Hoax Museum Blog: Pranks

Name Change Prank — Robert Ashton and Aisling Davis have been playing tricks on each other for years. But when Robert dyed Aisling's hair blonde while she was asleep, she decided she needed to come up with something big to get him back. What she eventually dreamed up was to legally change Robert's name... to "Ima Stapler." The Halifax Courier reports:

Aisling, of Sowerby Bridge, decided to take her revenge. She knew someone who had recently changed their middle name by deed poll and wondered if it would be possible to change a name without that person knowing.
"Some friends and I thought of different names but Ima Stapler was the one that made us laugh the most," said Aisling, a teaching assistant of Burnley Road, Sowerby Bridge
"I've known him for a long time so I had most of his details. To be honest I thought it would be more difficult.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it to anyone else."


Apparently a "deed poll" is a legal document used in England to change one's name. It seems a bit scary that she was able to get away with this. Imagine what an identity thief could do.

But Robert, aka Ima Staper, says he thinks it's funny and has no plans to change his name back.

The Halifax Courier also reports that more than 40,000 people changed their name by deed poll last year: "New names issued included Jellyfish Mc-Saveloy, Toasted T Cake, Nineteen Sixty-Eight, Hong Kong Phooey, Daddy Fantastic, One-One-Eight Taxi, Ting A Ling, Huggy Bear, Donald Duck and Jojo Magicspacemonkey."
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008.   Comments (8)

Drive Someone Insane With Postcards — On eBay, right now, you have the chance to bid on a chance to participate in a prank that will "Drive Someone Insane with Postcards." The seller's description reads:
I will be spending the Christmas holiday in Poland in a tiny village that has one church with no bell because angry Germans stole it. Aside from vodka, there is not a lot for me to do.

During the course of my holiday I will send three postcards to one person of your choosing.

These postcards will be rant-ravingly insane, yet they will be peppered with unmistakable personal details about the addressee. Details you will provide me.

The postcards will not be coherently signed, leaving your mark confused, guessing wildly, crying out in anguish.

"How do I know this person? And how does he know I had a ferret named Goliath?"

Bidding is currently up to $185. It seems that the seller has figured out a clever way to make some money while on vacation.

Related Articles:
Lost Postcard Rescue Department (Dec. 10, 2007)
Postcards for Mom (Jun 22, 2004)
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007.   Comments (4)

Prank Call Leads to Electric Shock Treatment — Prank phone calls and electric-shock gadgets are perennial favorites of pranksters. So I guess what happened at the Judge Rotenberg Education Center was just a novel combination of the two: Call up and order electric-shock treatment for someone. It's actually kind of scary to think that it's that easy to order treatment for a patient. Boston Herald reports:
State officials are investigating complaints that staff at the Judge Rotenberg Education Center gave three people — including two teens — unnecessary electric shock treatments after receiving a prank phone call from someone pretending to be from the office of the school’s founder.

Initial investigations showed that a former student at the school allegedly called in orders for electric shock treatments on Aug. 26 and the Rotenberg center self-reported the prank call and unnecessary treatments the day after they occurred, Cindy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Early Education and Care, said Monday.

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007.   Comments (2)

Bigfoot Prank — WTVY News reports on a prank that reminded me of the Winsted Wild Man hoax from 1895, although quite a bit less sensational:
A teenager wore an outfit depicting the mythical Bigfoot creature. He then carried a fellow young person on each shoulder.
Alarmed residents called the sheriff's department and several others armed with shotguns headed to where the prank was taking place.
The young people, ranging in age from 18-to-23, were given a warning.
However, sheriff's officials say those involved in any copycat incidents will face reckless endangerment charges.

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007.   Comments (5)


Not Andy Warhol — Kutv.com has an article describing a hoax perpetrated by Andy Warhol back in 1967. He had been asked to do a speaking tour at various colleges, but decided, at the last minute, that he didn't want to do it. So he sent someone else, Allen Midgette, who pretended to be him: "Midgette whitened his hair and face and adopted a Warhol persona, and, accompanied by Morrissey, went on tour. And most believed the forged artist was authentic."

