1. Hello Dolly: The WordPress Classic

Plugin: Hello Dolly
Developer: Matt Mullenweg

If you’ve managed a WordPress website for a while, you’ve probably encountered Hello Dolly.

It’s one of the oldest and most recognizable examples of a WordPress plugin.

Activate it, and a random line from the song “Hello, Dolly!” appears in the upper-right area of your WordPress admin dashboard.

That’s it.

No conversion tracking. No complicated settings. No elaborate feature list.

Just a little musical surprise while you’re working.

Why It’s Interesting

Hello Dolly demonstrates how easily WordPress can be extended, even when the functionality has no practical business purpose.

The official WordPress Plugin Handbook uses Hello Dolly as an example of a simple plugin.

Would I use it on a business website? It’s harmless dashboard entertainment when properly maintained, but it doesn’t add anything for visitors. If you prefer a clean admin area, you won’t miss it.

2. Confetti: Celebrate the Small Wins

Plugin: Confetti – Celebration Effects for WordPress
Developer: WP Sunshine

Sometimes a website needs a little celebration.

Confetti allows you to add animated confetti effects to selected pages or interactions.

You might use it when someone reaches a thank-you page, completes a registration, or finishes an activity.

The plugin supports several animation styles and provides a block and shortcode for placing effects.

Additional automated integrations are available through its premium version.

Where It Makes Sense

Imagine a nonprofit thanking someone for registering for a fundraising event.

A brief burst of confetti could reinforce the moment without interfering with the registration process.

Or a learning website could celebrate a completed lesson.

The important word is brief.

If confetti explodes every time someone opens a service page, the novelty will probably disappear long before your visitors do.

Best use: A small celebration after a meaningful action, with motion preferences and usability considered.

3. Raptorize It: An Unexpected Dinosaur Appearance

Plugin: Raptorize It
Developer: Jake Spurlock

This one has a very specific purpose.

It sends a velociraptor across your webpage.

The effect can be triggered through a click, a timer, or the famous Konami Code keyboard sequence.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, the Konami Code is:

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.

Type the sequence, and the dinosaur makes its appearance.

The plugin’s WordPress directory listing includes newer block-based features, although its relatively small installation base makes testing particularly important.

Should a Business Actually Use This?

On a serious financial services website? Probably not.

On a gaming blog, developer portfolio, or deliberately playful campaign page? It could fit.

It works best as an optional Easter egg that visitors choose to discover.

Unexpected sound and movement can be disruptive, so avoid automatically triggering effects where people are trying to read, navigate, or complete important tasks.

Sometimes the most entertaining feature is the one you don’t force everyone to experience.

4. wp-Monalisa: Bring Back Custom Emoticons

Plugin: wp-Monalisa
Developer: tuxlog

Before emojis became a regular part of digital communication, websites relied heavily on custom smileys and emoticons.

wp-Monalisa keeps that tradition alive.

It lets site owners manage custom emoticons and use them in posts, pages, and comments.

The plugin also offers integrations for certain community and discussion tools.

Where It Could Work

A community website or discussion forum might use custom smileys to develop a recognizable personality.

For example, a hobbyist community could create reactions based on its own shared interests.

A business with an active customer community might find that more useful than another generic collection of icons.

But visual personality needs restraint.

If every paragraph contains several oversized animated faces, the content becomes difficult to read.

Best use: Communities where custom reactions genuinely support participation.

5. XV Random Quotes: A Different Message Every Visit

Plugin: XV Random Quotes
Developer: Xavi Ivars

XV Random Quotes allows you to create and display collections of quotations across your WordPress website.

It supports Gutenberg blocks, shortcodes, widgets, and categories.

You can use it to display a random quote rather than showing the same text every time someone visits a page.

Give It Some Personality

A bookstore could feature literary quotations.

A creative portfolio might rotate short observations about design.

A company with a distinctive culture could use a curated selection of approved messages in an appropriate section of its website.

The key is deciding what the rotating content contributes.

