The History of Pranks - The Art of the Prank

August 14, 2009December 15, 2023

Old Delivery System for Nicotine

Tobacco Smoke Enemas (1750s – 1810s)

Smoke-Enema-Kit-425

The tobacco enema was used to infuse tobacco smoke into a patient”s rectum for various medical purposes, primarily thte resuscitation of drowning victims. A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke towards the rectum. The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration, but doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase “blow smoke up one”s ass.” To learn more, click here.

via tophattobacco.com, thanks Don

August 2, 2009December 15, 2023

Prank Traditions

Submitted by Tim Jackson:

A great prank? As it was 208 years ago, I thought I’d mention it…

swift_modest_proposal1-100 I’ve often thought of Swift’s “A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public” as a great early satire as prank.

dog3-100 Not dissimilar to the Joey Skaggs dog food restaurant hoax/satire.

pr3404-t9_00007-100 I just heard about Daniel Defoe’s “The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church” written on July 31, in 1701. His satire called for the savage elimination of dissenters. When the church found out it was parody, he was (allegedly) pilloried. The crowd threw flowers instead of fruit.

images: astroblogos.wordpress.com & Indiana.edu

July 15, 2009December 15, 2023

Dark Side of the Moon

Update, July 16, 2009 — An interesting twist for conspiracy theorists — NASA lost moon footage, but Hollywood restores it

Submitted by Jorge Luis Marzo:

From Wikipedia:

“Dark Side of the Moon” is a French mockumentary by director William Karel which originally aired on Arte in 2002 with the title Opération Lune. The basic premise for the film is the theory that the television footage from the Apollo 11 Moon landing was faked and actually recorded in a studio by the CIA with help from director Stanley Kubrick. It features some surprising guest appearances, most notably by Donald Rumsfeld, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Buzz Aldrin and Stanley Kubrick’s widow, Christiane Kubrick…

Here, as a tease, are three clips about 25 minutes long, cut from the hour and a half documentary.

Continue reading “Dark Side of the Moon”

July 3, 2009December 15, 2023

Celebrity Death Hoaxfest

From David Emery’s About.com Urban Legends, June 30, 2009:

Celebrity Death Hoaxes Abound

art.spears.200 It was a bumpy weekend for the rich and famous, with the entertainment industry mourning the loss of three pop culture icons even as the Internet churned out one hoax after another declaring more celebrities dead.

The hoaxfest was triggered by mid-week announcements confirming that Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson had died. By Thursday afternoon the Internet was rife with false reports claiming that actors Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford had died as well. Death announcements for Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Louie Anderson, P. Diddy, Natalie Portman, George Clooney, and Rick Astley “” all bogus “” followed in quick succession.

Pranksters used a variety of tactics to promulgate the rumors, including generating fake news stories on the Web, vandalizing Wikipedia pages, and hacking celebrities’ Twitter accounts. Despite their rapid dissemination, all were debunked in fairly short order. Continue reading “Celebrity Death Hoaxfest”

November 21, 2008January 15, 2019

François Caradec, French Writer and Pranks Encyclopedist, RIP [English & French]

From André Gattolin:

François Caradec, French post-dadaà¯st writer, died Thursday, November 13, 2008 in Paris. He was 84 and was renowned as one of the best specialists of French marginal and creative literature of the 19th and the early 20th century. He was a connoisseur of Alphonse Allais (one of the first French literary hoaxers), Alfred Jarry, Isidore Ducasse de Lautréamont and Raymond “Crazy” Roussel.

A close friend of many surrealist writers, Caradec was also Regent of the Pataphysic College and part of the “œuvre de littérature potentielle” (Oulipo) created by Georges Pérec.

In 1964, he published (with his accomplice Alain Arnaud) one of the most relevant encyclopedias ever written on pranks, pratical jokes and hoaxes called Dictionnaire des farces et attrapes.

I unfortunately never met him but I had the wonderful chance, two years ago, to review a copy of this very rare and marvellous book”¦

If heaven really exists, its inhabitants will, from now on, have to face Caradec”s pranks for eternity!

Here’s his obituary from Le Monde: Continue reading “François Caradec, French Writer and Pranks Encyclopedist, RIP [English & French]”