I know a lot of people had mentioned that while Jim was in Stamford, they missed the pranks that he played on Dwight. Now that he has been back in Scranton, do his current pranks measure up?

To me, they have been really disappointing. The vampire one was particularly lame. The things Jim has been doing to Andy were a lot better.

All the good pranks since his return have been with Pam... When he did the vampire prank without Pam it lacked a certain something. This is different from the past when Jim pranked with or without Pam and it was always funny. Something in Stamford made Jim lose his touch...

EDIT: I mean his return from Stamford, not The Return the episode. I am not being very clear and concise this morning.

Is it because Dwight's behavior/reactions are a little too predictable?

I think Jim's lack of quality in his pranks can be attributed to his attitude, and the situation he is going through

Hmm me thinks I need to move this into the JP thread...

i thought the vampire prank was great! I acidentally chose better than before but I meant to choose same as before

I think that "something in Stamford" was the lack of Pam. I think his vampire prank was hilarious and every time I see Dwight's reaction to Jim standing behind him at the water cooler I laugh my @$$ off! The only thing making that prank seem lame was the awkwardness Karen brought to it. Pam's involvement is very key to Jim's pranks. Once she becomes a co-conspirator again I'm sure things will be better than they were before Stamford.

I think they are still as good. But after I voted, I think they are not as good, because he doesn't have Pam as his accomplice. His prank with the phone was very good. Because of Pam.

I just thought the vampire prank was too lame because it is highly unlikely that anyone, even Dwight, would fall for that. Doesn't seem plausible to me. The same for the Future Dwight faxes, although that was pretty funny. Especially knocking the coffee out of Stanley's hands and the look on his face. I agree though, that Karen doesn't do well as support on the pranks. Jim does need Pam for that role.

I would have to say that Jim's pranks are as good without Pam, but the vampire trick has been my favorite this season (next to hiding Andy's phone). As for Karen helping, she doesn't have whatever it is that Pam does when it comes to pulling pranks. It was hard to watch seeing her pulling a prank with Jim, because she wasn't very good at it.

Are you kidding me? You didn't like Vampire Jim? I thought it was particularly funny because he wasn't directly doing anything to Dwight, it was all what Dwight would conjure up in his own head. It was an intellectual prank. He was messing with his head! That takes a lot of skill.

I think the pranks aren't as physical, like you're used to, because Pam is really the only one who can be as funny and in tune with him on a physical prank. He's trying to avoid more "talking" with Karen, and trying to get over her, so he's steering clear of Pam. This could explain the shift in feeling you're experiencing.

I voted not quite as good. They were average at best, but the Vampire prank was brilliant IMO! I also loved his 'phone in the ceiling' prank with Andy. Top 2 pranks this season.

Just have to add that the "Dwight Faxes From the Future" is one of my favorites from the entire series.

Jim's pranks are definitely better with Pam (the cell phone prank was really priceless), but the Future Dwight one was pretty good. And Karen is a terrible prankster/prank accomplice. In the bat/vampire prank she was so horrible and obvious. Her prank on Jim at the cocktail party, although she got him, I though it was kind of mean-spirited. Also given how their relationship has been going lately, it was not very smart to put doubts in Jim's mind about her character.

All in all I think Jim's pranks are about the same as before, but when Pam is involved they are pure gold. Since we didn't see a lot of Jim-only pranks in seasons 1 and 2 (we just got a laundry list of them in Conflict Resolution), I think the writers are trying to emphasize the Jim-Pam relationship's importance without making it too sappy and romantic - keeping it funny!

My two favorites are from S2; the vending machine and the prank from the deleted scene where Jim finds Dwights wallet in the parking lot, and they give it back to Dwight "unharmed", "c-c-c-c-ancel c-c-c-c-redit c-c-card."

So I'd have to say the pranks have been hurting a bit, except the phone in the ceiling, that was a classic Halpert-Beesly collaberation.

And, a to whoever mentioned the scene with the vampire prank where Jim is standing behind Dwight looking at his neck. Looooooved that.

I voted for better than ever. People have stated that his estrangement from Pam is hurting his pranks. I can see where they are coming from but I think that it's just sharpened his game. His pranks have grown more sophisticated over the course of the show. One thing that I liked about his vampire prank was the fact that it was improvised. He didn't set that one up ahead of time, he took advantage of an opportunity and rolled with it.

I think Jim's pranks this season are about just as good. The vampire one was okay, made me laugh. My personal favorite from this season has to be Andy's cellphone in the ceiling. Probably in the top 5 for all of his pranks in the entire series! The second best one this season would probably be how he got Andy to sing "Rainbow Connection" in pig latin. And Pam totally kept up with it!

