieth century, when catalogues sold "trick" cans of nuts, candy and peanut brittle with a snake inside instead. The packaging has changed over a hundred years — mixed nuts, then candy, now chips — but the joke is exactly the same, and so is the scream.

As a gag gift

It makes a perfect stocking stuffer and a good white elephant gift, because it is funny twice: once when they open the present, and again every time they use it on someone else. Pair it with our wooden spider box and a bag of fake cockroaches for a complete office arsenal.