People finally figured out that Midgette was not Warhol when they compared photos of the two men. Apparently the stunt was not an attempt to make any kind of artistic statement. Warhol just really didn't like public speaking. His friends say that he had undiagnosed Asperger syndrome.

Sending an impostor to an interview or lecture is a fairly common prank. Joey Skaggs has done it often. Though I don't think this type of prank has ever been given a name. Maybe it could be called the Impostor Interviewee Prank. Or the Substitute Speaker Prank. Or just the Impostor Prank. Or what about, the Official or Authorized Impostor Prank.

I have no idea what the earliest example of this kind of prank would be. Sounds like a good research project to waste some time on!
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007.   Comments (5)

Lost Postcard Rescue Department — Recently Doris Alman received a postcard inside a plain white envelope. The postcard was sent from her mother and father, vacationing in Flagstaff, Arizona, to her grandmother in Audobon, Iowa. It had been mailed on Sept. 24, 1968. The envelope that held the postcard had a one-line return address: Lost Postcard Rescue Department. It had been mailed recently from Brooklyn, New York.

Doris Alman says she has no idea who could have mailed the old postcard to her. Whoever it was did some good research, because Alman no longer has the last name as her parents.

The U.S. Post Office says that there is no such thing as a "Lost Postcard Rescue Department" associated with the postal service. Nor was the envelope the postcard was sent in an official Postal Department letter. (If it were, it would have been stamped with a Postal Department stamp.)

So apparently there's a random prankster out there sending old, non-delivered postcards back to people. The Globe Gazette reports:
Douglas Wick of Hedemarken Collectibles in Bismarck, N.D., deals in postal history, including postcards.
“It isn’t uncommon at all to find postcards,” he said. “They tend to get saved a lot more frequently than things you receive in an envelope. Postcards get saved because of the picture.”
Wick, who has operated his postal history business for 20 years, said he hasn’t heard of the Lost Postcard Rescue Department either.
“It isn’t likely a private business simply because there is an expense involved in sending the envelope,” said Wick. “To me this sounds like some kind of weird practical joke.”
Alman says she doesn’t know anyone who would have access to the card.
And she doesn’t know anyone who has been to Brooklyn lately to drop it in a mailbox.
“It’s just very puzzling to me,” Alman said with a grin. “I’ve actually laid awake nights wondering who could have sent it to me.”

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007.   Comments (7)

Phallus in Football Field — In the summer of 2004 pranksters used herbicide to trace the outline of a giant phallus in the football field located inside Harman-Geist Stadium in Northeastern Pennsylvania. When the grass died, the phallus became visible.

Maintenance crews did their best to hide the phallus by painting it green, but eventually the paint wore away. And now the prank has succeeded in reaching an even wider audience, thanks to satellite technology.

Overhead satellite imagery of the stadium -- and giant phallus -- has shown up on google maps. You can see it for yourself by searching for the address "300 N. Cedar St., Hazleton, Pa." and then zooming in to see the stadium.

An interesting thing I noticed. One of the streets leading to the stadium is called Shaft Rd., which seems very appropriate.

The organization that does the satellite imagery says that it plans to resurvey that region in early 2009. Until then, the football-field phallus will remain on google maps.


Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007.   Comments (2)

Quick Links: Dec. 3, 2007 — Pie in Santa's Face
"A 22-year-old University of Montana student was charged with assault Friday for shoving a pumpkin pie into Santa Claus’ face at a shopping mall while a teen sat on his lap."

Save the Park
Four students in the UK created a hoax website as a social experiment to test the influence of the media. Their website, savethepark.co.uk, claimed there were plans to build a 220,000 tonne waste incineration plant in a South London park. Within a few weeks their site had received thousands of hits, and they had been contacted by a newspaper. They claim that their experiment, "showed how rumours can spread and how easy it is to get information out there that isn't true." But also that, "we are still a community and we can still stand together."

Venezuelan Toilet Paper Shortage
"Venezuelans have been buying large amounts of toilet paper on rumours it could be the next hard-to-find thing amid shortages of products like milk and meat."

