What does “مقلب” (maqleb) mean in Egyptian Arabic?

مقلب (maqleb) is the Egyptian Arabic word for a prank or setup, and it carries its meaning in its shape: the root ق-ل-ب (q-l-b) means to flip or overturn, so a maqleb is literally something that turns a situation upside down. The word is the go-to term in Egyptian prank culture — on TV, on social media, and in daily life — whenever someone engineers a reversal to catch another person off guard.

In this clip, Dad secretly mixes ketchup into a juice bottle and tells the family: whoever has bad luck will drink the ketchup juice. He drinks first — fine. Mum drinks — fine. The son drinks and says his is fine too. The twist: before the game started, the son had already swapped the bottles, putting Dad’s ketchup juice where Dad’s bottle stood. When Dad learns the truth, the narrator sums it up perfectly: وقع في المقلب اللي هو عامله بنفسه — “he fell into the prank he’d set up himself.” That line captures everything maqleb implies: a flip that lands back on the one who set it in motion.