From BoingBoing.net:

“As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska.” – Sarah Palin

Pranks for Everything
Tech Space: Daily Notes on Science and Silicon
USA Today
by Angela Gunn
April 2, 2007

Joey Skaggs Launches Art of the Prank
boingboing.net
by David Pescovitz
April 1, 2007

Joey Skaggs Launches Pranks.com ArtofthePrank.com, The Art of the Prank
laughingsquid.com
by Scott Beale
April 1, 2007

The Art of the Prank
April Fools’ Is Always More Fun When The Joke’s Not on You
Washington Post
by Dan Zak
April 1, 2007

The Art of the Prank
About: Urban Legends and Folklore
by David Emery
March 31, 2007

The Wilson Show
Joey Skaggs Radio Interview (5:19) about Pranks.com ArtofthePrank.com [mp3, 1.2 MB]
WIBC, Indianapolis, Indiana
March 30, 2007

PRWEB Podcast
Joey Skaggs Interview (5:22) about Pranks.com ArtofthePrank.com [mp3, 5.0 MB]
March 29, 2007

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3/26/07

PRWEB Press release with downloadable podcast featuring Joey Skaggs

Joey Skaggs, Notorious Artist and Satirist, to Launch The Art of the Prank Blog at ArtofthePrank.com on April 1, 2007

Summary: A new Web site and Blog all about pranks, hoaxes, culture jamming and reality hacking launches on April Fools Day. Honest!

New York, NY, (PRWeb) March 26, 2007 — Artist and satirist Joey Skaggs is proud to announce the debut of his new blog The Art of the Prank at ArtofthePrank.com on April Fools Day, April 1, 2007. Here visitors will find insights, news and discussions on everything to do with pranks, hoaxes, culture jamming and reality hacking around the world – past, present and future – mainstream and counter culture.

With Skaggs as editor, the site will have submissions from many known and not so known pranksters, artists, performers, activists and writers. The Art of the Prank, launching April Fools Day, will provide a continuing and growing exploration into the art of the prank; the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer; and the contribution of the prank to society.

Pranks have traditionally been relegated to the realm of the juvenile bad-boy or special occasions, like April Fools Day. People typically think of the word prank as referring to funny, embarrassing, humiliating, non-redeeming acts of just plain silliness or revenge. And while this may represent the majority of pranks in the world, the role of the prankster throughout history has been quite significant and influential. Mythic archetypes such as the trickster and coyote; the jester in the royal court; and pranksters throughout literature will all be explored.

In addition, topics such as pranks in the news, the sociology and psychology of pranks; political pranks; First Amendment issues; hoax etiquette; publicity stunts; urban legends; illusion and magic; fraud and deception; hype; spin; and propaganda will all be fodder for thought. As will, of course, all sorts of practical jokes and mischief…

“April Fools Day, my favorite holiday, is the perfect launch date. This site will provide one stop shopping for anyone interested in mounting an insurrection, over-throwing a government, crashing a stock market, creating global chaos, growing hair, losing weight or keeping their horny dog satisfied. It will provide a sure way to get the federal government to tap your phone line, or, at the very least to embarrass and humiliate yourself, says artist, Joey Skaggs.”

Pranks offer an alternative palette for criticism and dissent, as well as a looking-glass into the human gullibility that results when critical analysis is suspended for wishful thinking. “I challenge personal belief systems that sustain status-quo thinking and that support close-mindedness, bias and prejudice, says Skaggs.” Key motives running throughout his personal work are to inspire people to question authority in all of its guises and to ultimately think for themselves.

With this new endeavor, launching April Fools Day, Skaggs hopes to reach a broad audience of people interested in the intersection of reality and illusion. Those interested in contributing content will be invited to do so once the blog launches.

The Art of the Prank blog, at ArtofthePrank.com, will shed light on all aspects of the topic, examining the intent, content, technique, and the magic that makes a prank live. It will even include tutorials and how-to instructions. Although the site will not encourage or condone irresponsible, misguided, unlawful or unethical practices, some meaningful pranks rightfully test the limits and cross the boundaries of lawfulness. To trivialize, ignore or dismiss them for this reason would be a disservice to everyone.

