The World of the Prank

The artist as social provocateur and activist incorporates humor, satire, irony, political commentary and/or direct action to provoke critical thinking. Pranks challenge convention and the status quo and expose prejudices and biases.

Blog Posts

pHarmony: Matchmaking with an Agenda

posted by Moderator
Filed under: Creative Activism, Political Pranks

Submitted by Jean Pockrus of Greenpeace USA:



PolluterWatch, a project of Greenpeace, has launched pHarmony, a matchmaking site just like eHarmony.com but dedicated to helping polluter industry lobbyists, CEOs, and propagandists match up with friendly public officials to make it easy to buy and sell influence and sabotage our clean energy future without ever leaving the house.

Related links:

  • pHarmony: Dating for Polluters, Mother Jones
  • Enviro Groups Target Sens. Lincoln, Murkowski on Bid to Block EPA, New York Times
  • Sen. Murkowski, Greenpeace Exchange Barbs Over EPA Regulations, New York Times
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    War of the Worlds Revisited: TV Pilot on Russian Attack Causes Panic in Georgia

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Fraud and Deception, Political Pranks

    HOAX NEWS: Russia attacks Georgia, Saakashvili killed
    Russia Today (RT)
    March 13, 2010

    If one of your main news channels said your country’s been invaded and your president murdered – you’d no doubt be extremely scared. In Georgia, that’s just what’s happened. What’s worse is that the TV station only gave a brief warning that the Russian attack was a hoax – before frightening its primetime viewers for a good thirty minutes.

    Related links:

  • Outrage in Georgia over fake Russian invasion report, AFP, March 15, 2010
  • Fake Russian Attack Report Throws Georgia in Panic, novinite.com, March 14, 2010
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    Guerrilla Crocheting in Cape May

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Culture Jamming and Reality Hacking

    Midnight Knitter Pulls the Wool Over NJ Shore Town
    1010WINS
    March 10. 2010

    West Cape May, N.J. (AP/1010 WINS) — Someone is spinning quite a yarn over one New Jersey shore town.

    Dubbed “The Midnight Knitter” by West Cape May residents, someone is covering tree branches and lamp poles with little sweaters under cover of darkness. (more…)

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    NY State Bird Resigns

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Creative Activism

    Ads in New York Show State Animals Trying to Resign
    1010WINS
    March 10, 2010

    Albany, N.Y. (AP/ 1010 WINS) — A coalition of environmental groups has a new ad campaign urging lawmakers to restore money to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund.

    The ad features the state’s “official” animals — bluebird, snapping turtle, beaver and brook trout — submitting their resignations.

    Click here to learn more about the campaign

    It’s sponsored by a broad coalition of groups including the Adirondack Council, Audubon New York, Environmental Advocates, Scenic Hudson and others.

    The Environmental Protection Fund was established in 1993 to provide a reliable source of money for projects such as landfill closure, recycling facilities, and open space protection.

    Citing an $8 billion looming budget deficit, Governor Paterson proposes cutting the Environmental Protection fund by about one-third to $143 million.

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    Urban Roof Art with Antony Gormley

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Culture Jamming and Reality Hacking

    NYPD: Rooftop Figures Just Art, Not People in Distress
    1010WINS
    March 9, 2010

    New York (AP/1010 WINS) — The New York Police Department wants the public to know that the figures soon to be gazing down from buildings near a midtown park are an artist’s body casts — not residents in distress.

    The department was worried the upcoming outdoor exhibit might spark 911 calls of possible jumpers, so it wanted to alert the public, said police spokesman Paul Browne.

    On Tuesday, the first sculpture of the installation, called “Event Horizon,” was placed on top of a building that houses Pentagram Design’s New York offices.

    “We have a new staffer here at our offices at 204 Fifth Avenue; he doesn’t say much, and spends most of his time up on the roof, gazing at the skyline,” the company said on its Web site.

    By nightfall, the figure was a dark sillhouette against the sky.

    The work by British artist Antony Gormley consists of 31 life-size figures of the artist’s body cast in iron and glass fiber. The sculptures will be installed on pathways, sidewalks and rooftops of buildings surrounding Madison Square Park for an exhibit beginning March 26…

    The installation will be on view through Aug. 15. Read the rest of this article here.

