Hi! This one comes from Virginia Beach,VA. It was pulled off on Apr.1, 1992 by local DJs. We have a park that used to be a landfill called Mt. Trashmore(really!) On April Fools Day, Tommy and the Bull(djs) announced that it was going to blow up because of methane gas buildup. People FREAKED! It went on all day. Those guys really played it up and the whole city fell for it. Here is part of the archive describing what happened. I'm sure you could contact the Virginian-Pilot for the whole story. I thought it was pretty cool.
Great site by the way, I've already sent it to tons of my friends.
Jean
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Another Griffiths' stunt involving Mount Trashmore wasn't received so well. On April 1, 1992, Griffiths and then partner, Henry ``The Bull'' Del Toro, pulled off a modern classic April Fool's caper. Like the Orson Welles' 1939 Mars Invasion spoof, the radio duo used a mock news report, complete with phony seismic information from the University of Virginia and on-air calls from ``experts'' (who in reality were Griffiths' friends). Though they thought they were giving obvious clues by naming fictitious evacuation highways the jokesters convinced hundreds of gullible residents that the hill was about to explode from a gas buildup inside.In the days following the event, numerous radio employees were temporarily suspended from the airwaves without pay. It seems the FCC was not amused when local ``911'' lines were deluged with calls from concerned citizens.The disc jockeys and citizens were unaware that the methane gas the decaying matter inside the hills actually generates is harmlessly vented by three inconspicuous hollow flagpoles planted along the ridge of the hills.
http://www.pilotonline.com/funplaces/trashmore2.html
Enjoyed your site and have a link that you're missing:
http://web.fvdes.com/Web_Eval_TL/OKWine/okawp.html
It's the site for the Oklahoma Association of Wine Producers, a very professional looking products which highlights that state's long and totally bogus tradition of producing excellent wine. The page includes good graphics and "supporting" statistics. Click on the link at the bottom of the page for the disclaimer: "The page was created for use in a classroom situation to illustrate the ease with which erroneous or false information may be distributed on the Internet."
Lynn
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/folklore/chtown/buffal.htm
Hi,
I've found that people are extremely passionate over "environmental" issues and 90% do not have the foggiest idea of what's really happening. The link above sort of proves my point and I hope you enjoy the article.
Chelsie
I wanted to note that on your gullibility test page, you have that in 1806, Thomas Jefferson thought that there was a dinosaur in the west of America. On http://museum.gov.ns.ca/fgm/lab/prosauropod6.html it says that the word dinosaur wasn't coined until 1842. I hope that you change this mistake. Thanks!
Bill
David
Good call! Since I'm getting a Ph.D. in the History of Science, I have no excuse for letting that mistake slip by. Just being sloppy. I believe Jefferson would have referred to dinosaurs as 'mastodons'.
You may want to add this link
http://members.truepath.com/DocReedy/GENESIS.html
Dear Alex,
Congratulations for your museum. You may be interested by the following hoaxes related to the early history of television (1877-1880) that I have recently published on my website "History of television" (http://www.histv.net).
1. The electroscope hoax in The New York Sun, 29 March 1877. http://histv2.free.fr/19/electroscope.htm I found the cutting in the Edison archives at Rutgers University. This article has not been cited in the History of television books. I consider it at the oldest known article about an electric project of seeing at a distance. Had some echo in France in 1878.
2. The Dr. Licks' diaphote hoax : http://histv2.free.fr/licks/licks.htm. Thanks to the collaboration of Col. Sicherman and of Mr J.A. McLennan, the author of the hoax is now identified as Mansfield Merriman, a mathemician; statistician (first Ph. in Statistics in the States !) and Professor of engineering at the Leihigh University. A really successful hoax with various quotations in the popular and scientific press in US, UK and France. Licks's name possibly referring to the Great Moon Hoax, also quoted by Licks in its Recreations in Mathematics.
3. The telephole hoax, end of March 1880. Still to be investigated. Quoted by Licks in 1917 as an epiphenomena of his own diaphote hoax. Also quoted in France, 1st April 1880. http://histv2.free.fr/19/connely.htm
This third hoax would need further investigations that I cannot do from here (Strasbourg, France).
