…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
Welcome to Art of the Prank, produced and edited by Joey Skaggs. Here you will find insights, information, news and discussions about art, pranks, hoaxes, culture jamming & reality hacking around the world – past, present and future – mainstream and counter culture. You are invited to contribute to its development. May your journey be filled with more than your expectations.
JOEY SKAGGS SATIRE AND ART ACTIVISM,
1960s TO THE PRESENT AND BEYOND
A new series of short oral history films,
produced and directed by Judy Drosd and Joey Skaggs
ART OF THE PRANK, THE MOVIE:
Andrea Marini’s award winning feature documentary about
New York artist and activist Joey Skaggs
This “sticky” post will be here for a while. Scroll down for other posts.
In conjunction with Alice Neel’s portrait of Joey Skaggs at the “Alice Neel: Beautifully Imperfect” exhibition at the Serralves Museum in Porto, Portugal, July 16, 2026 to January 17, 2027, Skaggs was asked to write a letter to Alice Neel from his perspective today. As display in the gallery with other artist’s letters, here is his:
“Dear Alice,
It’s been sixty years since our chance meeting at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York. You were sixty-seven, and I was twenty-two. We immediately connected over our shared rage about the war in Vietnam. We were in the minority in those days, but we were both accustomed to that. You made your statements through paintings, while I took my critique to the streets.
A lot has changed since you were here, but much of what outraged us then still remains. The world has not become a simpler or kinder place.
I’ve been wondering who you might choose to paint now if you were still alive. In the spirit of our shared social sensibilities, I decided to merge our approaches and instructed AI to create a satirical portrait of President Donald Trump in your style.
It’s outrageous, I know, but I bet you’re laughing!
With love, Joey Skaggs.”
Follow this link for the story of how the portrait of Joey Skaggs by Alice Neel came to be.
Who are you going to believe, me or your lying poll?
Website behind widely shared fake election polls run by 21-year-old, by Sophie Sullivan, Anna Betts and Sam Levine, The Guardian, August 20, 2026.
Exclusive: Rahil Prakash tells the Guardian: ‘I wanted to see if fake polls could penetrate the ecosystem that easily’
A 21-year-old recent college graduate was behind an anonymous website that put out widely shared fake election polling in Wisconsin, Nevada and California, the Guardian can reveal.
The website, Median Strategies, abruptly shut down and withdrew its polling earlier this week following questions from a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. In an unsigned statement, it described a “short-term social experiment” to examine how fake polling “could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification”.
You too can help a billionaire in need.
Reminds us of Joey Skaggs’ Geraldo Hoax about artists living in water towers.
A comedian’s joke pied-à-terre tax workaround could actually go legit after struggling New Yorkers and homeowners flooded inbox, by Mary K. Jacob, New York Post, August 20, 2026.
A stand-up comedian’s satirical stab at Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new luxury home tax has snowballed into something she never expected to actually build.
Madison Walser, who splits time between New York and Los Angeles, launched a website called Aura Investments back in May as pure internet bait. The pitch was simple and absurd: struggling artists move into vacant apartments owned by wealthy second-home owners, and in exchange those owners dodge the city’s pied-à-terre tax.
AI takes the F train. h/t Deborah
Fake AI ads in the West 4th Street subway station unite commuters in hatred of AI ads, by Emma Li, Gothamist, August 10, 2026.
“Riding the subway, all I would see were AI ads that made me confused and angry,” Alterman said. “I wanted to know if other people felt the same way.”
In June, an Instagram reel of fake tech advertisements being put up on Subway station walls went viral, gathering 5 million views and more than 250,000 likes. The faux ads were made by Harris Alterman and Dave Ross, two comedians whose usual content caters to the meta-ironic and absurdist appetites of the internet.
One ad read, “What if forks were spoons?” by the fake company, “cutlery.ai.”
Another said, “1 + 1 = _____. Dennis can tell you.”
On the go with Alice Neel…
The Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto, Portugal has mounted an exhibition of portraits by the American painter, Alice Neel called, “Alice Neel: Beautifully Imperfect.” It includes Neel’s 1967 portrait of Joey Skaggs.
Announcement (in Portuguese): ‘Soul collector’ Alice Neel arrives at Serralves with “Beautifully Imperfect”, Lusa, July 15, 2026.
