The History of Pranks - The Art of the Prank

February 8, 2011December 15, 2023

The Dreadnought hoax: Bunga Bunga!

Submitted by Chris Cook as seen in this article from the BBC about the origins of the phrase “Bunga Bunga”, February 5, 2011:

The infamous Dreadnought hoax, circa 1910, was dreamed up by aristocratic joker Horace de Vere Cole, who contacted the British Admiralty pretending to be the Emperor of Abyssinia. He informed officials that he wished to inspect the Home Fleet while on a forthcoming visit to Britain.

After enlisting some friends – artists from the Bloomsbury group, including writer Virginia Woolf – to masquerade as his entourage, he turned up at the navy’s state-of-the-art ship, the Dreadnought.

Officials, taken in by the dark stage make-up, false beards and oriental regalia, treated the group to an official civic reception.

They were reported to have cried “Bunga, bunga!” while marveling at the ship. An account of the visit plus a picture were sent to the Daily Mail newspaper – probably by Cole himself.

Virginia Woolf said that when the real Emperor of Abyssinia arrived in London weeks later, wherever he went, ”the street boys ran after him calling out ‘bunga, bunga!'”

Read the rest of the article here.

January 15, 2011December 15, 2023

Forgery for Love, Not Money

Elusive Forger, Giving but Never Stealing
By Randy Kennedy
The New York Times
January 11, 2011

His real name is Mark A. Landis, and he is a lifelong painter and former gallery owner. But when he paid a visit to the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum in Lafayette, La., last September, he seemed more like a character sprung from a Southern Gothic novel.

He arrived in a big red Cadillac and introduced himself as Father Arthur Scott. Mark Tullos Jr., the museum”s director, remembers that he was dressed “in black slacks, a black jacket, a black shirt with the clerical collar and he was wearing a Jesuit pin on his lapel.” Partly because he was a man of the cloth and partly because he was bearing a generous gift “” a small painting by the American Impressionist Charles Courtney Curran, which he said he wanted to donate in memory of his mother, a Lafayette native “” it was difficult not to take him at his word, Mr. Tullos said.

The painting, unframed and wrapped in cellophane, looked like the real thing, with a faded label on the verso from a long-defunct gallery in Manhattan. Father Scott offered to pay for a good frame and hinted that more paintings and perhaps some money might come the museum”s way from his family. But when the Hilliard”s director of development chatted with Father Scott about the church and his acquaintances in deeply Roman Catholic southern Louisiana, the man grew nervous. “He said, “˜Well, I travel a lot,” ” Mr. Tullos recalled. ” “˜I go and solve problems for the church.” ”

Mr. Landis “” often under his own name, though more recently as Father Scott or as a collector named Steven Gardiner “” has indeed done a lot of traveling over the past two decades, but not for the church. He has been one of the most prolific forgers American museums have encountered in years, writing, calling and presenting himself at their doors, where he tells well-concocted stories about his family”s collection and donates small, expertly faked works, sometimes in honor of nonexistent relatives. Continue reading “Forgery for Love, Not Money”

October 17, 2010December 15, 2023

Verne “Bulldog” Williams (1935-2010), RIP

From publisher and editor Joey Skaggs:

It is with shock and sadness that I write of the unexpected passing of Verne Williams, a life-long friend and co-conspirator, on Thursday, October 14. Among other illustrious facets of his career, Verne was with me on my Hippie Bus Tour to Queens in 1968, was the inspiration for and center piece of my Bad Guys Talent Management Agency in 1984; and performed in Walk Right! (1984), The Fat Squad (1986), and Save The Geoduck (1987). He appeared as me for an interview with Playback Magazine (1995). He was a great, endearing and enduring friend.

A memorial service will be held October 30 at 1pm at Marinella Restaurant, on the corner of Carmine and Bedford Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC.

Here’s a walk down my memory lane with Verne:

Hippie Bus Tour to Queens, 1968

In 1968, I loaded a Greyhound bus with camera-toting, long haired, beaded hippies and took them on a bus tour of surburban Queens. I did this in response to all the suburbanites who were coming into the East Village to gawk at the hippies. I called it my “cultural exchange” program. Verne was one of the passengers.

Bad Guys Talent Management Agency, 1984

Verne left NYC for greener pastures, literally. He ran a hog farm in Vermont for a while and then moved to Virginia where he was trimming the hooves of cattle for a living. He really wanted to be an actor. He wrote me letter after letter imploring me to help him get some national commercials while he awaited the brass ring, which to him was a role in a feature film. I tried to talk some sense into him, but he would have none of that. Since he didn’t have any acting training, experience, or representation, I decided to create a talent management agency specifically for him. I called it Bad Guys Incorporated. I would represent bad guys, bad girls, bad kids and bad dogs — venomous vixens, burly bouncers and slimy sleazes. I told Verne to go to the Post Office and bring back a wanted poster so I could create his head shot.
Continue reading “Verne “Bulldog” Williams (1935-2010), RIP”

September 7, 2010December 15, 2023

A Cockroach Cure? Again?

Submitted by Dave Camp, saying “Prescient again”? Dave is referring to a hoax Joey Skaggs did in 1981 called “Metamorphosis“. Skaggs said he was an entomologist who had discovered cures for all of mankind’s common ailments such as colds, flus, acne, anemia and menstrual cramps, by extracting and eating cockroach hormones. Is history repeating itself? Or, was Skaggs really onto something?

Here’s the article:

Cockroach Brains May Be a Source of Antibiotics, Research Says
by Simeon Bennett
Bloomberg
September 6, 2010

Cockroach brains may be a source of new antibiotics capable of killing deadly drug-resistant bacteria, according to research that suggests the germ-spreading pests may be good for something after all.

Insects such as cockroaches have a defense mechanism against bacteria, a “logical” development from living in unhygienic conditions, research from the U.K.”s University of Nottingham showed. Tissues from the brains and nervous systems of cockroaches and locusts killed more than 90 percent of MRSA and E. coli without damaging human cells, scientists said. Continue reading “A Cockroach Cure? Again?”

October 6, 2009December 15, 2023

14th Century Hoax Lives On

Italian group claims to debunk Shroud of Turin
by Ariel David
1010WINS / AP
October 5, 2009

In this Aug. 12, 2000 file photo, The Holy Shroud, a 14 foot-long linen revered by some as the burial cloth of Jesus, is shown at the Cathedral of Turin, Italy.

ITALY SHROUD OF TURIN

A group of Italian debunkers is claiming it has proved that the Shroud of Turin – revered as the cloth that covered Jesus in the tomb – was man-made. The shroud bears the image of a crucified man. Believers say Christ’s image was recorded on the fibers at the time of his resurrection. The Italian Committee for Checking Claims on the Paranormal said Monday Oct 5, 2009 that scientists have reproduced the shroud using materials and methods that were available in the 14th century. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, file)

Read the whole article here.