Hoax Museum Blog: Body Manipulation

Fluids for Christ — Just last night I added a new feature to the site: a discussion forum (I'm calling it the Hoax Forum) where people can post questions or info about new hoaxes they've found. I figure this will be better than having everyone email me stuff like this directly, since the email just sits unanswered in my inbox for ages. And already, on the first day of the forum's existence, someone has posted something good. Rachel Hurley found Fluids for Christ, which claims to be a blood bank for Christian fluid donations. After all, what good Christian would want to receive heathen blood? The site is almost believable (there are Christian Credit Agencies and Christian Pharmacies, so why not Christian Blood Banks?), until you start looking through it and it begins to become obviously silly, such as when they start describing their "Christpherization methods" of separating out the Christian components of blood.
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2004.   Comments (1)

Just Say No to the Whizzinator — The Whizzinator is a prosthetic penis attached to a plastic bag that you tie around your waist. Put heated urine in the bag (dehydrated urine provided), and you're all set to cheat on a drug test. Rather ingenious. But now Illinois officials are cracking down on this product. The Illinois Senate voted 56-0 to outlaw it. Meanwhile the far more morally offensive Brief Safes are still legal. What kind of upside-down world do we live in?




Posted: Wed May 05, 2004.   Comments (1)

Invest In My Breast — image If you're a woman who wants breast augmentation surgery, but can't afford it, then try signing up at InvestInMyBreast.com (mostly safe for work, though some nudity if you look around enough). This site connects women who want breast implants with charitable-minded people who want to help them achieve this goal. So women simply post their pictures, state why they want implants, and the donations start rolling in. Sounds great (well, actually, it sounds bizarre), but as soon as I started checking out the site my baloney detector started to go off. The big catch is that women will only ever receive their donations if, and only if, they reach their goal amount (usually $4000-$5000). It's an all-or-nothing system. But during the year that the site has been up, it doesn't appear that any woman has come anywhere close to achieving their goal amount. So what happens if, as is probable, a woman never reaches her goal? If the system was fair, the donations would be refunded to the donor. This doesn't happen. Second most fair would be to pay out the donations to the women, after a certain amount of time. This doesn't happen either. Instead, all donations are kept by the owners of the website itself. In other words, if you do donate money it's almost certain that your 'donation' will never result in a woman getting breast implants. Instead, it'll line the pockets of the site's owner. Of course, then there's the question of whether these women are who they say they are. I suspect that at least some of them are either shills or fakes. And if you search long enough, the site itself does admit, in its users agreement, that "InvestInMyBreast.com cannot and does not guarantee any user's identity." (via NewYorkish)
Posted: Wed May 05, 2004.   Comments (11)

American Merkin Company — image A merkin is a pubic wig. The term is also sometimes used as slang/shorthand for 'American.' Apparently actors doing nude scenes sometimes wear merkins. Heidi Klum did a scene involving an oversized, obviously fake merkin in the movie Blow Dry. But where, you might wonder, could a casual curiosity seeker ever get their hands on such a thing? Just head on over to the American Merkin Company (not safe for work, but only mildly so). Their motto is 'Handcrafting merkins for over 150 years,' and they offer a full range of this product in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. Or at least, so they claim. They display a number at the bottom of their webpage which you can call and order some up (1-877-508-6307). I couldn't contain my curiosity about whether this company was for real, so I dialed them up, only to reach an operator who had never heard of them. So I guess the American Merkin Company is a hoax. Their motto should have been a tip-off.
Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004.   Comments (1)


Online Tanning Salon — Are you getting a little pale and pasty sitting inside all day staring at your computer screen? Then head over to the sunnysite periodically and catch a few rays. Warning: you may want to wear protective eyewear. (via Bifurcated Rivets)
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004.   Comments (0)

Eyeball jewelry — image When I first saw this I thought it had to be a hoax, because it reminded me of the Floral Sculpture Clinic. But this appears to be legitimate. Dutch surgeons have figured out a way to implant small decorative pieces of jewelry in people's eyes. Here's a link to the Clinic where you can get this done.
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004.   Comments (3)

Breast Pillows — image Tadeusz, writing from the Netherlands, asked my opinion on whether this product is real or fake: The Breast Pillow (safe for work). It's supposed to prevent women from getting "wrinkling of the cleavage area" as they sleep, especially women who have breast implants. I don't know if it actually works, but I see no reason why it wouldn't be a real product. My wife tells me that some women wear bras to bed for this very reason.
Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004.   Comments (2)

Headvertising — ads Need to make a little extra money? Would you be willing to slap an advertisement on your forehead and parade around all day displaying it? The management team at Headvertise.com is hoping that you would, especially if you're a college student. Headvertise seems to be the creation of some students at Johnson & Wales University, and I'm betting it's either a joke, or some kind of bizarre class project. But who knows! I have seen stupider business plans in my day. (Link via J-Walk).
Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2004.   Comments (5)

