What do most people think of when they are trying to come up with a good gift idea? Usually they go around looking at stuff that they themself might enjoy because they don’t really have a clue what the recipient will enjoy. Another thing people consider is things that the recipient will have practical use for. But is this always the right choice?

If you think about it, what you consider practical, is probably completely useless for somebody else. My grandma received a bunch of cooking stuff on her birthday from my mother, because they both like to cook. I too usually receive cookbooks and similar kitchen stuff from them on my birthday. Are cookbooks practical for me? Not really, unless you count that I give them away to other people on their birthdays.

The truth is that if you are one of the lucky people that live in our modern western society, you probably already own everything you like, want or consider practical. Of course sometimes someone will give you something you will use for years to come, but chances are if you needed something you would have just bought it for yourself.

So if we ruled out practical gifts, what is left? Gifts that invoke some kind of memory or positive emotion. This is why souvenirs are so popular even though they often are cheesy, pointless or even plain ugly. They invoke the memories from the trip. In the same way a nicely framed picture you got from your partner might invoke happiness every time you see it.

This is where the often overlooked gag gift or prank gift comes in. Happiness and laughter is the most positive emotion we can experience, and gag gifts are often designed just to make us laugh. Even if people wont remember the specific gift very long they will remember the feeling it invoked in them. The fun at a 50th birthday party might be remembered for the rest of this persons life, but will he remember all the junk he got? Probably not.

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