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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 Hoax Photo Database, the Hoax Forum, and the Hoaxipedia.

Web Hoax Museum

RUDE ROVER
The Christmas dog with no class! He sings and toots Jingle Bells.
INFLATABLE TREE
Who needs the hassle of a real Christmas tree?
FARTING SANTA
Go ahead and pull his finger!

i have 2 coins. their value, when added together, is 30 cents. one of the coins is not a nickel. what are the two coins?

the answer to that riddle is the answer to this one. i agree with quentin cole.

I believe the legs in the engine is the real photo. What appears to be clouds is in actuality the clouded sky reflected in the window. If you look at the engine, the cloud images are continued through it instead of blocked by the view. If the clouds were really below, you would not see the clouds blocked by the engine.

What's to stop the legs being a sticker on the window? Would be easy to line it up just right for a photo, and no shadow on the window frame issues to have to deal with here.

The interior of the plane with the giraffe looks pretty dark, and the giraffe is consistent with the outside lighting, which indicates that it's not just a sticker on the window. The photo is also taken from an angle to the window, and the giraffe isn't distorted as I would expect a flat image slapped on the window to be (unless the imagemaker thought of this beforehand, and distorted it to look undistorted when shot at this precise angle, which seems like a lot of work). If there were an actual giraffe outside the window, the sun would have to be behind it to cast a shadow into the cabin, and the shadow would be bigger then the window, methinks. Look at the angle of the window frame's shadow- the giraffe's shadow would be the same angle- on the ground, not in the cabin.

I've seen clouds that look like that in the bottom photo, but I've also seen really icy snow that looks like that too. It looks like there are also ice crystals on the window which muddy the image. A 737's engines are pretty close to the ground- The bottom of the engine is about waist-high to an average-sized person, maybe a bit lower. It looks a bit bigger than a 737's engines, but I think even on a 757 a guy could scramble up in there without a ladder.

In conclusion, I find in favor of the giraffe being faked, and the guy in the engine being authentic.

Mister_IQ, on the previous page, gives a link to the photo editing contest from which the giraffe photo was taken, including some other photos made with the same giraffe. Since we have the source of the edit on that one, the only question remaining is whether the other is also fake.

Both fake

Both are stupid

There are actually several aircraft who's engines are reachable from the ground, the most ready example being the Boeing 737. As others have pointed out, in flight there would be no ice on the engine. Also the presence of ice on the window only suggest a very low outside temp. While planes are usually heated during boarding, the windows are actually quite insulated and feature two panes of glass. There is also the possibility that this photo was not taken by a passenger, but by a mechanic or other airline personnel, who could be aboard when the plane was un-heated.

As tke said, the 737 engine is like 3 feet off the ground. Plenty close to access without a ladder.

Here's an image that shows that: http://www.juniper-liverpool.com/images/rig1.jpg

Both are fake. The giraffe is PhotoShopped in. The "shadow" gives it away. The air plane engine with the legs is also fake because there is ice on the window that makes part of the photo blurry but not where the legs are. The legs are the only clear area in the window, too; everything else appears to be diffused.

Lastly, if you take time to read the comments on this on the first page, you'd realize that the owner of this website comments that the pictures are FAKE! He's the 13th comment down, "They're both fake!
Posted by Alex in San Diego on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:22 AM"

They are both "fake" in the sense that their is not really a giraffe outside the plane and the guy in the engine is two photos put together. The main one being a shot out the plane window at high altitudewhile the guy has been cut out from another shot and dropped into this main one (see the chunky edge around the bottom of his boots? That is from a quick and dirty cut and paste).

I'm a professional photoillustrator and I'd stake your life on this. :O

I'd say it's a class action

One of them "might" be fake, and the other *is* fake.

The giraffe has no shadows on the left of the image which it would if the sun was to the right and casting a shodow to the left. Also the shadows in the image start to converge, but the suns light acts more like a directional light where all shadows are cast at the same angle. Also there are pixel artifacts around the giraffe which are not consistent with the rest of the image.

The man in the plane is fake as the frosting on the window is not eveident where the person is when examined in a paint program. Also the engine mentioned that being a GE CFM56-3C1 is not the same as that in the image. The CFM56-3C1 has a split gear box which is either side of the engine due to the engine being so low to the groud, this makes the bottom if the engine cowling flat, which is not what we see in the image. Also if you use a paint program you can see where the editor has cut the platform which the shoe was on and has left a flat rather ugly error in the image. I believe the plane has just taken off from a snow covered airport and that is why there is snow on the engine and frost on the engine nacelle (casing). The man seems to be positioned wrongly and looks as if he should be in the bottom of the casing but is actually place slightly to high.

Cheers I used to work for an areo engine manufacutre which did not develope an enigne for the successful 737 due to the expense of developing a split gear box, they thought the project would not be all that successful, just shows how wrong you can be.

Plus as mentioned the site author has posted that both are fake, but I couldn't resist posting just for fun.

The man in the engine might be fake, but the giraffe definitely is.

I actually like the real one best. That'd be a bit disturbing to watch happen on a flight

Just as amusing is posting two genuinely real photos and asking which is the fake, in the same way. :D

this reminds me of the april 1974 issue of national lampoon. the cover is a classic:

http://www.fedge.net/nationallampoon/Lampoon1974.htm

I can't beleive ANYBODY thought either was real... I cut and pasted 'em to email as a joke within minutes of them being posted here on this site...

Very funny. I cannot believe that anyone didn't immediately get the humor. C'mon people - loosen up!