A random quote can be entertaining, but it shouldn’t replace essential information or make important content unpredictable.

If visitors need to understand your service, give them a clear explanation first.

Save the surprises for somewhere less consequential.

6. GamiPress: Turn Participation Into Achievements

Plugin: GamiPress
Developer: Ruben Garcia

GamiPress moves beyond decorative effects.

It adds gamification features such as points, badges, achievements, and ranks.

Site owners can define actions that earn rewards, giving users visible progress as they interact with content or complete activities.

That’s potentially useful for membership communities, learning platforms, and websites that encourage ongoing participation.

A Practical Example

Imagine a training website where users complete lessons and earn badges when they finish certain requirements.

Those achievements can make progress easier to recognize.

A community could also recognize members for completing specific activities.

The feature needs a reason to exist, though.

Handing out points for every insignificant action can create more administration without improving the experience.

GamiPress also has more configuration requirements than a simple visual-effect plugin.

Best use: Websites with meaningful participation or learning activities that can benefit from visible progress.

7. Hello Ziggy: David Bowie Meets the WordPress Dashboard

Plugin: Hello Ziggy
Developer: Chris Reynolds

If Hello Dolly isn’t quite your musical taste, there’s Hello Ziggy.

It’s a variation inspired by the original plugin, using lyrics associated with David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust.

Like Hello Dolly, it adds a little musical personality to the WordPress dashboard.

It won’t make your homepage more interesting or help customers navigate your services.

It simply makes the admin experience a little less ordinary.

Why Include It?

Because quirky WordPress plugins don’t always need an elaborate purpose.

Some exist because developers enjoy experimenting with the platform.

Hello Ziggy is also a useful reminder that the plugin ecosystem includes small creative projects alongside major commercial products.

Would I install two separate lyric plugins on a business website?

Probably not. One random musical interruption is plenty.

Before Installing a Quirky Plugin, Check These Things

A plugin can be entertaining and still introduce technical problems.

WordPress extensions add code to your website. Depending on how they’re built, they may introduce scripts, affect page performance, conflict with other plugins, or require additional maintenance.

Before installing something new, review its listing in the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Check Maintenance and Compatibility

Look at the last update, supported WordPress and PHP versions, support history, and recent reviews.

A plugin appearing in the directory doesn’t guarantee that it will work correctly with your particular theme or plugin setup.

Pay particular attention to smaller projects with limited usage history.

Test on a Staging Website

If your site supports customers or processes transactions, experiment somewhere other than the live production environment.

Check whether the plugin conflicts with your theme, page builder, contact forms, or other essential features.

A harmless-looking visual effect can still interfere with the wrong interface element.

Think About Accessibility

Animations, sounds, and surprises affect visitors differently.

Features that move unexpectedly or flash can create accessibility problems. Motion can also be uncomfortable for some users.

Respect reduced-motion preferences where possible, avoid disruptive autoplay behavior, and make sure playful elements don’t block navigation or essential content.

Don’t Add Plugins Just Because They’re Fun

Every plugin needs maintenance, even if its only purpose is displaying a dinosaur.

If the same effect can be achieved through an existing feature without introducing another dependency, consider that option.

For a broader explanation of choosing plugins, read Best WordPress Plugins for Business Websites.

Which Quirky WordPress Plugin Is Worth Trying?

It depends on what you’re hoping to accomplish.

If you want a small surprise for administrators, Hello Dolly or Hello Ziggy keeps things simple.

For visitor-facing features, Confetti can make a completion moment feel a little more rewarding. XV Random Quotes and wp-Monalisa offer opportunities for content or community personality.

GamiPress makes more sense when participation is part of the site’s purpose.

And Raptorize It?

Well, sometimes you just want a velociraptor.

The important part is knowing your audience and testing the experience.

WordPress gives developers plenty of freedom to experiment. Some of the results are useful, some are strange, and a few are both.

There’s room for fun on a website. Just make sure visitors can still do what they came there to do.