…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
From the Vault: Maqdananda
“Why deal with the legal system without knowing the outcome beforehand?”-Maqdananda
Legal council from the other side. From courtrooms to crystal balls, Maqdananda brings legal advice to another dimension.
Joey Skaggs as Maqdananda, Psychic Attorney, in a :30 CNN TV commercial (1994).
Your cure is just a dream away. Dream on.
“Trump shares apparent AI video promoting ‘medbed’ conspiracy theory,” by Kevin Liptak, Donie O’Sullivan, CNN, September 28, 2025.
President Donald Trump on Saturday shared an apparently artificially created video of himself promoting a cure-all bed with origins in conspiratorial corners of the internet.
The video, which has since been deleted, was intended to resemble a Fox News segment on the show hosted by the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, featured an AI version of Trump promising access to new medical technology. This segment has never aired on the network.
“Every American will soon receive their own medbed card,” said the false rendering of Trump. “With it, you’ll have guaranteed access to our new hospitals led by the top doctors in the nation, equipped with the most advanced technology in the world.”
Uncovering the truth sometimes takes a while…
“Woodward and Bernstein didn’t bring down Nixon – but the myth that they did lives on,” by The Conversation, (on AlterNet), September 16, 2025.
In their dogged reporting of the Watergate scandal, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered the crimes that forced Richard Nixon to resign the presidency in August 1974.
That version of Watergate has long dominated popular understanding of the scandal, which unfolded over 26 months beginning in June 1972.
It is, however, a simplistic trope that not even Watergate-era principals at the Post embraced.
Maggie Reed, @mermaidmamamags, asks: Are We Doing This Right MAGA? And Adam Wren of Politico, ‘splains how Gavin Newsom is the new Trump troll.
Click this link to play the video:
“How Gavin Newsom trolled his way to the top of social media,” by Adam Wren, Politico, August 20, 2025.
With an inescapable, smashmouth, all-caps-laden and meme-filled X account, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is holding a mirror up to MAGA — and MAGA doesn’t like what it sees.
There’s Newsom on Mount Rushmore. There’s Newsom getting prayed over by Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock and an angelic, winged Hulk Hogan. There’s Newsom posting in all caps, saying his mid-cycle redistricting proposal has led “MANY” people to call him “GAVIN CHRISTOPHER ‘COLUMBUS’ NEWSOM (BECAUSE OF THE MAPS!). THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”
If this genre of social media post provokes deja vu, there’s a good reason for that.
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.