See also on my site, the Jan Szczepanik telectroscope story in 1898 involving Mark Twain and Cleveland Moffets. There are still debate amongst historians to decide if it was an hoax or not.
Do not hesitate to make links. My site is in French. If necessary I could translate in English.
Have fun !
André
Strasbourg
These are great resources. Thanks!
I love the Feline Reaction to Bearded Man. But I don't think that is a hoax. That is an honest cat reaction. If I were to put my cat, Muffin in front of that picture she would probably react the same way. Unless , of course, I were to rub some catnip on the photograph. Then she would wipe her body all over the photograph and kick it with her hind legs. I thing the Classica Gas guy shold have smeared cat nip on th picture so the cat would have given him a base line reaction first. I mean, for all he knows that cat is meditating. That's what it looks like to me, anyway.
PS great site.
Hi there
Thought you might be interested in my site, which tells the story of how I (accidentally at first) was a hoax online Prince William. Details at http://members.lycos.co.uk/willnot
Cheers
will.not
Very amusing.
This is a superb site - well done, and many thanks.
You might be amused by some of the stuff on my own website:
www.jfhopkin.com
(follow the "Humour" link), but it pales into insignificance compared with the Museum of Hoaxes.
Again, many thanks.
John
My favorite is the 'Britain for Americans' site, having myself recently been a clueless American tourist in Britain.
Mr. Boese,
Was there ever a hoax involving a letter written by Cleopatra? Supposidly written in French and signed "Cleopatra"?
Thank you.
You're probably referring to one of the forgeries of Vrain Lucas, the nineteenth-century French forger. He produced thousands of letters that were supposedly written by various famous historical personages such as Alexander the Great, Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, Aristotle, Attila the Hun, Blaise Pascal, and even Jesus Christ. His letters were all bought by a highly credulous client, the mathematician Michael Chastes. Amazingly, Chastes didn't find it odd that all these people, even Jesus, had supposedly written in French. Lucas was finally brought to trial in 1869 and sentenced to two years in prison in February 1870.
How about the ponzi hoax?
Charles Ponzi's pyramid scheme remains one of the most famous financial scams of all time. He promised investors in his scheme that they would make 50% profits in three months. These profits were paid by the money that new investors poured into the scheme. Apparently Ponzi received almost $2 million in investments on one day in 1920. I'll have more about Ponzi in the upcoming book version of the Museum of Hoaxes, due out in Fall, 2002.
I found this site through a Chemistry magazine called ChemMatters. On the back cover of the magazine was an explanation about the article and a quiz, which I passed. I came to the site the first time I got a chance to sit down at a computer. I love the site and come to it almost everyday.
The Gullibility Test ran in the February 2002 "Pseudoscience" issue of ChemMatters. Glad to hear that you liked it.
The following is currently in the e-mail circuit. Do You know if there is any truth to it? Couldn't find anything on the 3 web sites I know of re hoaxes.
Thanks,
Pete
This story received a lot of media coverage in December 2000. The woman who found the chicken head is named Katherine Ortega. She claimed to have bought the McNuggets from a McDonald's franchise in Newport News, Virginia. I don't know what became of the case after all the media attention blew over.
To whom it may concern,
I receive the following email and wondered whether this is true or a hoax? Can you help?
Thanks,
Joseph
THE YEAR WAS 1987!!!!
At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video clip of Lt. Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration. There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but what he said was stunning!!!!
He was being drilled by some senator;
"Did you not recently spend close $60,000 for a home security system?"
Ollie replied, "Yes, I did, Sir."
The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience, "Isn't that just a little excessive?"
"No, sir," continued Ollie.
"No? And why not?" the senator asked.
"Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir"
"Threatened? By whom?" the senator questioned.
"By a terrorist, sir" Ollie answered.
"Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?"
"His name is Osama bin Laden, sir" Ollie replied.
At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn't pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn't. A couple of people laughed at the attempt. Then the senator continued. "Why are you so afraid of this man?" the senator asked.
"Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of", Ollie answered.
"And what do you recommend we do about him?" asked the senator.
"Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth."
The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip.
By the way, the Senator was Al Gore!!!!!
