Famous hoaxes

From A+ Club Lesson Planner & Study Guide

Hoax

  • noun: a deliberate deception, for humor or mal (bad) intent
  • verb: to deceive deliberately

This page is a list of famous hoaxes See also

Academic hoaxes[edit | edit source]

Sokal Affair[edit | edit source]

April Fools hoaxes and pranks[edit | edit source]

Sid Finch Sports Illustrated hoax[edit | edit source]

  • in its April 1, 1985 issue, Sports Illustrated rana story about a yoga-practicing baseball pitcher who could throw the ball 168 mph
  • named Hayden Siddhartha "Sidd" Finch
    • he was supposedly raised in an English orphanage and had gone to Tibet to study under a Buddhist monk
    • the story claimed that Finch chose not to play baseball and instead decided to "play the French horn or golf or something"
  • Finch was pictured throwing the ball in bare feet
    • the NY Mets participated in the hoax with players and coaches appearing with Finch
  • see The Curious Case of Sidd Finch (bostonbaseball.com)

Spaghetti trees hoax[edit | edit source]

Photograph of a woman harvesting spaghetti (California)
  • in 1957, a British BBV TV program ran a fake report on "spaghetti trees" in Switzerland
  • the report showed Swiss workers harvesting spaghetti from trees
  • others have copied the hoax, including in California

Taco Liberty Bell hoax[edit | edit source]

  • on April 1, 1996, Taco Bell published ads in 7 newspapers claiming the company had purchased the Liberty Bell
    • the purpose was to "reduce the country's debt"
    • it would, however, be renamed the "Taco Liberty Bell".

General hoaxes[edit | edit source]

Geographic hoaxes[edit | edit source]

April's Fool volcano prank[edit | edit source]

Great Blue Hill eruption prank[edit | edit source]

  • File:Great Blue Hill from Trillium.jpeg
    Great Blue Hill in Massachusetts. On April 1, 1980 a local news station reported it was erupting.
    at 6:00 pm on April 1, 1980, a Milton, MA news station aired a fake news bulletin that announced that a nearby, small mountain was erupting
    • the report was one week after the tremendous eruption of Mt. St. Helens
    • the report showed edited statements of concern by Massachusetts Governor and President Carter
    • panicked residents called the police and the state Civil Defense office
    • some were reported to have fled the area
  • at 11:00 the state apologized for the hoax
  • the producer of the 6:00 news segment was fired the next day
    • in addition "failure to exercise good news judgment," the producer had also violated FCC rules regarding use of "stock footage" (old news footage) without identifying it as such

Historical hoaxes[edit | edit source]

Religious hoaxes[edit | edit source]

The Da Vinci Code (Christianity)[edit | edit source]

  • while a work of fiction, Dan Brown's series, "The Da Vinci Code" is based on an unsupported claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married\
  • much of the plot line is derived from that claim, including a blood line of Jesus and the Holy Grail (which is supposed to provide eternal youth)

Letter of Benan (Christianity)[edit | edit source]

  • in 1910, Ernst Edler von der Planitz claimed he had discovered a 5th century Coptic (ancient Egyptian derivative language) text
    • he claimed it was a translation from a Greek text in 83 AD
    • the text was about the encounters of an Egyptian physician with Jesus and the apostles

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Judaism)[edit | edit source]

  • published in 1903 in Russia, which was strongly anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) at the time
  • a literary forgery, the papers outlined Jewish plans for global domination

Scientology (cult)[edit | edit source]

  • technically not a hoax, as its inventor did not deliberately aim to deceive or he never admitted it
  • however, its practices have been questioned by governments, medical experts, and theologians
    • especially the claim of secret Scientology texts that were created 70 million years ago by an outer space alien ruler
  • in 1950 author L. Ron Hubbard published, "Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science" in a science fiction magazine
    • the book mentioned the term, "Scientology"
    • Hubbard, who had undergone psychiatric treatment, hated psychology and offered a new counseling treatment, "Dianetics"
    • it was intended to be a form of psychotherapy, but he morphed into a "religious philosophy" in 1952
    • he said he created it as "scientific rather than religious" thought
    • however, after being banned from running a medical clinic, he established it as a religious organization, instead
  • over 25,000 people follow Scientology today

The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ[edit | edit source]

  • in 1894, a Russian journalist published a book that claimed historical evidence that Jesus had visited India and studied under Hindu & Buddhist priests

Scientific hoaxes[edit | edit source]