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Bigfoot Hoaxes
Type: Legend. Summary: The legend of the existence of a giant ape native to North America has inspired numerous hoaxes. BIGFOOT HAIKUIf a tree branch falls in the woods and hits Bigfoot, does he make a sound? (by AB) Bigfoot, he saw me. Grabbed me and ran far away. I’ll…
Blue Laws of Connecticut
Type: Fake History. Summary: An eighteenth-Century historian wrote about repressive “blue laws” supposedly once practiced in Connecticut. The term ‘Blue Laws’ describes harsh, puritanical laws that regulate public morality. Such laws supposedly existed in colonial America, making it illegal to do such things as kiss a child or shave on…
Brooklyn Bridge Scams
Type: Scams. Summary: The “selling the Brooklyn Bridge” scam has been around almost as long as the Bridge itself. The article describes the origins of the “selling” scam as well as Steve Brodie’s own unique Bridge scam. Posted by: Elliot Feldman When construction ended on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883,…
Dominion of Melchizedek
Type: Fictitious Country. Summary: The Dominion of Melchizedek was a non-existent island country established by father and son con artists, Evan and Mark Pedley. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Melchizedek is a country that has no physical presence on the planet, yet its home to hundreds of financial institutions. ……
Filipino Monkey
Type: Rogue radio operator. Summary: For decades a mysterious prankster has interrupted ship-to-ship radio communications with obscenities and threats. The Filipino Monkey is the name of an infamous rogue radio operator who interjects lewd jokes, threats, obscenities, and animal noises into ship-to-ship radio communications conducted on VHF marine channel 16…
Flemish Secession Hoax
Type: Television News Hoax. Summary: In 2006, on a Belgian TV station news broadcast, it was announced that Flanders, the Dutch-speaking half of the country, had seceded from the country. Thirty minutes into the news bulletin, only after the station’s phonelines were swamped, it was revealed to be a hoax.…
Instant Color TV
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: In 1962 Swedish television viewers were told they could receive color reception by placing a nylon stocking over the screen. Instant Color TV is listed at #3 in the Museum’s list of the Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time. INSTANT COLOR…
James Macpherson and the Ossianic Controversy
Type: Literary hoax. Summary: An eighteenth-century schoolmaster claimed to have found poems written by a third-century Scottish bard. The poems were actually written by the schoolmaster himself. James MacphersonIn 1760 a young Edinburgh schoolmaster named James Macpherson (1736-1796) published a translation of ancient Scottish verse titled Fragments of Ancient Poetry,…
Jonathan Swift
Type: Satirist. Summary: Jonathan Swift penned some of the most famous satires (and satirical hoaxes) of the eighteenth century. Jonathan SwiftThe relationship between satire and hoaxing is complex. Satire is defined as the use of wit to expose stupidity or vice, whereas a hoax is a sensational act of deception.…
Kingdom of Redonda
Type: Fictitious Country. Summary: Science fiction author M.P. Shiel was also known as Felipe I, the second King of Redonda, an island nation that may or may not exist. Posted by: Elliot Feldman M.P. Shiel M.P. Shiel was a notable early 20th century British science fiction and fantasy author.…
Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota
Type: College Prank. Summary: The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Pail and Shovel Party promised that, if elected to student government, they would move the Statue of Liberty to Lake Mendota, and they made good on their promise. Lady Liberty sinks into Lake Mendota. (Photograph by Ravi Kochhar). In February 1979 an…
Lost Island of Hi-Brazil
Type: Geographical Legend. Summary: For centuries European map-makers believed that an island called Hi-Brazil was located in the Atlantic, even though no such island had ever been found. Detail from the Catalan map of 1350 showing the location of Hi-Brazil. (Image from Donald Johnson’s Phantom Islands of the Atlantic) In…
Madagascar or Robert Drurys Journal
Type: Undetermined. Probably not a hoax. Summary: There has been continuing debate about whether a popular tale describing survival in eighteenth-century Madagascar was truth or fiction. Ask your average eighteenth-century Englishman about the faraway land of Madagascar, and all you’d get was a blank stare. For the English, Madagascar was…
Man Flies By Own Lung Power
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: A widely printed photograph showed a man flying by means of a device powered by the breath of his lungs. AdditionalApril Fool’s Day ContentTop 100 April Fool’s Day HoaxesThe April Fool’s Day Database In April 1934 numerous U.S. newspapers printed a photograph distributed by…
Miss Perfect Profile
Type: Publicity Stunt. Summary: The head of a modeling agency invented phony titles to promote his models. Newspapers and magazines like to print pictures of attractive young women, especially if the pictures are vaguely newsworthy. For instance, if the woman has just been awarded a title such as “Miss Congeniality,”…
Predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: An astrologer learns that he has died. Insists it isn’t so. AdditionalApril Fool’s Day ContentTop 100 April Fool’s Day HoaxesThe April Fool’s Day Database The Almanac of Isaac Bickerstaff. Sometime in February, 1708 an almanac went on sale in London titled Predictions for the…
Princess Caraboo
Type: Impostor Summary: A nineteenth-century British maid pretended to be a princess from the exotic land of Javasu. Princess Caraboo, by Edward BirdOn Thursday April 3, 1817, a strange woman appeared in Almondsbury, a small town near Bristol in Gloucestershire, England. She was five foot two, extremely attractive, and wore…
Principality of New Utopia
Type: Fictitious country. Summary: Howard Turney (AKA Lazarus Long) founded a “country” called New Utopia, supposedly based on the libertarian philosophy of novelist Ayn Rand. Unfortunately it became a center for offshore banking scams. Posted by: Elliot Feldman The Principality of New Utopia was an island country in the…
Principality of Outer Baldonia
Type: Fictitious Country. Summary: The Principality of Outer Baldonia started as a practical joke among friends on a fishing trip and it became a country. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Russell Arundel was an executive with the Pepsi-Cola Company. He was also a well-known eccentric. In 1948, he purchased the…
Principality of Sealand
Type: Country of an ambiguous legal status. Summary: Sealand, the world’s smallest country, started as a WWII British naval installation, turned into a pirate radio station, and finally its own “country.” Posted by: Elliot Feldman Sealand. Sealand is the world’s smallest country, a fortified pontoon barge standing on two…
Prophecies of Mother Shipton
Mother Shipton’s house in YorkshireMother Shipton, also known as Ursula Sonthiel Shipton, was born in 1488 in Yorkshire, England, and lived until 1561. According to legend, her birth was the result of a union between her mother and the devil. When she was born, she was reportedly hideously ugly. This…
Retractable Capitol Dome
Type: Satire Mistaken as News Summary: A Beijing newspaper mistakenly reported that the U.S. Congress was demanding the installation of a retractable Capitol dome. On June 3, 2002, the Beijing Evening News scooped its competitors with a shocking story from America: the U.S. Congress was threatening to leave Washington DC…
San Serriffe
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: On April 1, 1977 the Guardian published a seven-page supplement devoted to the previously unknown island state of San Serriffe. Table of Contents The Creation of San Serriffe The Special Report San Serriffe Geography San Serriffe Culture San Serriffe Advertisements The Response The Sequel…
Silence Dogood
Type: False Identity. Summary: Sixteen-year-old Benjamin Franklin pretended to be a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. View the Discussion Page for this topic. In 1722 a series of letters appeared in the New-England Courant written by a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. The letters poked fun at various aspects of…
Space Cadets
Type: Reality TV hoax. Summary: In 2005, the British television show “Space Cadets” pulled off the most expensive and elaborate hoax in English television history. Posted by: Elliot Feldman In 2005, all of Britain was talking about a new Channel 4 reality series, “Space Cadets.” The show’s alleged concept: twelve…
Stone Age Tasaday
Type: Anthropological Hoax. Summary: A primitive, stone-age tribe found living in a rain forest in the Philippines was later alleged to be an elaborate fake. Table of Contents The Tasaday As A Real Tribe The Tasaday As A Fake Tribe The Revenge of the Tasaday Making Sense of the Tasaday…
Stotham Massachusetts
Type: Hoax. Summary: A Massachusetts town, described as an example of an unspoiled New England village, turned out not to exist. Frontispiece to Ripley’s articleThe White Pine Monograph Series was a series of carefully researched, high quality brochures, paid for by Weyerhaeuser mills and edited by Russell Whitehead, that collected…
Theft of the Sacred Cod
Type: College Prank. Summary: In 1933 Harvard students “codnapped” the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts. The Sacred Cod of Massachusetts. Theft is one of the classic and most-often-used tools in the toolbox of college pranksters. All manner of prized items are regularly spirited away at campuses throughout the world: statues, bells,…
Traveling Stones of Pahranagat Valley
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1867 Nevada journalist Dan De Quille described some stones with a curious property—whenever separated from each other they spontaneously moved back together. On October 26, 1867 a story appeared in Nevada’s Territorial Enterprise newspaper describing some unusual stones recently found in the Pahranagat Valley of…
Walt Disney Frozen
Type: Urban Legend. Summary: According to rumor, Walt Disney’s cryogenically preserved body is kept in a tank under Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Walt Disney Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966, but a rumor has long persisted that his body was cryogenically frozen…