Death by Cell Phone Report Disputed
It turns out that the death of a South Korean man was not due to an exploding cell phone, as many media outlets recently reported. Instead, police are attributing the death to a co-worker who backed into him with a drilling vehicle, and then tried to frame the cell phone. (Thanks, Joe)
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007.   Comments (4)

Skaggs turns down chance of TV fame — On his Art of the Prank blog, Joey Skaggs recounts how he was recently contacted by CBS TV, who were recruiting pranksters for a reality TV show, tentatively called "Pranksters." The concept of the show is that "comedians compete for a chance at their prank show." Kind of like HGTV's Design Star, except with pranksters. CBS wanted to know if Joey would be interested in participating. His comment:
Do they not see the irony in what they are trying to do? They are asking pranksters — people who have dedicated a large portion of their brain cells to coming up with ways to secretly confound, obfuscate and obliterate all semblance of authority in their lives — to submit their best pranking efforts to a committee of lawyers, producers and network executives for approval and then to be judged by some panel of “experts”?

Joey initially contemplated using his tried-and-true strategy of getting a friend to pretend to be him. But after he realized that any involvement with the show would give CBS the "irrevocable, unlimited, perpetual, worldwide, royalty and payment-free license to use and reproduce my materials in this program" he decided to wash his hands of them altogether.
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007.   Comments (2)

A Perfect Prank — A perfect prank should be funny, but it should also make a statement and actually make the world a better place. I figure the prank recently revealed to have been perpetrated by the Untergunther, a French "cultural guerrilla" group, comes pretty close to fulfilling that definition. Members of the Untergunther secretly repaired a clock in the Pantheon, a Paris landmark. The clock had been broken for decades -- until one day it was mysteriously working again. The Guardian reports:
For a year from September 2005, under the nose of the Panthéon's unsuspecting security officials, a group of intrepid "illegal restorers" set up a secret workshop and lounge in a cavity under the building's famous dome. Under the supervision of group member Jean-Baptiste Viot, a professional clockmaker, they pieced apart and repaired the antique clock that had been left to rust in the building since the 1960s. Only when their clandestine revamp of the elaborate timepiece had been completed did they reveal themselves.

Instead of thanking them, the Centre of National Monuments, which felt embarrassed by the prank, decided to bring legal action against the group. The court recently cleared the charges against them.
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007.   Comments (9)

Quick Links: Megan Meier, fake lawyer, etc. — I'm on the road up to Lake Tahoe for Thanksgiving, but here's a few quick links I've been meaning to post.

Online hoax leads to girl's suicide
The case of Megan Meier is attracting lots of attention, both online and offline. Megan believed that a young guy on MySpace was interested in her, but when Josh started to send her nasty messages, she committed suicide. Later it was discovered that "Josh" was a fake alias created by adults in Megan's neighborhood. A bizarre case, and one that underlines how important it is for kids to learn to be skeptical about information (and people) they find online.

Man Accused of Posing as a Lawyer
Cranky Media Guy writes, "I love the lawyer's "explanations" of his client's behavior."

Belly Dancer Indicted Over Fake Degree
"A high-profile belly dancer has been indicted for allegedly fabricating her university diploma, a prosecution official said Tuesday in the latest fake-degree scandal to hit education-obsessed South Korea." Since when has it become important for belly dancers to have advanced degrees?

Let's Marry Before Hanging Up
The latest prank from Pakistan: "The latest spin for the emergency helpline (Rescue 15) operators is prank calls from girls, who first report a ‘crime’ and then ask operators to marry them over the telephone." What are kids going to dream up next?
Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007.   Comments (25)

Dead Cow Prank — Neil Steinberg, author of the definitive work on school pranks, advises would-be pranksters in the title of his book that they should, If At All Possible, Involve a Cow But I don't think Steinberg would approve of this prank at Wichita Falls High School. From the AP:
A dead cow was found hanging by a hoof from a Wichita Falls High School fence post, but police say the incident had nothing to do with the school's upcoming football game against local rival Rider High...
The Wichita Falls Independent School District initially believed the incident was connected to the rivalry between Old High and Rider, which are to play Friday.
"This is the very type of activity and behavior that antagonizes more behavior," spokeswoman Renae Murphy said. "We are disgusted with that whole behavior and that action with the cruelty to the animal."