From Couch Potato to Bodybuilder — fitnessJohnStoneFitness.com is a site that documents the remarkable physical transformation of a man named John Stone. Within the space of a few months he goes from being a pale, flabby, out-of-shape guy, into being a buff and muscular bodybuilder. Emily emailed me to ask if the site was for real. She felt that his muscle development happened a little too quickly to be believable, and quite a few people whom I've shown the site to have had the same reaction. But I would say it's definitely for real. If a person is really committed to a fitness program, they can make pretty dramatic changes to their body within only a few months.
Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2004.   Comments (6)

My Pet Fat — pet fatThis should be a joke, but I don't think it is. Apparently inspired by the pet rock phenomenon of decades ago, an entrepreneur is now trying to sell globs of artificial fat under the name 'My Pet Fat.' The gimmick is that carrying around this artificial fat will supposedly inspire you to eat less and thus lose unwanted body fat. This is so dumb that it has to be real.
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004.   Comments (6)

Floral Sculpture Clinic — floralI'm not sure if this is real or fake. The Floral Sculpture Clinic says that it will implant bone tissue sculpted into the shape of a flower beneath your skin. The result will be a visibly raised bony pattern on your skin. If real, it's very strange.
Update: Boing Boing reports that the Floral Sculpture Clinic is indeed a hoax. It's part of a conceptual art project dreamed up by the Dutch artist Simone Van Bakel. The images of the inserted implants are photoshopped.
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004.   Comments (2)

Fecal Tongs — Okay, this is gross, but what else would you expect from a web hoax? It's some guy's collection of fecal tongs. Personally, I've never heard of such a thing as a fecal tong before. They look like just regular tongs to me. In fact, I would say that this site is actually just a collection of pictures of tongs, (so it's quite safe for work, unless your boss would object to the word 'fecal') which this guy has managed to spin a wild story around.
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2003.   Comments (1)

Laze’s Diet System — Laze's Diet System: Here's a diet system that promises fast results. It seems to involve sucking your stomach in.
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003.   Comments (2)

What is Victoria’s Secret — What is Victoria's Secret: In a nutshell, it's bulimia. Unfortunately this site had to place 'parody' labels all over itself due to complaints from the real Victoria's Secret
Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003.   Comments (0)

Body Modification Hoaxes — Dr. Zizlesse offers a revolutionary alternative for overweight women who can't lose those extra pounds: nipple surgery. I'll let you discover on your own why nipple surgery can solve women's weight problems, but I have to say that there's definitely a strange, twisted logic to what he suggests. I'm also sure it's a hoax. Note that near the bottom of the intro page Dr. Zizlesse asks 'Are you gullible?' (may not be safe for work because of the background image, though it took me ages before I actually noticed what was in the background).

This next site also involves strange forms of body modification. At Adding and Subtracting we meet two identical twins, Ryan and Dave, who like to swap body parts. Dave supposedly had his right arm amputated and then surgically attached to Ryan's chest. This is actually an April Fool's Day joke that's been around for a while (look at the date at the bottom of the article). Mara, who also sent me the picture of Munchkin the Cat, reminded me of it.
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2003.   Comments (0)

Too Skinny? — skinny fashion model Here are some images that have been circulating around of anorexically skinny fashion models. Are these models actually this skinny, or have the images been touched up by someone trying to make the fashion industry look like a gallery of horrors? I'm not sure. (Warning: one of the images may not be considered safe for work, though it's no racier than what you'd find in your average issue of National Geographic).
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2003.   Comments (40)

National Blonde Day — Oops. I forgot that yesterday was National Blonde Day, so designated by the Blonde Legal Defense Club. The day is designed to promote respect for the intelligence and accomplishments of blondes. In reality, it's a publicity stunt for the Legally Blonde movie.
Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003.   Comments (0)

No Sex Change for Toto — Toto's keyboard player is not going to have a sex change. It was just a joke. Personally I was more surprised to discover that Toto was still around.
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003.   Comments (1)

WHO Blonde Report — The greatest blonde joke ever!!! The media had been enamored of the story that the World Health Organization had predicted the eventual disappearance of the gene for blond hair because there are so many artificial blondes that they're diluting the gene selection for true blondes. But the WHO had never issued a report saying this. It was all a joke.
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2002.   Comments (1)

Saddam Hussein Doubles — Apparently Saddam Hussein employs many doubles of himself. The men shown below are apparently not the real Hussein. They're his doubles. So will the real Saddam Hussein please stand up?
image
Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2002.   Comments (0)

Page 6 of 7 pages ‹ First  < 4 5 6 7 >