museumofhoaxes.com > Reviews (1)

What is a hoax? According to the Collins Gem English Dictionary it is ‘a practical joke or deceptive trick’. According to the website www.museumofhoaxes.com, it is ‘a deceptive act or scheme that plays upon the credulity of others. Great hoaxes manage to create a sense of mystery and astonishment. They force people to question their assumptions, to wonder what is real and what is not. Not so great hoaxes usually manage to be, at the very least, amusing. The worst kind of hoaxes can actually cause serious damage to people's lives and finances.’

This website is dedicated to hoaxes over the years that have fooled the public, and makes fascinating, ironic, but often not funny, reading. The home page is exceptionally simple, yet effective. A white background, with nine pictures forming a square and links around them to different eras: pre-1700, 1700-1799, 1800-1849, 1850-1899, 1900-1998 and 1999-2001. At the bottom is a list of other general links, which I shall go into in more detail later, and a link to sign up for their newsletter. There is an example of the March 2002 newsletter in case you want to see if it is your sort of thing. The site also contains a search facility and a site map. Searching on George Bush brings up a number of hoax stories, but my favourite is that this wonderful president only has an IQ of 91.

I found it fascinating to see the different types of hoaxes around hundreds of years ago and now. With the event of modern communication, it has become harder to fool the public - or has it? I’ll give you an example of a hoax from 1817 and a hoax from 2001 so that you can decide.

•• Princess Caraboo ••
On 3rd April 1817 a beautiful woman wearing a turban appeared in Almondsbury, near Bristol. She spoke a strange language that no-one understood and communicated with gestures. A magistrate took her in and learned that her name was Caraboo as she kept on repeating it and pointing to herself. A Portuguese sailor claimed to understand her language and translated that she was a princess who was abducted from her island of Javasu. Once the magistrate and his wife realised they had royalty in their midst, they announced it to the press. Princess Caraboo lived notorious life of luxury for a while, until she was recognised as Mary Baker, the daughter of a cobbler. There is more to the story regarding how she then went to America, but I’ll stop there.

•• Gorgeous Guy ••
29 year old Dan Bacca noticed that people were staring at him at the bus stop every morning in San Francisco, so eventually he asked why. Apparently on 11th may 2001 a picture of him had been posted at a ‘missed connections’ website from a woman trying to find out his name as she thought he was gorgeous. The on-line community was buzzing with speculation and then the media picked it up. Dan became a celebrity overnight with offers to appear on CNN and the Tonight Show. One journalist did some further digging and found that it was all a hoax. Dan Bacca had probably posted the photo himself, and he had certainly posted a lot of the messages to create the hype.

To quote from the site ‘the hoax demonstrates how the internet has allowed average people to access huge public audiences without going through the traditional gatekeepers of the print and broadcast media’.

The first hoax could probably not have happened today, as there is very little of the world unexplored, and we are obsessed with identification. The second hoax obviously could not have happened much earlier, and the internet has opened a whole new world of possible hoaxes. An interesting contrast.

The other links from the home page are:

•• Hoaxes in the News ••
This only has two links at the moment, for September 2001 and November 2001, which includes an interesting article on terrorist hoaxes following September 11th.

•• Hoax Mailbag ••
As it suggests, this is an area where readers’ comments and answers to questions are posted.

•• Hoax Websites ••
This contains links to websites that are actually hoaxes themselves, for example the Ova Prima Foundation, claiming to have scientific evidence that the egg came before the chicken.

•• The Gullibility Test ••
As it suggests, take this quiz to see how gullible you really are. Of the 20 true or false questions posed, I got 10 right. I believed 5 false claims and disbelieved 5 true claims. Can you do any better?

•• Calendar of Hoaxes ••
This takes you to a calendar with links of hoaxes that happened on certain days of the month. Strangely though, only January and February are available.

•• Hoax Picture Gallery ••
This shows hoax photos, for example, a photo of a very cute Tasmanian Mock Walrus and the Twin Towers joined up like an arch, which has apparently become a patriotic symbol since September 11th.

•• Contact Me ••
Takes you to a box to leave the ‘curator’ an anonymous message. There is also an e-mail link of you do not want it to be anonymous.

•• Hoaxes Arranged by Category ••
If you are interested in a particular subject area, this may help you find a relevant hoax as it lists it by category. Examples of categories are, medical, newspaper, political and religious.

•• Origin of the Word Hoax ••
As the title suggests this gives an explanation of the origin of the word hoax, which apparently came into use in the mid to late 18th century.

•• What is a hoax? ••
My opening paragraph contained a quote from this link. It also explains what type of hoaxes they have concentrated on in this site.

•• The Museum’s Curator ••
This page details a bit about the site creator, Alex Boese. He is an American student, who created the site in 1997 as part of his dissertation.

•• Media Coverage ••
This details excerpts from media articles the site has had over the years. Particularly useful (not) was the (what looked like) Dutch articles.

•• Top 10 April Fools ••
Do you remember the famous spaghetti tree programme on Panorama in 1957? It is credited as being the best April Fool’s hoax of all time and was the first one to be perpetuated through the then new medium of TV. I was surprised to see this as number one on the site as it is an American site, but looking at the top 10, quite a few are actually British.

Apparently we do them best!

•• Summary ••
This site is worth a look to see how gullible the public are and to consider the changes that have occurred in the world over the last few hundred years. It is not updated particularly regularly, but then there is probably no need unless a wonderful hoax is discovered. It is easy on the eye, quick to load, simple to navigate and a real eye opener.

I’ll leave you with a final thought, should some of the current government’s spin be included in this site? Are we just the victims of constant modern day hoaxes?