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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 remember a few years back, reading some information about auto industry research into the habits of SUV owners. It said that 99% of them NEVER take their "off-road" vehicles off the road.

Fake mud seems to me like it would appeal to Hummer drivers, whose theme song should be "Tomorrow Belongs To Me."

also good for foiling redlight/speeding cameras.

There was a news article about this product last weekend. Some people have been using this product to obscure their license plates so that traffic cameras couldn't capture their license plate numbers and send them tickets.

"What will they think of next?"

How about canned snow for Eskimoes on summer holidays?

I get real mud for free where I work.

Am I the only one who thinks that picture looks photoshopped?

I don't know if it's photoshopped or not, but it doesn't look like 'real' off-road mud. It's much too thin, it looks like you drove through a muddy puddle and got splashed. Real off-road mud has big chuck in it from where mud that was in the lugs of your tire sloughs off and get stuck to your truck's body.

The pic looks photoshopped to me too. But the idea is great... I've got an ex with a sports car... I wonder if they sell that stuff in bulk. Hmmmm...

That stuff looks kind of fake...isnt mud usually more textured, and not all flat?

I notice they make sure to mention many times that it can obscure license plate (of course it should never be used for that) but if you are caught you will receive no endorsement on your license. So I'm guessing the real purpose of this stuff is to do what they tell you not to do. Kind of like those hippy shops that sell pipes that are for "tobacco use only."

yes, it's photoshopped... badly

All he did was make a brown color, painted it in splotches, reduced the opacity a little on the paint and erased out the parts where the tail lights are... very "professional"

I'd venture to say that no, this isn't photoshopped... it's "MS Painted"

Photoshopped picture, and the photo of the bottle is nothing more than a bottle of toilet bowl clear with a computer printed plain paper label slapped on. 10 to 1 this product doesn't exist despite all of the news about it...

The real purpose behind spray on mud is to obscure license plates...

It's a kind of funny, if obvious, takeoff on the fact (cited above by CMG) that the vast majority of people buying these vehicles designed for ranch work and jungle exploration NEVER take their SOBs off the road.
Imagine somebody buying mud, though. I mean, where could you possibly live where you couldn't easily get mud for free? Even in Manhattan it's very easy to find.

As for Hummers, it's obvious that people only buy them because (1) 10 miles per gallon is just too good for them, or (2) It's too much trouble to always carry around a sign that says, "I'm an obnoxious *sshole."

Big Gary said:

"Imagine somebody buying mud, though. I mean, where could you possibly live where you couldn't easily get mud for free? Even in Manhattan it's very easy to find."

Sure is. Hey, Manhattan even used to have The Mudd Club, way back when. Two blocks south of Canal St. if I remember correctly.

Big Gary also said:

"As for Hummers, it's obvious that people only buy them because (1) 10 miles per gallon is just too good for them, or (2) It's too much trouble to always carry around a sign that says, "I'm an obnoxious *sshole."

At least up to a couple of years ago, SUV's in general were marketed in a way that suggested to me that the industry had determined that the potential buyers felt the need to be protected from the world around them and also thought of themselves as being "superior" in some way to those around them.

Remember the commercial in which the female SUV driver is in a mall parking lot and she spots an empty space in the next aisle? There's another woman driver in the same aisle as the spot. Driver Number One drives over a traffic island to beat her to the space. She has a very smug look on her face when she "wins."

Or how about the Hummer spot in which the kid in a soap box derby race has a "car" that looks like a miniature Hummer. He cheats by driving across the zig-zagging track and "wins."

The music for that spot was The Who's "Happy Jack" using the part "...and they couldn't prevent Jack from being happy." I think that's the attitude of the person Hummer is aiming at: the world is out to prevent him/her from attaining the happiness he/she is intended by God to have. Sad.

Obviously we can learn a lot about a person by what they drive. What do you drive cranky?

Cranky,

You missed the point of the Jack commercial. At one point the rules are flashed on the screen. They are "The last one to the bottom wins". Jack took a creative approach and won, because is car could do things the others could't. He went don't the same hill as the others, just did it off road. Despite being laughed at for this car's appearance (i.e. can't keep jack from being happy), Jack knew his car had other potential. The commercial encourages people to think differently about their cars...

Even if this were a real product, I expect the average person wouldn't be able to apply it to a car (even a Prius) in a manner that actually looked like natural mud splashes. And let's not even address the issue that mud varies in color according to what's in it and the local minerals.