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The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoaxipedia (the museum's online encyclopedia of hoaxes), the Hoax Forum, and the Top 100 April Fools' Day Hoaxes.

The museum was created in 1997 by Alex Boese. He's assisted by a staff of deputy curators and docents. Alex is the author of three books, most recently Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (which has nothing to do with hoaxes). Check out the list of the Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time for a preview.

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I think it's a great idea to tell teens that they can get high from licking catfish. It sure would be amusing to watch them try, over, and over, and over again.

...or they'd all get terribly ill & vomit all over.

Did you ever look straight into the eyes of a catfish? Whoa... their pupils are all dilated and the blood vessels are are all swollen. They may be bottom-dwellers, but they are high as kites. this has become a bit of a problem in Rural America, so I'm told. Most teenagers will tell you it's easier to get a couple of catfish than it is to get beer. Catfish labs have sprung up in the basements and barns, and school districts have declared their property to be "Catfish-Free" Zones. It's really sad... a kid was found downtown the other day, incoherantly mumbling about "I gotta get my licks in, man", and "It's whisker time, Dudes". He's currently in the local nut hut, where they get all those bad, illegal drugs out of your system, and give you all new, legal bad drugs. I gotta go. It's been a while since I licked my my way into an alkaloid frenzy, and I've got a a mean Catfish-Jones going on.

try one

There are several kinds of catfishes, including several marine species and some tropical freshwater catfishes, that have venomous fin spines. The worst of these is the fossil catfish, also called liver catfish or stinging catfish, which has a sting that has been known to be fatal in some cases. Perhaps there are some that also produce toxins on their skins. (None of the venomous catfishes are native to freshwater in North America, by the way). I have never heard of getting high by licking a catfish, (wouldn't everybody who eats the fish also get high?), but it's conceivable that this might be true if you chose the right species and licked carefully enough that you got an effective but sublethal dose. It is true that licking certain tropical and subtropical toads (or, reportedly, smoking the dried toads in a pipe)can induce hallucinations, along with a good deal of nausea. Eating flesh or various body parts of marine pufferfishes (known in sushi bars as fugu) can induce a euphoric intoxication, but a slight overdose of the toxin is frequently fatal. It is said that in Japan a few dozen people every year succumb to this cause. Several Japanese celebrities are reported to have died this way.

Cats lick themselves a lot, don't they? Cats... Cat Fish... hmmm... no wonder cats are weird. Do dog balls have the same effect? That would explain a lot, too.

You don't smoke the dried toad, you harmlessly milk the 5-methoxy-DMT and smoke it. See
http://www.bufoalvarius.org/

"It is said that in Japan a few dozen people every year succumb to this cause. Several Japanese celebrities are reported to have died this way."

The poison in fugu comes from toxic corals that the fish feed on. Most fugu served in restaurants are raised in farms where they are only fed nontoxic corals. I suspect the "several Japanese celebrities" that have died is an example of a Japanese urban legend. Like the kid from the Life cereal commercial dying from eating pop rocks. I know there was once a Japanese opera singer that was severely poisoned by eating bad fugu many years ago, but I don't think he actually died. That case is mentioned in "The Serpent and the Rainbow", and excellent book by a Harvard botanist about how natural toxins are used to create real life zombies in Haiti. Not to be confused with the horrible B-movie of the same title.

Holy crap! That kid from the Life commercials DIDN'T die from eating pop rocks and drinking soda? Woah!

Hey dude, pass me some more of that catfish.

This is a true story: I grew up in Edgewater, NJ. A family who lived down the block was named The Menasts. I think that's how the name was spelled. Anyway, they had gotten their children into modeling and commercial jobs out of NYC. The market was big back then, mid/late 60's, but the competition was smaller. Anyway, these kids had a distinctive look. Irish, big freckles, etc., and that terrible NJ accent. Anyway, those three kids you see in the "Mikey Likes It" Life Cereal commercial were actually brothers, all three cousins of the family who lived down the street from me. The two older boys visited the cousins by me one day, and they were introduced to me as "those kids who do them commercials and stuff in The City". I never did get to meet "Mikey". He was too young. Here's the really weird part. My Dad worked for General Foods Corporation, the manufacturer of Pop Rocks. Take it from me- Mikey did not choke on Pop Rocks. He was run over by a school bus driven by Eddie Haskell.

"You don't smoke the dried toad, you harmlessly milk the 5-methoxy-DMT and smoke it."

I stand corrected.

By the way, Wade Davis, author of "The Serpent and the Rainbow" mentioned above, has written elsewhere about smoking toads to get high.
He's a great storyteller, cut from the old swashbuckling style of ethnobotanists.

Okay- I've been getting some strenuous E-mails about my Dog Balls comments a couple of posts ago. Please allow me to apologize. I've crossed the line of decency and I know it. Mistakes were made. This all reminds me of the time my brother came to visit, and my dog GeeDub started licking his doggy balls right in front of my brother. My brother, feeling frothy, commented: "Whoa. I wish I could do that". To which I promptly retorted: "Go ahead. He don't bite". Grrrrrr

Have you ever eaten a catfish does that get you high you drugys