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that Jim's best pranks so far this season, IMO, have involved Pam. I wonder if the writers did that deliberately? Probably. As for Karen's collaboration with the vampire prank, I'd have to say that she sucked. Was not convincing at all. As I'm writing this, I'm starting to think that her "prank" at the cocktail party was her attempt to get closer to Jim by trying to establish a common hobby-- pranking. Unfortunately, I didn't really feel the humor in her's, but I can't really tell if any of that was done purposefully by the writers or just my JAM-loving bias.

Great pranks this season! would like to see something else in jello - my new The Office convert doesn't believe me.

Hi everyone, I'm a long-time lurker but never registered to make comments until I was reading this thread and just had to set something strait. A couple people have commented that Jim's vampire prank was ruined because Karen was acting so obvious. I'm afraid that means you didn't get what was going on. Karen was very obviously in on the prank and was acting like that INTENTIONALLY. The point was to act like a cheesy vampire movie to make it even more believable for Dwight (since he's seen over two-hundred and forty of them ). Karen could have easily acted natural but it wouldn't have had the same effect.

Also, in my opinion, Karen is just as good at doing pranks as Pam...she is just better at different pranks. Do any of you think that Pam would have been able to prank Jim the way Karen did in "Cocktails"? There is no way! Karen was one-hundred percent believeable and I thought it was hilarious. Pam is good at other kinds of pranks (like making Dwight run around the outside of the building while pretending to time him, which was also really funny)

I find the pranks as funny as past seasons. My favorite even though we didn't get to see it only hear of it was in Conflict resolution . Jim adding nickles to Dwights phone one at a time over a course of time so Dwight would became accustomed to the weight and then
Jim removed them so when Dwight went to answer the phone he hit himself in the head. The image of this cracks me up. I really wish we got to see this. Brilliant

OMG I think Jim's pranks are just as good as they were before. Of course, Pam adds more zest to the prank but C'mon..... Future Dwight??? AWESOME!! Vampire Jim?? ( I about PMP when he was rubbing his teeth and Dwight's eyes about fell out of his head), Andy's phone? and what about when he took Karen's chair and Andy ended up with it and he made that song resonate in Karen's head? Or when he broke Andy's brain for the first time all on his own when he put Andy's calcualtor in Jell-o? Ahhhh signs of Andy to come.

ITA w/ you beet farmer. Just the talk about the nickels in the phone crack me up. I would have loved to have seen it. Maybe Jim can do it to Andy. Maybe Dwight can do it to Andy

I voted that they're just as good. Pavlovian Altoids? Pure gold. I wasn't as nutty about the Vampire just because it seemed flat to me with Karen's participation. I don't really care whether she was deliberately bad or just bad, it annoyed me.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I now amend my statement that all of Jim's good pranks since his return from Stamford have involved Pam to most of Jim's good pranks since his return have involved Pam. I did love the Altoids.

Jim's pranks have been excellent this season, including the faxes from the future and the vampire, neither of which had Pam. I agree with whoever noted that his pranks have gotten more cerebral — more about watching someone react to a situation they don't understand than, say, hit themselves in the head with a phone.

Pam was a great accomplice, but that doesn't mean Jim is lost without her. Also, I think it's a little unfair to say, "Karen can't prank with Jim" after only one attempt in Scranton. She's getting there. By the next episode, she'll probably be there.

I didn't enjoy the vampire prank as much as I usually do, but most of Jim's pranks recently have been pretty funny. Loved the faxes from the future, loved the altoids thing, and the cell phone in the ceiling was hilarious.

I voted as good as ever (or the same). Lately, I think Jim's pranks have been getting really clever. Absolutely loved the Altoid prank.

I can kinda see where some people are coming from with their complaints about Vampire Jim. It was a great scheme, but something did seem a little flat. I laughed at the pure cleverness of it (as Sharladawn said, he was messing with Dwight's head without ever doing anything physical or obvious), but it was a very anticlimactic ending. I was left begging for more.

But that's just one prank. (Unless people had a problem with Wedding Crashers?)

I think I did the same thing

I think the pranks are just as funny as before, but if him and opam join forces once moew, they can really blow them all out of the water!

faxes . . . from himself . . . from the future --- was the absolute BEST! However, there is something missing in Jim's pranking this season. There is no doubt that Karen cannot match Pam in pranking prowess.

I liked his pranks. especially the one when he put all of Dwight's things in the vending machine and gave him nickels to buy them back. Hilarious.

I loved the prank where Jim hooked up Dwight's cell phone and his office phone to his own bluetooth headset. I laughed so hard watching Dwight shout at Pam -- YOU ARE NOT TALKING TO DWIGHT! I thought the pranks are just as good as ever. I always laugh at all the pranks!!