Dead cows aren't funny. They're just disturbing and cruel.
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007.   Comments (7)

75 Homeless Gnomes — Last month 75 gnomes suddenly appeared on the front lawn outside of a house in Springfield, Oregon. The police don't know where the gnomes came from, but they assume they were gnome-napped from other houses around town. It is one of the largest cases of gnome-napping anyone can remember.

The gnomes are currently being housed in the police station, although the police have warned that can only be a temporary arrangement:
“We need to get them out of here,” Springfield Capt. Richard Harrison said. “Every time I leave my office they’re sitting in my chair, working on my computer. I can’t seem to get rid of the darn things.”

The police urge anyone who is missing a gnome to come and claim it at the station. All the gnomes that don't get claimed will be put up for auction.
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007.   Comments (6)

A Cruel Prank — Newkerala.com reports on a cruel prank that took a tragic turn:
Dubai, Oct 29: An office boy of Indian origin working for a private firm tried to commit suicide after his colleagues played a prank on him and said he will not get his salary.
The prank turned into a tragedy as the boy who had been employed only for 15 days got so upset that he slashed his wrist with a knife. He lost consciousness and was admitted to Rashid hospital here yesterday.
One of the victim's friends said their company usually paid the salaries of the employees on the third of each month, Gulf News reported.
However, the boy was oblivious of the fact anf his colleagues enjoyed the ''game'' and teased him on and on.
The office boy panicked and even tried to meet the manager to check if he would be paid or not.
One of his colleagues said he disappeared in the afternoon. They searched for him everywhere and later found him in a room in the office bleeding and added that he had lost consciousness.

But wait, there's more:
An official of the company said the Indian office boy, who was not named, will be deported and his visa cancelled once he is discharged.

So first they scare this poor kid so much that he tries to commit suicide, and now they're going to deport him! I hope they at least pay him whatever salary he's owed.
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007.   Comments (4)

Pizza Delivery Prank Goes Wrong — Ordering pizzas to the house of someone who didn't expect to get them is one of the oldest pranks around. The concept dates all the way back to the Berners Street Hoax of 1810 (although that prank involved just about everything except pizza being delivered to a woman's front door). Here's a case of the prank being perpetrated long-distance, from over a continent away:
A Singapore Airlines pilot accused of making prank calls about a colleague in B.C. could be facing a hefty fine -- and up to three years in jail -- if found guilty. Looi Kang San, 53, was charged in Singapore last week with making four prank calls from there to three Canadian fast-food outlets for food to be delivered to the home of Steven Cameron Gillis in Surrey, the Straits Times reported. Looi is said to have called on Nov. 11 last year to Canadian Pizza and McDonald's for food to be delivered to Gillis, also a Singapore Airlines pilot. The following day, he allegedly called Kentucky Fried Chicken and made a second call to Canadian Pizza. When reached at home, Gillis, 57, declined to comment, but alluded that there was more to the story.

I've never heard of anyone facing serious punishment for this prank, but Looi has been suspended from his job because of it, and that's just the start:
Looi's passport has been impounded and he is out on bail for $8,000 Singapore dollars, or about $5,322 Cdn. A pre-trial conference has been scheduled for this Tuesday. Under Singapore's Telecommunications Act, anyone who transmits a false message by phone can be fined up to $10,000 Singapore dollars ($6,652 Cdn) and jailed for up to three years.

I'm making a note to myself never to order pizza to someone who doesn't want it while in Singapore!
Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007.   Comments (12)

John Harvard Becomes Halo Master Chief — The statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard is a frequent target of pranks, and recently it became a target once again. Students from MIT transformed John into the character "Master Chief" from the video game Halo 3. The MIT Tech explains:
The back of the helmet, which is worn by the protagonist of the game, Master Chief, was labeled with “Master Chief in Training.” The statue was decorated with an assault rifle (bullet count of 2E), as well as a Beaver emblem on the right shoulder.
I think the new look suits him.