About Joey Skaggs: Joey Skaggs has been a doctor, a lawyer, and an Indian chief. Hailed as an entrepreneur extraordinaire, he created a bordello for dogs, was the proprietor of a celebrity sperm bank, and founded an organization to wipe out fat. He has saved the world with his cockroach vitamin elixir and was the first and only person to ever windsurf from Hawaii to California. As a pedaling priest with a confessional booth mounted on the back of a tricycle, he took confessions from politicians at the Democratic National Convention. As a real estate developer, he created the Final Curtain cemetery theme park mall and time share program for the dead. And as a computer scientist, he revolutionized the American Judicial System using a series of super computers that meted out equal justice to all.

Although these and other illustrious activities have been presented as truth in the annals of the international news media, in reality they have all been hoaxes, products of his imagination. For over 40 years Skaggs has been an artist and a satirist with a serious message. He has used the media as his canvas, creating performances to bring to light many of the difficult and complex socio-political issues of our day.

A life-long educator and performance art practioner, Skaggs has taught at the School of Visual Arts and Parsons/New School and he lectures and does presentations at schools, festivals and conferences around the world. His commentaries on media literacy and creative independent thinking are hilarious and thought provoking and have reached millions of people on a global scale. He has been hailed as The World’s Greatest Hoaxer.

To add to his bag of tricks, he recently designed and manufactured the Universal Bulls**t Detector Watch (a real product) to enable people to humorously call it as they see it. Available online at www.bswatch.com, it flashes, moos and poops. It also tells time.

And, if that’s not enough, New Yorkers are encouraged to attend prankster and performance artist Joey Skaggs’ 22nd Annual April Fools Day Parade. The press release is available in the News Flash section of joeyskaggs.com.

About The Art of the Prank blog: The ArtofthePrank.com is designed by David Bunde of DGB Design using WordPress software, and hosted, by Laughing Squid.

Download Portofess Photo

Photo caption: Father Anthony (aka Joey Skaggs) peddles Portofess, his portable confessional booth, because the church must go where the sinners are. Religion on the move for people on the go!

Contact:
Joey Skaggs
212-254-7878

###

You are invited to submit any original or pre-existing material you feel is relevant to the topics and categories to submit@artoftheprank.com. Length is not an issue as long as the piece is interesting and compelling. The following formats are acceptable:

Non-fiction
Fiction
News
Links to other sites
Video (preferably linked from another site)
Podcasts (video or audio)
Photographs
Cartoons
Illustrations
Audio clips

No matter what the format of the material you submit, please provide a title for your post and either a summary or your personal comments to frame the item for the Art of the Prank site. Materials submitted without a title or your framing comments might not be selected to be used on the site (this is true of plain links too). Please also, wherever possible, include photographs or illustrations with your text.

Any work that you submit will be credited to you and to whomever else you indicate should receive authorship credit. We will assume that all contributors will do their best to honor the intellectual property rights of others. Providing correct attribution is your responsibility. Art of the Prank will function merely as a “pass-through” and will not be responsible for any intellectual rights that are not our own. Please act responsibly in this regard. If ownership of any materials is contested by a third party, they will be removed from the site until the rights ownership can be clarified.

All submissions will be reviewed by one or more editors before being mounted on the site. If your material is deemed appropriate and acceptable, it will be uploaded as quickly as possible. If you do not see your postings, please do not be discouraged. There could be any number of reasons. And, you are encouraged to continue submitting materials you would like considered for posting.

Art of the Prank is intended to be interesting to people of all ages. Even though parts may be controversial and somewhat subversive of status-quo-run-of-the-mill thinking, contributors are requested to be mindful of the use of offensive language that might cause parents to censor the site from their children. To have a future filled with full-functioning, responsible, independent adults, positive examples of critical thinking must be available to the young!

Please submit all materials to submit@artoftheprank.com. Include your first and last name. If your material is not verifiable (i.e., if we can’t tell if it’s true or not, but we think it’s interesting), it will probably be placed in the “Truth or Fiction: You Decide” category.

Thank you in advance for sending us your interesting and inspiring contributions.

Below is a list of books and films about topics covered on The Art of the Prank. If you click on the name of the item you will be able to purchase it from Amazon.com or other booksellers such as RE/Search Publications.

