Dihydrogen Monoxide… Once Again

The dihydrogen monoxide prank has gained another victim. Jacqui Dean, a New Zealand politician, received a letter from a constituent asking her to look into the issue of the dangerous chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide. She promptly fired off a letter to the Associate Health Minister asking him whether it would be possible to ban the drug. The minister replied that dihydrogen monoxide "may have been described to her as colourless, odourless, tasteless and causing the death of uncounted thousands of people every year, and withdrawal from which, for those who become dependent on it, means certain death." However, he had no intention of banning it.

American politicians, of course, have proven themselves to be equally susceptible to this prank.

Pranks

Posted on Fri Sep 14, 2007


Comments

here is the full story from ours (the pranksters) point of view:

http://mikeenz.blogspot.com/2007/09/jacqui-dean-and-dhmo-full-story.html
Posted by MikeE  on  Fri Sep 14, 2007  at  06:39 PM
One of the webcomics I read has a smark-alec camp councilor who needed to get a cefrtain number of signatures on a petition to keep his job. Naturally he tricked one of the signers by saying the petition was to ban Dihydrogen Monoxide which was a chemical used in manufacturing, kills people, etc. I sign most petitions for putting something on the ballot that people present to me, but I read them first. I sign because I think that, no matter how stupid the petition, it deserves to get voted on.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Fri Sep 14, 2007  at  07:38 PM
I'm with you on the petition thing, Christopher. When I was a teenager in the Bronx, a woman stopped me on Fordham Road and asked me to sign a petition to let the Communist Party be on the ballot.

I wouldn't vote for a Communist candidate because I don't think that Communism works, but I thought that people should have the choice, so I signed the petition. The friend who was with me thought that it might harm his future career as a lawyer so he refused to sign.

Eh, this wouldn't be the main reason I have an FBI file, anyway.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Sat Sep 15, 2007  at  03:37 AM
When I first heard this, I thought that it was probably a joke of somekind.
But the fact that all off this is true shows just shows how powerful good old H20 really is
Posted by mangabottle  on  Sun Sep 16, 2007  at  04:47 AM
Have you guys seen this Web site yet? It's freakin' hilarious -- http://www.dhmo.org/
Posted by Jim Fisher  on  Mon Sep 17, 2007  at  09:17 AM
I ask not for pity.

I merely point out to you that as of three months ago, it became illegal to "bring members of Parliament into disdain or ridicule by showing them in compromising or emabarrasing positions in the House, or by qouting their words as spoken in the House on any form of media."

The action can lead to prison time.
Posted by D F Stuckey  on  Sat Oct 06, 2007  at  06:28 AM
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