The statue bears the inscription "John Harvard, Founder, 1638," and is thus known as the "statue of three lies" because a) the statue does not actually depict John Harvard because the statue maker had no images of Harvard to work from. The guy in the chair is actually a nineteenth-century Harvard student. 2) John Harvard did not found Harvard. It was merely renamed after him after he gave the school a lot of money. 3) The school was founded in 1636, not 1638.
Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007.   Comments (2)

Best of the forum - 21st September 07 — Due to my ongoing computer problems and personal situation, this is again brought to you by Madmouse.

Peruvian Meteorite (eovti)
An apparent meteorite landing in Peru has led to reports of illness amongst locals. Original suggestions for the cause of the sickness included radiation poisoning, but that seems unlikely.

Sign Language Translator (Madmouse)
There’s been a lot of discussion in the forum about this story. A group of UK students have developed a system to translate spoken or written words into British Sign Language that is then displayed by an avatar. Suggested uses include translating for meetings and for phone calls. This seems like a very good idea to me, although a lot more development is needed.

Belgium For Sale on Ebay (LaMa)
A disgruntled Belgian, protesting about Belgium’s political problems, put the country up for sale on Ebay. He pointed out that, although the nation is second-hand, the offer included free delivery.

Bigfoot Revealed!!! (gray)
A prankster who has posing as Bigfoot to scare campers for the last two years was captured in Manitoba. Apparently the man was less intimidated by the police than he was by the telling-off delivered by his last ‘victim’.
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007.   Comments (0)

Rude Crop Circle — The Smith family, owners of Hee Haw Farms in Utah County, weren't too pleased when they found a crop circle in their corn maze. According to the Deseret News:
Two strategically positioned circles, each measuring 36 feet in diameter, and a 100-foot-long rectangle appeared near the maze entrance in the southwest portion of the nine-acre corn field over Labor Day weekend. From the ground they appear random, but from above the shapes' placement appears more strategic, not to mention anatomically correct.
What kind of message are the extraterrestrials trying to send? Unfortunately I couldn't find an aerial picture of this crop formation. (Crop circle seems like the wrong word.)
Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007.   Comments (2)

Dihydrogen Monoxide… Once Again — The dihydrogen monoxide prank has gained another victim. Jacqui Dean, a New Zealand politician, received a letter from a constituent asking her to look into the issue of the dangerous chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide. She promptly fired off a letter to the Associate Health Minister asking him whether it would be possible to ban the drug. The minister replied that dihydrogen monoxide "may have been described to her as colourless, odourless, tasteless and causing the death of uncounted thousands of people every year, and withdrawal from which, for those who become dependent on it, means certain death." However, he had no intention of banning it.

American politicians, of course, have proven themselves to be equally susceptible to this prank.
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007.   Comments (6)

Flamingoing — I've found the new line of work that I'm going to go into: Flamingoing.

Flamingoing involves offering one's services as a professional flamingo prankster. People pay you to place flocks of pink flamingoes on other people's yards. A note is left along with the birds, "You've been flamingoed," and there's a number the victim can call to find out who played the prank.

Flamingoing, as a line of work, has been pioneered by two high school students, Emily Lohmeyer and Paige Prentice of Nevada Union High School. They charge $35 to "flamingo" someone's property. They're using the money they raise to pay for a trip to Europe. So far they've earned $700!!!

From TheUnion.com:
Prentice and Lohmeyer usually plant about 20 flamingos in the front yard. The job can still be risky at times.
"We've had experiences when dogs have barked," she said. "We had one experience when the owner let the dogs out when they started barking, and they got within 5 or 6 feet of us. We were hiding behind the bushes, so the dogs didn't see us. They were distracted by the flamingos. Then Emily and I jumped up and sprinted for our car."
When I start my flamingo business, I think I'll add a "rude gnome" option -- allow customers to include a few of those mooning gnomes from prankplace.com, along with the flamingoes.

A nod should be given to the University of Wisconsin's Pail and Shovel Party, who were responsible for what remains the most famous flamingoing event.
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007.   Comments (11)

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