Category: Fact or Fiction?

A look at conspiracy theories, “official truths”, political spin, propaganda, tall tales, urban legends, magic, and illusion, all as they relate to the Art of the Prank. When truth intersects with a personal agenda, established facts are challenged, or human gullibility is preyed upon for ulterior motives, we hope that skepticism, logic, reason, and facts have a balancing effect.

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A Bunch of Swinging Dicks

Peckerheads for Cryptocurrency…

“Group Takes Credit For Throwing Sex Toys At WNBA Games And Reveals Its Motives,” by Pocharapon Neammanee, Huffpost, August 8, 2025.

The stunt somehow seems even stupider now, and to make matters worse, Donald Trump Jr. chimed in.

Cryptocurrency creators are now taking credit for throwing sex toys onto the court at multiple WNBA games, saying they intended to stir up controversy and promote their memecoin.

The self-confessed dildo-throwers say they launched the memecoin Green Dildo Coin on the Ethereum blockchain on July 28, a day before the first dildo-tossing incident. After Barstool Sports reported on the group’s identity on Wednesday, the price of the coin skyrocketed.

Read the whole article here.

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It Might Be Time To Do The Laundry

Art as religion:

“Shroud of Turin didn’t wrap Jesus’ crucified body — it was just art, new research claims,” by Ben Cost, New York Post, August 1, 2025.

This holy linen’s origins remain shrouded in mystery.

Contrary to popular belief, the sacred Shroud of Turin was not used to cover Jesus’ post-crucifixion and was actually a recreation created by artists, per a study published in the journal Archaeometry.

“The Shroud’s image is more consistent with an artistic low-relief representation than with the direct imprint of a real human body,” Brazilian 3D digital designer Cicero Moraes, who used modeling software, wrote in the paper, per the Daily Mail.

Read the whole article here.

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When They Say Prices Are Slashed, They Mean It!

Killer Fitness: A store/exercise studio combo where disgruntled customers never dare complain. (h/t Alex Case)

“Working out in public can be scary! Killer Fitness embraces the horror with ‘Slashercise’,” by Lina Lecaro, Los Angeles Times, July 30, 2025.

Killer Fitness in Burbank offers horror-themed workouts like “Slashercise,” combining fitness with spooky props and aesthetics.

On a recent 90-degree morning, a dozen or so gals and a couple guys of varying ages and sizes, some wearing flamboyant retro leg warmers and spandex, stand outside of a hot pink and black Burbank storefront.

They’re all about to fight for their lives and test their endurance during an hour-long workout like no other. While they jump, kick and punch, menacing monsters and serial killers (Pinhead from “Hellraiser,” Freddy Krueger from “A Nightmare on Elm Street”) appear behind them, looped on a giant video screen.

Will they survive Slashercise?

Read the whole article here.

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A Trumpish Homage to Trump

Artist Andres Serrano wants you to live the fantasy:

“Andres Serrano Proposes Trump Altar for the Venice Biennale,” by Isa Farfan, Hyperallergic, July 24, 2025.

“It makes sense to me that for America’s 250th Celebration, there’s no one better to represent America than the President,” the photographer told Hyperallergic.

New York City-born artist and provocateur Andres Serrano wants the United States Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale to showcase his apparently uncritical display of more than a thousand Trump memorabilia items, including a flattering, warm-hued portrait of the president he took in 2004 as part of his series America.

Serrano, who rose to notoriety in the late ’80s for “Piss Christ” (1987), a photograph of a crucifix that he plunged into a receptacle of his own urine on the National Endowment for the Arts’ dime, submitted his Trump-themed Venice proposal to the US Department of State ahead of its deadline later this month. The artist calls his American flag-saturated vision The Game: All Things Trump, a reference to an underperforming board game released by Milton Bradley Company in 1989.

Read the whole article here.

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Is a Picture Still Worth a Thousand Words?

Learn to spot fake AI photos while you still can:

“Digital Forensics Expert Provides Helpful Tips for Spotting AI Generated Images,” by Lori Dorn, Laughing Squid, July 22, 2025.

“During a truly informative TED talk, Professor Hany Farid of UC Berkeley shared his expertise as a digital forensics expert to give helpful tips in spotting whether or not an image was AI generated.

Digital forensics expert Hany Farid explains how he helps journalists, courts and governments find structural errors in AI-generated images, offering four practical tips everyday individuals can use when facing the internet’s war on reality.

Farid explains how AI does not understand the physics, geometry and other real world issues, so it will inevitably make mistakes in perspective, an anomaly that can be tracked. One such error is that of the vanishing point, in which parallel lines, such as railroad tracks, will seem to converge the further it is away from the eye.

Read the whole article here.

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