Cheapest Gag Gifts
- T-shirts are cheap gag gifts -- especially if you make them yourself. Buy fabric letters and sew on a humorous message, or use stencils and fabric or spray paint. If you want to spend even less money, simply write a message on the front (or back) of the shirt with permanent magic marker. Wash the shirt first to make sure the ink won't bleed -- your recipient may not think that a ruined load of laundry is very funny.
- Masks make fun gag gifts, and can easily be purchased at your local party store or made at home. Try getting masks of well-known celebrities or political figures. The purpose of this cheap gift is to be ironic, so you could get an elderly person mask for a young recipient, or a "hot mama" mask for someone not known for their sexiness. Another example might be gluing feathers and sequins on the mask of a person who's not very flamboyant.
- Many novelty stores and magazines charge serious money for fake "beauty creams," meant to poke fun at the age of the recipient. But you can make your own creams by buying ordinary, generic lotion at a drugstore and making a label for it on your computer. Put a fancy border around it, and print things like "Oil of Old Age" or "Instant Butt-Firmer." Stick it on the bottle with double-sided tape.
- Sometimes nothing gets a person chuckling like a little dirty humor. Try purchasing books of dirty jokes, riddles or expressions. If you can find these items in languages other than English, it often doubles the laughs. Watch your friends try to figure out what the giftee is saying to them -- only you and he will know just how incendiary it is.
Many of these items can be purchased for $10 to $15. However, if you are fluent or adept at speaking another language, you could write up a small booklet of expressions yourself.
