There are many occasions when a gift basket makes the perfect gift. Because of the diversity of gift containers and items that you can put inside, a gift basket is a gift that is perfect for any holiday or gift-giving circumstance. This diversity also allows you to personalize your offering and tailor it toward the recipient’s specific tastes and personality.
Sometimes, you may want to express your own or the recipient’s sense of humor and give a funny or gag gift basket. The ideas on how to accomplish this task are endless. Armed with the knowledge of the person’s likes and dislikes, their personality quirks and most especially with what they will find funny, you are ready to begin planning and shopping.
The first thing to consider is what is the occasion. Some occasions, of course, may not be appropriate times to give gifts that are made to make light of the person or situation. But, then again, you need to “know your audience”. I have been to wakes after a funeral where I have seen the closest friend of the family give gifts, that to me seemed inappropriate, but were received with bursts of appreciative laughter by the surviving spouse who saw them as mementos of happier times. Again, know well beforehand that this is the right gift for the right time.
These are not the type of Gift Baskets that you would want to buy or put together yourself for your superiors at work or your business associates or client unless you knew them very well and they also considered you as a personal friend as well. Even then, you would want to give the gift in private and not in front of the rest of the office. It is so easy to cause an office rift with fellow coworkers if they feel that your relationship with the boss is preferred in any way.
If you are unsure of how you believe a gift would be interpreted, then it is probably best that you do not go ahead with it. Even the closest friends may get their feelings hurt, become angry or embarrassed if you make a public spectacle of them. If you know that they will find the sentiment hilarious, but the gift objects are of a more embarrassing or private nature, then be sure to give them the gift in the right setting. Giving your best friend intimate apparel and sexually explicit material may be best left to when you are in a small close-knit group who would all appreciate the gift, as opposed to having him or her open the gift basket in front of an entire room full of relatives.
That being said, there are many times where a funny gift basket would be the perfect gift. For instance, is it a significant birthday where you could concentrate on gifts that state the general idea that the person is “over the hill”? This is a classic birthday theme that never gets old, especially if you become creative and include items that really make a funny statement. Here are just a few ideas to help you to get started.
Instead of arranging all of the gifts that you will be giving in a plain wicker basket, purchase a bedpan or a foot massager/soaking pan to place the other gifts in. Some gift ideas that are always funny are things like incontinence pads or underwear, a walking cane, denture tablets, hemorrhoid cream, suppositories, enemas, hot water bottles, fiber additives, laxatives, senior vitamins, and supplement drinks. Other funny things to include would be brochures from local nursing homes and senior centers, some senior oriented magazines, or even a pair of sandals and some black socks! You can come up with a dozen more ideas by strolling through your local pharmacy corner store and by applying what you know about the birthday person and what they would find funny. Of course, it goes without saying that these types of gifts are funnier when the person is turning only 30, 40, or 50 or so. If you wait much longer, the person may actually need these items and not find the humor in it.
Another great opportunity to give a humorous gift basket is if the recipient has just received a promotion on their job to a position with more authority and responsibilities. Gifts could include a stack of home printed business card that states the person’s name with a funny saying underneath like, “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” Shop in the children’s section of department stores to purchase items for their desk like a superhero or cuddly kitten notepad and label it “My Appointments”. Other ideas include a child’s colorful clock for their desk or how about a gaudy homemade decorated soup can as a pencil holder?
Becoming a new parent can be a very stressful time and one where the baby gets a lot of presents, but what about the parents? Giving them an opportunity to look at all of the changes that their lives are about to experience could be a great time for some humorous gifts. Select gifts that will represent their new lifestyle, which will mainly consist of sleep deprivation, lack of “intimacy” with each other, and being up to their elbows in dirty diapers and spit up. Concentrate on the “negatives” of having a new baby in the house and play them up with humor.
Divorce and relationship breakups are some of the most painful and upsetting experiences that a person can go through, and if you have someone very close to you who has just gone through this, only you would know if a funny or amusing gift basket would lift their spirits. In it you could include a homemade voodoo doll of the ex or some T-shirts or mugs with funny sayings on them like, “Better to have loved and lost, than to have lived with a psycho!” For women, I have also seen gag DVDs that tout “Erotica for Women”. They turn out to be actually very funny videos of different hunky men, fully clothed, doing household chores like vacuuming, dusting and washing dishes!
As you can see, even some of the most difficult events to get through can be made more bearable when you use the opportunity to set the right mood and add a little light-heartedness to the situation. Be a great friend by always being certain not to offend anyone and have a ball letting your imagination and your sense of humor create the funniest and most memorable Gift Baskets ever.
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