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    Hold Your Horses! Life Mimics Art

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Parody

    70 Million by Hold Your Horses! from L'Ogre.

    thanks Nancy and Berns

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    Russian Rap

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Satire

    This video needs no introduction…

    Đ¯ Đ¾Ñ‡ĐµĐ½ÑŒ Ñ€Đ°Đ´, Đ²ĐµĐ´ÑŒ Ñ, Đ½Đ°ĐºĐ¾Đ½ĐµÑ†, Đ²Đ¾Đ·Đ²Ñ€Đ°Ñ‰Đ°ÑÑÑŒ Đ´Đ¾Đ¼Đ¾Đ¹

    thanks Adam

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    Look Out for Another Two Feet of Snow!

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Art Pranks, Satire

    thanks Norman

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    Nat Tate Lives

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Literary Hoaxes

    Submitted by W.J. Elvin III and André Gattolin:


    The greatest literary hoax ever?
    by John Crace
    The Guardian
    10 February 2010

    A French philosopher has been caught out by a literary prank. But it’s nothing on the tale of the forgotten artist Nat Tate

    La Rive Gauche rigole. Bernard-Henri Levy, France’s loudest voice of the 1970s school of nouveaux philosophes, who rarely appears on TV with his shirt buttoned beyond the waist, has been had. In his latest book, On War In Philosophy, BHL, as he is generally known, had a pop at Immanuel Kant, calling him “raving mad’” , saying that the little-known French philosopher, Jean-Baptiste Botul, had proved that once and for ” . . . in his series of lectures to the neo-Kantians of Paraguay, that their hero was an abstract fake, a pure spirit of pure appearance”.

    Only it was Botul who was the fake, the invention of a French journalist Frederic Pages. There were clues. Botul’s supposed great work was The Sex Life of Immanuel Kant and his school of thought, Botulism. Not to mention a Wikipedia entry describing Botul as a fictional French philosopher. But BHL managed to miss all this and now he has been caught out, he has pulled the philosophical two-step of claiming, “Hats off for this invented-but-more-real-than-real Kant, whose portrait, whether signed Botul, Pages or John Smith, seems to be in harmony with my idea of a Kant who was tormented by demons that were less theoretical than it seemed”. But no one’s falling for this one.

    Literature is fertile ground for hoaxers and people wanting to try it on. (more…)

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    Rémi Gaillard 1999-2009

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Practical Jokes and Mischief, Pranksters

    Dangerously funny videos created and produced by Rémi Gaillard. The show continues on www.nimportequi.com.

    1999/2009 Remi Gaillard

    thanks Miso

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    USB Wine

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Parody

    USB Wine, download wine straight from the vineyards!, by zs2creative

    The USB Wine key allows you to download wine from home and straight from the vineyard. The Wine Store offers more than 1200 different wines you can taste immediately with just a few clicks!

    Go to www.usbwine.com now and start downloading!

    thanks Erin

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    World’s Most Generic News Report

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Parody

    From Series 2, Episode 2 of Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe on BBC:


    The world’s most generic news report – Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe

    thanks Stuart and Miguel

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    SF’s Answer to Westboro Baptist Church

    by Marcy LaViollette
    Filed under: Parody

    Submitted by Marcy LaViollette as seen on Laughing Squid posted by Ed Hunsinger:


    San Francisco’s Answer to Westboro Baptist Church

    photo by EDW Lynch

    Westboro Baptist Church showed up to protest in front of Twitter’s San Francisco office on Thursday, but found themselves severely outnumbered by a crowd of absurdist pranksters, including guest blogger EDW Lynch above.

    photo by Rubin Starset

    WBC’s hate-promoting signs were answered by multiple signs of randomness, nonsensical yelling, and even a unicorn. A portable stereo blared Lady GaGa, while press and people passing by ignored the WBC signs and took pictures and videos of the more entertaining signs. I was also there and turned on the video camera while holding my sign.

    See more here.

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    New Supreme Court Look

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Satire

    thanks Erin

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    Espionage and Tampering as Activism?

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Creative Activism

    Update January 30, 2010: High Jinks to Handcuffs for Landrieu Provocateur, The New York Times


    ACORN foe: Phone scheme meant to embarrass senator
    by Michael Kunzelman and Brett J. Blackledge
    1010WINS
    January 29, 2009

    New Orleans (AP) — A conservative activist accused of trying to tamper with Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phones said he and three others charged in the incident wanted to investigate complaints that constituents calling her office couldn’t get through.

    “On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building,” James O’Keefe wrote Friday on the Web site biggovernment.com.

    Landrieu’s spokesman called his explanation “feeble.” (more…)

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