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Bigfoot Hoaxes
Type: Legend. Summary: The legend of the existence of a giant ape native to North America has inspired numerous hoaxes. BIGFOOT HAIKUIf a tree branch falls in the woods and hits Bigfoot, does he make a sound? (by AB) Bigfoot, he saw me. Grabbed me and ran far away. I’ll…
Blue Laws of Connecticut
Type: Fake History. Summary: An eighteenth-Century historian wrote about repressive “blue laws” supposedly once practiced in Connecticut. The term ‘Blue Laws’ describes harsh, puritanical laws that regulate public morality. Such laws supposedly existed in colonial America, making it illegal to do such things as kiss a child or shave on…
Brooklyn Bridge Scams
Type: Scams. Summary: The “selling the Brooklyn Bridge” scam has been around almost as long as the Bridge itself. The article describes the origins of the “selling” scam as well as Steve Brodie’s own unique Bridge scam. Posted by: Elliot Feldman When construction ended on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883,…
Dominion of Melchizedek
Type: Fictitious Country. Summary: The Dominion of Melchizedek was a non-existent island country established by father and son con artists, Evan and Mark Pedley. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Melchizedek is a country that has no physical presence on the planet, yet its home to hundreds of financial institutions. ……
Filipino Monkey
Type: Rogue radio operator. Summary: For decades a mysterious prankster has interrupted ship-to-ship radio communications with obscenities and threats. The Filipino Monkey is the name of an infamous rogue radio operator who interjects lewd jokes, threats, obscenities, and animal noises into ship-to-ship radio communications conducted on VHF marine channel 16…
Flemish Secession Hoax
Type: Television News Hoax. Summary: In 2006, on a Belgian TV station news broadcast, it was announced that Flanders, the Dutch-speaking half of the country, had seceded from the country. Thirty minutes into the news bulletin, only after the station’s phonelines were swamped, it was revealed to be a hoax.…
Instant Color TV
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: In 1962 Swedish television viewers were told they could receive color reception by placing a nylon stocking over the screen. Instant Color TV is listed at #3 in the Museum’s list of the Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time. INSTANT COLOR…
James Macpherson and the Ossianic Controversy
Type: Literary hoax. Summary: An eighteenth-century schoolmaster claimed to have found poems written by a third-century Scottish bard. The poems were actually written by the schoolmaster himself. James MacphersonIn 1760 a young Edinburgh schoolmaster named James Macpherson (1736-1796) published a translation of ancient Scottish verse titled Fragments of Ancient Poetry,…
Jonathan Swift
Type: Satirist. Summary: Jonathan Swift penned some of the most famous satires (and satirical hoaxes) of the eighteenth century. Jonathan SwiftThe relationship between satire and hoaxing is complex. Satire is defined as the use of wit to expose stupidity or vice, whereas a hoax is a sensational act of deception.…
Kingdom of Redonda
Type: Fictitious Country. Summary: Science fiction author M.P. Shiel was also known as Felipe I, the second King of Redonda, an island nation that may or may not exist. Posted by: Elliot Feldman M.P. Shiel M.P. Shiel was a notable early 20th century British science fiction and fantasy author.…
Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota
Type: College Prank. Summary: The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Pail and Shovel Party promised that, if elected to student government, they would move the Statue of Liberty to Lake Mendota, and they made good on their promise. Lady Liberty sinks into Lake Mendota. (Photograph by Ravi Kochhar). In February 1979 an…
Lost Island of Hi-Brazil
Type: Geographical Legend. Summary: For centuries European map-makers believed that an island called Hi-Brazil was located in the Atlantic, even though no such island had ever been found. Detail from the Catalan map of 1350 showing the location of Hi-Brazil. (Image from Donald Johnson’s Phantom Islands of the Atlantic) In…
Madagascar or Robert Drurys Journal
Type: Undetermined. Probably not a hoax. Summary: There has been continuing debate about whether a popular tale describing survival in eighteenth-century Madagascar was truth or fiction. Ask your average eighteenth-century Englishman about the faraway land of Madagascar, and all you’d get was a blank stare. For the English, Madagascar was…
Man Flies By Own Lung Power
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: A widely printed photograph showed a man flying by means of a device powered by the breath of his lungs. AdditionalApril Fool’s Day ContentTop 100 April Fool’s Day HoaxesThe April Fool’s Day Database In April 1934 numerous U.S. newspapers printed a photograph distributed by…
Miss Perfect Profile
Type: Publicity Stunt. Summary: The head of a modeling agency invented phony titles to promote his models. Newspapers and magazines like to print pictures of attractive young women, especially if the pictures are vaguely newsworthy. For instance, if the woman has just been awarded a title such as “Miss Congeniality,”…
Predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: An astrologer learns that he has died. Insists it isn’t so. AdditionalApril Fool’s Day ContentTop 100 April Fool’s Day HoaxesThe April Fool’s Day Database The Almanac of Isaac Bickerstaff. Sometime in February, 1708 an almanac went on sale in London titled Predictions for the…
Princess Caraboo
Type: Impostor Summary: A nineteenth-century British maid pretended to be a princess from the exotic land of Javasu. Princess Caraboo, by Edward BirdOn Thursday April 3, 1817, a strange woman appeared in Almondsbury, a small town near Bristol in Gloucestershire, England. She was five foot two, extremely attractive, and wore…
Principality of New Utopia
Type: Fictitious country. Summary: Howard Turney (AKA Lazarus Long) founded a “country” called New Utopia, supposedly based on the libertarian philosophy of novelist Ayn Rand. Unfortunately it became a center for offshore banking scams. Posted by: Elliot Feldman The Principality of New Utopia was an island country in the…
Principality of Outer Baldonia
Type: Fictitious Country. Summary: The Principality of Outer Baldonia started as a practical joke among friends on a fishing trip and it became a country. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Russell Arundel was an executive with the Pepsi-Cola Company. He was also a well-known eccentric. In 1948, he purchased the…
Principality of Sealand
Type: Country of an ambiguous legal status. Summary: Sealand, the world’s smallest country, started as a WWII British naval installation, turned into a pirate radio station, and finally its own “country.” Posted by: Elliot Feldman Sealand. Sealand is the world’s smallest country, a fortified pontoon barge standing on two…
Prophecies of Mother Shipton
Mother Shipton’s house in YorkshireMother Shipton, also known as Ursula Sonthiel Shipton, was born in 1488 in Yorkshire, England, and lived until 1561. According to legend, her birth was the result of a union between her mother and the devil. When she was born, she was reportedly hideously ugly. This…
Retractable Capitol Dome
Type: Satire Mistaken as News Summary: A Beijing newspaper mistakenly reported that the U.S. Congress was demanding the installation of a retractable Capitol dome. On June 3, 2002, the Beijing Evening News scooped its competitors with a shocking story from America: the U.S. Congress was threatening to leave Washington DC…
San Serriffe
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: On April 1, 1977 the Guardian published a seven-page supplement devoted to the previously unknown island state of San Serriffe. Table of Contents The Creation of San Serriffe The Special Report San Serriffe Geography San Serriffe Culture San Serriffe Advertisements The Response The Sequel…
Silence Dogood
Type: False Identity. Summary: Sixteen-year-old Benjamin Franklin pretended to be a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. View the Discussion Page for this topic. In 1722 a series of letters appeared in the New-England Courant written by a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. The letters poked fun at various aspects of…
Space Cadets
Type: Reality TV hoax. Summary: In 2005, the British television show “Space Cadets” pulled off the most expensive and elaborate hoax in English television history. Posted by: Elliot Feldman In 2005, all of Britain was talking about a new Channel 4 reality series, “Space Cadets.” The show’s alleged concept: twelve…
Stone Age Tasaday
Type: Anthropological Hoax. Summary: A primitive, stone-age tribe found living in a rain forest in the Philippines was later alleged to be an elaborate fake. Table of Contents The Tasaday As A Real Tribe The Tasaday As A Fake Tribe The Revenge of the Tasaday Making Sense of the Tasaday…
Stotham Massachusetts
Type: Hoax. Summary: A Massachusetts town, described as an example of an unspoiled New England village, turned out not to exist. Frontispiece to Ripley’s articleThe White Pine Monograph Series was a series of carefully researched, high quality brochures, paid for by Weyerhaeuser mills and edited by Russell Whitehead, that collected…
Theft of the Sacred Cod
Type: College Prank. Summary: In 1933 Harvard students “codnapped” the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts. The Sacred Cod of Massachusetts. Theft is one of the classic and most-often-used tools in the toolbox of college pranksters. All manner of prized items are regularly spirited away at campuses throughout the world: statues, bells,…
Traveling Stones of Pahranagat Valley
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1867 Nevada journalist Dan De Quille described some stones with a curious property—whenever separated from each other they spontaneously moved back together. On October 26, 1867 a story appeared in Nevada’s Territorial Enterprise newspaper describing some unusual stones recently found in the Pahranagat Valley of…
Walt Disney Frozen
Type: Urban Legend. Summary: According to rumor, Walt Disney’s cryogenically preserved body is kept in a tank under Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Walt Disney Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966, but a rumor has long persisted that his body was cryogenically frozen…
