How to Spice Up Your Virtual Zoom Background

‍Let’s, if we may, open with an all-too-real nightmare...

The year is 2023. You sprint from your post-morning coffee bathroom reckoning with your aging digestive system to your computer and remove the mouse from the “undetectable” mover you use to make sure your Slack doesn’t time out, and hop onto your next Zoom meeting of the day. It’s year three of this song and dance, you should be used to it by now, but something deep within you is itching (and it’s not the sweatpants you haven’t changed since the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions). It’s your bo-ring background in your Zoom meeting. 

Sure, in the beginning, you changed your funny Zoom background every day. Mondays you were in the Simpsons living room, Tuesdays you were in the red room from Twin Peaks (just to remind everyone how cool and different you are), and maybe there were even some Wednesdays where you used a looping video of the office from The Office, including real footage of Stanley napping behind you. You were the virtual office clown, the one who not-so-secretly made every call about you, you were a god amongst meer virtual mortals. But now…now you’re just using the default Zoom background template. What happened to you?

Now that the latest Zoom update allows everyone to use funny virtual backgrounds using the handy "Virtual Background Tab", there’s never been a better time to get back into the Zoom meetings game! So, let’s get your work-from-home groove back. 

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Use these ideas when you're brainstorming your next creative background for Zoom calls:

1. Get artsy with your Zoom background 🎨

We get it, you’re cultured. But your office mates might not get it, so let’s force them to. As someone interested in the finer arts, you obviously know you’re better than everyone else, so get into the habit of making your favorite works of art your Zoom virtual background. At the very least, while everyone is muted and pretending to listen to the latest earnings report, you’ll have a stunning work of art for people to investigate.

Why you might even get noticed by your boss who had got an art studies minor from a state university and strike up a conversation that leads to your promotion at the company…all because you made some art the background for your Zoom call!

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2. Find obscure backgrounds for Zoom 👽

Okay, let’s get very obscure. Like, referencing the first-ever Lexus December to Remember Sales Event in 1999 level of obscurity. Nothing says who’s that quirky human I work with quite like a reference to an obscure piece of popular culture that folks didn’t even know they could feel nostalgic about. Sure, you could just name your daughter Linda Barrett as a reference to Phoebe Cates's character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but why spend all of that money raising a kid for 18 years when you can just use THIS Zoom background to shout out an old McDonald’s advertisement?

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3. Try a funny Zoom background 🤡

Ah, the elusive quest to nail the fabled “work-appropriate bit.” Insert Meme of Ace Ventura walking into the police station with the caption: when you tell a joke so funny at work that HR asks to hear it. Chances are if you’ve made it this far and you’re still reading this: you’ve got yourself one fine sense of humor. So let’s come up with your own funny Zoom backgrounds where you can interact with the environment behind you for some good, ol’ fashioned physical humor.

Grab THIS Looney Tunes Zoom background and leave a call by running away from your computer, only to get pancaked against a fake tunnel:

Grab any of THESE sitcom backgrounds to hang out with your favorite fictional funny people on their couch. You can also take a screenshot of yourself at your virtual setup and make that your funny background. Just mute yourself and it’ll look like you’re paying rapt attention while you’re actually in the kitchen having an Oreo and Spam sandwich. The possibilities are endless!

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4. Get a friend 👫

Seriously, get a friend. This is less about Zoom virtual backgrounds and more about actually getting a friend at work. Friendship is a form of time travel, right? You’re with a friend and you’re instantly transported back to various times in your life where you’ve made memories together. Most of these are hilarious, some have helped you grow, but all of them are better than actually getting work done. Now, imagine having a friend at work. You can while away the virtual hours with an office buddy as deadlines whiz on by and out the window. 

Maybe you’ll even get to meet up IRL one day and not get Catfished like the last time you met up with a “friend” from r/SpoiledSurvivor subreddit. Having friends rules. Oh! Back to the virtual backgrounds for a bit: if you had a friend, you can grab a Zoom background like THIS and slowly drift off to sea and have your friend boot you from the video call as you wave goodbye!

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5. Keep your Zoom background ideas fresh 🧼

Whatever style of Zoom background you elect to go with: keep the people guessing. We recommend changing your virtual background before your first call of the week and keeping it for the next few days only. Even coworkers as grouchy as Garfield will start to look forward to whatever surprise you have for them that Monday. You might miss the landing every once in a while, but even a missed landing is better than never taking off in the first place. Also, it’s pivotal you make sure the Zoom background image you use is saved in high-resolution! 

Pro Tip: When you search for your own image on Google, filter results as LARGE images. 

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Show off your funny Zoom backgrounds with Confetti 🎉

Every once in a while, we can take our own fun into our own hands. No need to wait for someone else to give us the opportunity. And remember, you have an audience of one at all times: yourself! If you are entertained by whatever it is you’ve cooked up, it doesn’t matter if anyone else is brave enough to join in on the ride. Check out these Virtual Background Resources from Zoom for more inspiration.

Try out these funny Zoom backgrounds in your next Virtual Team Building Activity with Confetti! 🥳

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