The Activist Cookbook, by Andrew Boyd, United for a Fair Economy, 1997

The Arts of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum, by James W. Cook, Harvard University Press, 2001

Big Book of Hoaxes: True Tales of the Greatest Lies Ever Told!, by Carl Sifakis, DC Comics, 1996

Comments on The Society of The Spectacle by Guy Debord, Verso, New Ed edition, 1998

Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, by Benjamin R. Barber, W. W. Norton, 2007

Don’t Believe It!: How Lies Become News, by Alexandra Kitty, The Disinformation Company, 2005

Encyclopedia of Hoaxes, by Gordon Stein, Gale Research Inc., 1993

Essays on the Blurring of Life and Art, by Allan Kaprow, University of California Press, 2003

Other Books by Allan Kaprow

Fakes, Frauds & Other Malarkey, by Kathryn Lindskoog and Patrick Wynne, Zondervan Publishing House, 1992

Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov, Doubleday, 1982

Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet, by Graham Meikle, Routledge, 2002

Happy Mutant Handbook: Mischievous Fun for Higher Primates, by Carla Sinclair, Gareth Branwyn, Mark Frauenfelder, Riverhead Trade, 1995

Herzog on Herzog by Werner Herzog, Paul Cronin (editor), Faber & Faber, 2003

Hey, Kidz! Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People by Anne Elizabeth Moore, Soft Skull Press, 2004

Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and Other B.S. by Alex Boese, Harvest Books, 2006

Hoaxes, by Curtis MacDougall, Dover Publications; 2nd Edition, 1958

Hoaxes and Deception: Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time Life Books, 1991

Hoaxes, Humbugs and Spectacles: Astonishing Photographs of Smelt Wrestlers, Human Projectiles, Giant Hailstones, Contortionists, Elephant Impersonat, by Mark Sloane, Villard, 1990

How a satirical editor became a Yippe conspirator in ten easy years, by Paul Krassner, Putman, 1971

How To Draw a Bunny (2002), DVD, by John W. Walter, Palm Pictures, 2004

Impropaganda: The Art of the Publicity Stunt, by Mark Borkowski

Jamming the Media, by Gareth Branwyn, Chronicle Books, 1997

Jay’s Journal of Anomalies: Conjurers, Cheats, Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters, Impostors, Pretenders, Sideshow Showmen, Armless Calligraphers, Mechanical Marvels, Popular Entertainments, by Ricky Jay, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001

Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits, by Jason Salzman, Perseus Books Group, 2003

Media Hoaxes, by Fred Fedler, 1989

Media Virus!, by Douglas Rushkoff, Ballantine Books, 1996

Media Wizards: A Behind the Scenes Look at Media Manipulations, by Catherine Gourley, 21st Century, 1999

The Messenger’s Motives: Ethical Probelms of the News Media, 2nd Edition, by John L. Hulteng, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1985

Mischief Marketing: How the Rich, Famous, & Successful Really Got Their Careers and Businesses Going, by Ray Simon, McGraw-Hill/Contemporary, 2000

The Modern Con Man: How to Get Something for Nothing, by Todd Robbins, Bloomsbury, 2008

Modern Primitives, by V. Vale, RE/Search Publications, 1989

The Moral Animal, by Robert Wright, Abacus, 2004

More Scams from the Great Beyond!: How to Make Even More Money Off the Creationism, Evolution, Environmentalism, Fringe Politics, Weird Science, the Occult, and Other Strange Beliefs, by Peter Huston, Paladin Press, 2002

Mount Analogue, by Rene Daumal, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, 2005

Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology, by Lawrence Weschler, Vintage, 1996

The Museum of Hoaxes, by Alex Boese, Orion, 2004

No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, by Naomi Klein, Picador, 2002

Pranks!, RE/Search Publications, 1987

Pranks! 2, RE/Search Publications, 2006

Publicity Stunt, by Candice Jacobson Fuhrman, Chronicle Books. 1989

Radical Melbourne 2: The Enemy Within, by Jeff Sparrow and Jill Sparrow, Vulgar Press, 2004

The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins, Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 2006

Spite, Malice and Revenge: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Even (3 Diabolical Volumes in 1), by M. Nelson Chunder and George Hayduke, Random House Value Publishing, 1988

Spook Country, by William Gibson, Putnam Adult (August 7, 2007), Putnam Adult, 2007

Stories of hoaxes in the name of science, by Irving Adler, Collier Books, 1962

True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, by Farhad Manjoo, Wiley, 2008

Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity , by Anne Elizabeth Moore, New Press, 2007

U-Turn: What If You Woke Up One Morning and Realized You Were Living the Wrong Life?, by Bruce Grierson, Bloomsbury, 2007

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, by Michael Shermer, Owl Books; 2nd Rev edition, 2002

The Wolf Files: Adventures in Weird News, by Buck Wolf, Globe Pequot, 2003

More Coming!