…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
In my natal family, the holiest of holidays were April Fools, Valentine”s, Halloween, and the first night of Passover, in that order. To joke was to love was to entertain was to celebrate liberty. My friends were brought up to take praying seriously; my brother and I, to take playing seriously. Continue reading “Prank You Very Much: The Etiquette of Hoaxing”
We take our pranks pretty seriously, so we’ve made up some prank guidelines: Continue reading “Our Favorite Pranks by KDM and CLM”
This article, previously published in Cultura/s in June 2003, is about Michael Born, a German television reporter who made up his stories. He was far more extreme than Jayson Blair at the New York Times. He created events with actors, tomato sauce blood, etc. and sold them to German cable channels in the 1990’s.
The real question is whether Born is the only one culpable, as the court decision decreed, or were the buyers of the stories equally guilty for not checking them out. -JS
El caso de Jayson Blair y sus artà Âculos falseados y/o inventados en The New York Times ha supuesto un nuevo impulso para la instauracià ³n del “fake journalism” –o como lo define el gran Tom Kummer, “borderline journalism”-, como género en sà  mismo que tarde o temprano se estudiarà ¡ en las facultades de periodismo. Continue reading “Natural Born Faker (Article is in Spanish)”
It was a cold day in San Francisco, the winter solstice 1983. The city by the bay was about to be attacked by a military force of 21 plaster snowman. What can I say, having grown up in New England I missed winter and it didn”t look like it was going to snow anytime soon so I sent out some press releases warning the city that “”¦you can”t escape!” Continue reading “It was a cold day in San Francisco…”