Media Pranks - The Art of the Prank

August 8, 2025

Stepping in Imaginary Shit

Spinal Tap revisited decades later:

“Spotify hit band The Velvet Sundown comes clean on AI,” by Trevor Mogg, Digital Trends, July 6, 2025.

The Velvet Sundown burst onto the music scene in early June and in the space of just a few weeks gained an astonishing 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

But its bland music style, hyper-realistic band images, and lack of a digital footprint quickly led many people to suspect that the The Velvet Sundown was AI-generated. And it turns out they were right.

After weeks of speculation, a new message posted on its Spotify page over the weekend finally admitting that the band and its music are the work of generative AI.

Read the whole article here.

July 14, 2025July 14, 2025

Trump’s Long-awaited Nobel Peace Prize!

Print Donald Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize Certificate
or Customize it as You Wish.
Visit here to print the certificate.

You may change the name of the recipient to any fascistic, corrupt, delusional, narcissistic, fanatic, cruel, genocidal world leader you choose, such as Vladimir Putin (Russia), Kim Jong-un (North Korea), Viktor Orbán (Hungary), Xi Jinping (China), or Binyamin Netanyahu (Israel).

Or select someone else you’d like to bestow this honor upon.

June 27, 2025July 14, 2025

From the Vault: Comacocoon, the Perfect Travel Alternative

Tired? Feeling stressed? Need a vacation, but haven’t got the time? Or, perhaps you have concerns about the dangers of air travel or political unrest.

35 years ago, in the Fall of 1990, German anesthesiologist Dr. Joseph Schlafer (a.k.a. Joey Skaggs) had the solution: Comacocoon…. The perfect dream vacation.

Travel via suspended animation through anesthesiology and subliminal programming. Vacation packages included the Magical Mystery Tour (where you could be a rock star on a sellout concert tour), the Thrill Seeker (to ride the rapids), the Don Juan (for the lady’s man), or the Mata Hari (for the woman seeking romance and adventure, without the firing squad). Oh, but that’s not all! You could also have elective surgery, quit smoking, lose weight, and learn a foreign language.

Enjoy this excerpt from Andrea Marini’s documentary film about artist, activist Joey Skaggs, “Art of the Prank”.

Click here to play

April 10, 2025

In Case You Are in Romania This Weekend…

This Saturday, catch
“Joey Skaggs: The Solomon Project”
at the
ClujShorts International Film Festival
Saturday, April 12, 2025 at 8:00 pm
Casino Centrul de Cultura Urbana
Cluj-Napoca, România
Tickets are FREE

March 18, 2025March 18, 2025

A Message From Hell

Is he looking for unsatisfied voters? Here’s another entry in the long tradition of unsanctioned sign art.

Why are those ‘We buy souls’ posters all over LA?, by Paula Mejía, SFGate, February 15, 2025, h/t Richard Johnson.

The signs have become a ubiquitous sight on telephone poles across town

There’s hardly an inch of real estate, private or public, that isn’t occupied by advertisements in Los Angeles. You’ve got massive freeway billboards that crowd the sky, painted murals hawking dating apps and digital ads designed to catch your peripheral vision. It also happens on the street level, with bright signs plastered on telephone poles to hopefully attract drivers, pedestrians and bikers.

Yet amid the familiar blocky posters advertising concerts, offers to buy up junk cars, hair braiding and tattoo expos, another type of telephone pole advertising has become ubiquitous around LA for its sheer weirdness. The nondescript white sign features chunky red letters spelling out a cryptic and tantalizing message: “WE BUY SOULS!” A phone number accompanies the message, should interested parties want to call and learn more.

Read the whole article here.