What year was it again? Some people just don't listen when they should!!!!!!
This is a hoax. First of all, Senator Gore didn't participate in the Iran Contra hearings, so he never questioned Oliver North. Second of all, in 1987 Osama Bin Laden was fighting against the Russians in Afghanistan. We considered him to be on our side at that time. Oliver North did claim that he was afraid that a terrorist named Abu Nidal was after him.
I was searching the Internet to see if anyone else besides me thinks the "Mattie Stepanek, Boy Poet, Peacemaker, and Ill Child" thing is a hoax.
I for one am not buying it. Everything out of that kid's mouth is scripted and empty.
He's 11 years old, and has been reading and writing since he was three? Writing poems since he was four?
I understand the whole prodigy theory, but such gifts must be nutured and developed. Stepanek's mother, who has passed her disease to four children, all now dead except for Mattie, is no brain trust.
I think it's a huge marketing ploy, well conceived and brilliantly scripted.
Whaddya think?
Love the site! Found it in a search! Thanks!
For those who have never heard of Mattie Stepanek, check out this article about him from ABC News. Maybe his poetry is all a cynical marketing ploy. It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened. But I think Mattie is for real.
Re: January 20, 2001
Dear Sir, Concerning the letter stating that the Great Pyramid was constructed by people who knew Pi, this is a great myth and possible hoax. When the measurements were laid out, they were laid out with the assistance of a measuring wheel therefor including the value of Pi into the calculation.
Chris
What was the hoaxers name who ran the lap in 1972 olympics marathon? All I know is he is a german politician.
I haven't heard about this one before.
Hi Alex nice site,
just surfed your pages and noticed this wasn't included. I came across the TCAP in a British technology magazine article in late 1999. Don't know if it's a hoax, I haven't read into it enough, though I think it probably is. It involves government, aliens, famous companies.
Hope it is interesting to you , here's some links to some info on the web
http://www.compamerica.com/TCAP4sale.htm
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/9587/
http://www.compamerica.com/tcapstore.htm
My guess would be that any technology that claims to be reverse-engineered from UFOs is a hoax. Not that I have anything against UFOs, but one of the oldest hoaxing ploys in the book is to claim that some object or technology was found in an inaccessible place known only to the hoaxer.
What about the one that says that people eat an average of 7 spiders in their sleep during the course of their lives. True or false? If true, how was this determined? If false, where did this story come from?
Ed
The claim is that everyone eats approximately 10 spiders in their sleep during their lifetime. It's false. Apparently it traces back to an article written in 1993 in PC Professional magazine. The columnist was complaining that people would believe anything they received in their e-mail, and as an example she said that they would probably believe that the average person eats 10 spiders in their sleep over the course of their lifetime. Sure enough, her made-up fact began circulating over the internet and people believed it.
Hi,
There was a famous April Fool's joke that was started by a Radio presenter in Liverpool, England. The presenter of Radio City Kevin Seed said on air that Steps, the pop band, would be outside Liverpool's St George's Hall, at 7.00pm. Thousands turned up and to their disappointment Steps the pop band where not present. Many phoned in to complain. Mrs Seed later when on to explain that when he said 'steps' he meant the 39 steps leading up to the entrance St George's Hall!!
Yours, AJP
P.S. WKD website!!!
Anyone remember what year this occurred?
Hi,
I couldn't sleep so at 2am in London I watched web review on ITV. Your site was given 9 out of 10!! I came to the site to see for myself and I'm impressed. Well done!
claire
I'm glad you liked it, and I hope it didn't put you right to sleep.
I didn't happen to see in your site an account of what I have heard and read referred to as the 'dreadnought' hoax. I don't recall the details very clearly offhand, and perhaps I have been pipped myself, but I believe it involved a Brit who, with a group of his friends, pulled off an impersonation of a foreign (make-believe) dignitary which resulted in the Royal Navy turning out to offer a full review and salute, much to their later embarrassment. This event is supposed to have occurred in the late 1800's or very early 1900's.
The Dreadnought hoax occurred on February 7, 1910. I've got a short account of it on my February calendar of hoaxes page. I'll have a longer account of it in the upcoming book version of the Museum of Hoaxes.