Greatest hoax of all time?

[Geddy2112]

Wearside Jack?

[Mayerling]

In 1809 Theodore Hook bet a friend that within one week he could make any house in London the most famous and talked about place in the city.. he picked 54 Berners Street.. then he wrote thousands of letters ordering items and requesting service and what not for November 27th... then starting at 5 am (first was one of several chimney sweeps) the people started showing up... in droves.. everything from gardeners to piano movers to fish mongers , so many that every office in town had to be sent to Berners Street and the roads were jammed for several blocks.. all for a laugh

Steadmund Brand

Believe it or not, Hook's joke was repeated in 1880 in New York City, when for several weeks (not days) the Reverend Morgan Dix of New York's Trinity Church was the recipient of a similar series of undesired visits to his home
by all sorts of salesmen, and professional men (including dancing masters, food merchants, repairmen, etc). It turned out that times had changed. Hook was never prosecuted for the Berners Street Hoax, but the man who repeated the joke at Rev. Dix's expense, was sent to prison of a year on harassment charges.

How about the "Dreadnought Hoax" for a nice great hoax of all time?

Jeff

[GUT]

Believe it or not, Hook's joke was repeated in 1880 in New York City, when for several weeks (not days) the Reverend Morgan Dix of New York's Trinity Church was the recipient of a similar series of undesired visits to his home
by all sorts of salesmen, and professional men (including dancing masters, food merchants, repairmen, etc). It turned out that times had changed. Hook was never prosecuted for the Berners Street Hoax, but the man who repeated the joke at Rev. Dix's expense, was sent to prison of a year on harassment charges.

How about the "Dreadnought Hoax" for a nice great hoax of all time?

Jeff

I wonder if it was so much that times had changed as intent.

Hook was to win a bet and perhaps the “victim” made no complaints whereas in Dix’s case the intent was malicious and Dix did complain.

Just a thought.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Believe it or not, Hook's joke was repeated in 1880 in New York City, when for several weeks (not days) the Reverend Morgan Dix of New York's Trinity Church was the recipient of a similar series of undesired visits to his home
by all sorts of salesmen, and professional men (including dancing masters, food merchants, repairmen, etc). It turned out that times had changed. Hook was never prosecuted for the Berners Street Hoax, but the man who repeated the joke at Rev. Dix's expense, was sent to prison of a year on harassment charges.

How about the "Dreadnought Hoax" for a nice great hoax of all time?

Jeff

I’d never heard of that one Jeff. Checked it out on Wiki. Brilliant! “Bunga, Bunga!”

[Herlock Sholmes]

This is a pisstake, right?

What? So, firstly everyone on the left is an atheist? New one on me.

Secondly, I did ask for an example or examples, not a baseless generality.

And if you’re criticism of Humanism/atheism sites the tired old, well discredited examples of Hitler (a Catholic by the way), Stalin and Mao etc you really need to do better.

I can’t help noticing the ‘silence’ on this one

[Herlock Sholmes]

As a Holmes/Doyle fan I’m embarrassed that I forgot to mention The Cottingley Fairies. Old Sir Arthur was hook, line and sinkered into that one. A perfect example of wish thinking I’m afraid. Just like his obsession with Spiritualism.

“What were you thinking man!”

[Sam Flynn]

As a Holmes/Doyle fan I’m embarrassed that I forgot to mention The Cottingley Fairies. Old Sir Arthur was hook, line and sinkered into that one. A perfect example of wish thinking I’m afraid. Just like his obsession with Spiritualism.

Which serves as an object lesson to ripperologists when considering the opinions of some Victorian intellectuals. Doyle studied medicine and was, moreover, a published academic as well as an author of fiction. Yet, like Alfred Russel Wallace and other fine intellects of his era, he wasn't immune to believing in all kinds of nonsense.

[Abby Normal]

As a Holmes/Doyle fan I’m embarrassed that I forgot to mention The Cottingley Fairies. Old Sir Arthur was hook, line and sinkered into that one. A perfect example of wish thinking I’m afraid. Just like his obsession with Spiritualism.

“What were you thinking man!”

oh yeah-that one was pretty big.


what about Piltdown man. I remember learning about that one in elementary school.

[barnflatwyngarde]

As a Holmes/Doyle fan I’m embarrassed that I forgot to mention The Cottingley Fairies. Old Sir Arthur was hook, line and sinkered into that one. A perfect example of wish thinking I’m afraid. Just like his obsession with Spiritualism.

“What were you thinking man!”

Yep, Elsie and Frances fairly stitched him up on that one, although the whole episode has a charm and simplicity to it.

It was only when adults intruded into the imagination of 2 young girls that the story spiralled out of control.

Conan Doyle was also a keen proponent of spiritualism.
Check out his marvellous story about spiritualism called "The Land of Mist".

It is a Professor Challenger story, and old grumpy is tested to the full by the mad carryings on of the spirit world..

It is well worth a read.

[Graham]

I never understood how anyone with a positive IQ could ever be taken in by The Cottingley Fairies - the photos were so obviously fake. But there you go - you really can fool some of the people all of the time.

I haven't read all the posts here, but has anyone mentioned The Loch Ness Monster?

Graham

[Mayerling]

I’d never heard of that one Jeff. Checked it out on Wiki. Brilliant! “Bunga, Bunga!”

While the entire "Dreadnought Hoax" was great at showing up the Admiralty and Foreign Office (the joke was that the hoaxers pretended they were the Emperor of Zanzibar, his German interpreter, and his party, in London on a state visit, and wishing to see the new battleship), I always liked that the hoaxers included a young Virginia Woolf as one of the Zanzibarians (?), and that (before the joke was revealed) one of the officers involved in entertaining the Emperor and his party was annoyed that a speed-boat had crossed the barge with the Emperor and his party during the visit (rather than permitting the party to have right of way). As the person in charge of the speed boat was a young naval officer, he was dressed down by the officer involved in the entertainment of the visiting dignitaries. The officer was the son of the then First Sea Lord (in 1910): Louis Battenburg. It apparently was the future Lord Louis Mountbatten.

While not an elaborate hoax like the "Dreadnought" and "Berner Street" Affairs, I read of a private one practiced by an annoyed Sir Richard Burton in the 1880s. When his wife Isabella was entertaining her friends, they pestered Burton about his latest writing (this was after the success of his translation of "The Arabian Nights". He was ready for them the next time, and acted quite secretive when they made their undesired enquiries. He left the room suddenly, but they noticed a manuscript left behind on the top of his study desk. Quietly the ladies walked over to see what it was and saw the title "A History of Farting". They never bothered the explorer/translator regarding his literary work again.

Jeff

[Abby Normal]

crop circles!

those really had people going for a while

[Herlock Sholmes]

Yep, Elsie and Frances fairly stitched him up on that one, although the whole episode has a charm and simplicity to it.

It was only when adults intruded into the imagination of 2 young girls that the story spiralled out of control.

Conan Doyle was also a keen proponent of spiritualism.
Check out his marvellous story about spiritualism called "The Land of Mist".

It is a Professor Challenger story, and old grumpy is tested to the full by the mad carryings on of the spirit world..

It is well worth a read.

The Challenger stories are great.

[Sam Flynn]

crop circles!

Crop-circle hoaxers are nothing but cereal killers.

[Abby Normal]

Crop-circle hoaxers are nothing but cereal killers.

that was bad..