Category: The History of Pranks

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Spaced Out

Submitted by Mike Ibanez:

Space cadets taken in by TV hoax
BBC
December 17, 2005

_41132026_spacecadets_pa_story200.jpgThree contestants have spoken of their disbelief after being fooled into thinking they went into space for the UK reality show Space Cadets. The three believed they had blasted off from a cosmonaut training camp in Russia, but were in fact in a fake spaceship in a warehouse in Suffolk.

They cheered up when told they had each won £25,000 ($44,300).

But one contestant, teaching assistant Keri Hasset from Birmingham, said she was “heartbroken” by the prank.

Fake ceremony

“When I thought we were coming back to Earth I was planning my speech. I was going to say it had been my childhood dream. Now I’m a little bit heartbroken,” she said.

Ms Hasset, plasterer Paul French, 26 from Bristol, and footballer/recruitment consultant Billy Jackson, 25, from Kent, had suspicions they were being tricked when they had to hold a ceremony for a celebrity Russian dog called Mr Bimby on the spaceship. Continue reading “Spaced Out”

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Belgian TV Network Hoax

Submitted by Mike Ibanez:

Viewers fooled by ‘Belgium split’
BBC News
December 14, 2006

_42351323_reporter-afp200.jpgBelgians reacted with widespread alarm to news that their country had been split in two – before finding out they had been spoofed. The Belgian public television station RTBF ran a bogus report saying the Dutch-speaking half of the nation had declared independence.

Later it said Wednesday night’s programme was meant to stir up debate.

It appears to have succeeded. Thousands of people made panicked calls to the station and politicians complained.

“It’s very bad Orson Welles, in very poor taste,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, referring to the famous director’s 1938 radio adaptation of War of the Worlds. That spoof fooled many Americans into believing Martians had invaded.

“In the current context, it’s irresponsible for a public television channel to announce the end of Belgium as a reality presented by genuine journalists,” he added. Continue reading “Belgian TV Network Hoax”

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Poe-etic Justice

Poe Fan Takes Credit for Grave Legend
by Wiley Hall

24-200.jpgBaltimore (AP) — The legend was almost too good to be true. For decades, a mysterious figure dressed in black, his features cloaked by a wide-brimmed hat and scarf, crept into a churchyard to lay three roses and a bottle of cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. Now, a 92-year-old man who led the fight to preserve the historic site says the visitor was his creation.

“We did it, myself and my tour guides,” said Sam Porpora. “It was a promotional idea. We made it up, never dreaming it would go worldwide.”

Porpora is an energetic, dapper fellow in a newsboy cap and a checked suit with a bolo tie. He’s got a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous smile, and he tells his tale in the rhythms of a natural-born storyteller.

No one has ever claimed ownership of the legend. So why is Porpora coming forward now? Continue reading “Poe-etic Justice”

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Making Sense of Duchamp

From David Pescovitz of BoingBoing:

Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp is a wonderful interactive trip through the life and work of the artist whose ideas redefined the meaning of art forever. The site, created by Andrew Stafford, is several years old but the content is as young as tomorrow. From Making Sense of Duchamp, this description of the piece Bicycle Wheel (1913):

duchampwheel200.jpgBicycle Wheel was the first of a class of objects that Duchamp called his “readymades.” He created twenty-one of them, all between 1915 and 1923. The readymades are a varied collection of items, but there are several ideas that unite them.

The readymades are experiments in provocation, the products of a conscious effort to break every rule of the artistic tradition. in order to create a new kind of art — one that engages the mind instead of the eye, in ways that provoke the observer to participate and think.

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Coyle & Sharpe: The Imposters Podcasts, Episodes 13, 14 & 15

Here are Episodes 13, 14 & 15 of the historic Coyle & Sharpe podcast series presented by Jesse Thorn of The Sound of Young America.

Coyle & Sharpe, The Imposters

In Episode 13, Coyle & Sharpe talk seriously with a man about apples growing human feet, and how, if need be, he might herd them across the country.

In Episode 14, they discuss the prospects of a 7 ft., 300 lb., antennaed leech man in San Francisco.

And, in Episode 15, they render a man mute with the utterance of one word: Grevenz.

You can listen to the earlier episodes: Episodes 1, 2 & 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episodes 7, 8 & 9, and Episodes 10, 11, & 12.

These recordings are from the Sharpe family archive, tended by Mal’s daughter, Jennifer Sharpe. More about Coyle & Sharpe is available on their Website or on MySpace.

You can also listen to this podcast at The Sound of Young America or you can subscribe to the series in iTunes.

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