Hoax Museum Blog: Urban Legends

Terry Tate for Governor — To the list of fictitious characters campaigning to become Governor of California we can now add Terry Tate, the 'Office Linebacker' in those ads by Reebok. Terry Tate is played by actor Lester Speight, but it's Tate that's running, not Speight. So we now have Gollum and Tate running, as well as Gary Coleman, Gallagher, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the pornstar Mary Carey, Angelyne, and Larry Flynt. All elections should be this fun!

Baron Munchausen Trading Cards — A cool set of Baron Munchausen trading cards. I'm sure it would cost a lot of money to buy the complete set.

Update 8/14/03: I didn't intend to suggest that these cards are a hoax, as a few people queried me about. I linked to them because Munchausen (the fictional character) was a famous teller of tall tales, so the cards appealed to me as an example of hoax memorabilia.

Outhouse Springs Water — Stuart Elliott, in today's edition of his NY Times email newsletter, writes about a hoax product that recently became a real product. It goes by the name Outhouse Springs water. This brand of bottled water was dreamed up by an advertising agency that wanted to gauge how effective outdoor billboard ads could be. So they put 40 billboards advertising the fictitious Outhouse Springs Water up around Charleston, South Carolina. The billboards sported slogans such as "It's #1, not #2!" People definitely noticed the ads and actually started asking for the stuff at retailers. Demand became so intense that the ad agency eventually made a deal with a bottled-water company to produce a limited run of Outhouse Springs Water. It's on sale now at Piggly Wiggly's in Charleston. This product reminds me of Olde Frothingslosh Pale Stale Ale.

The Cesky Sen Hypermarket — How do people react when their expectations built up by advertising collide with reality? That was the question two Czech film students set out to answer. They flooded Czech media with advertisements for a new 'hypermarket'—Cesky sen— offering goods at rock-bottom prices. New TV sets for $19, for instance. Eager shoppers flooded to the hypermarket's address, shopping bags in hand, only to find a large empty scaffold bearing a banner fluttering aimlessly in the wind. (Story via Paul Farrington)

When I do not know if it is a hoax or not — A frustrated visitor asks: "If you don't know whether it's real, or a hoax, then why in the world did you include it on this site of 'hoaxes'!" I assume they were referring to those pictures of the skinny models. Well, as vast as my knowledge is (note: sarcasm intended), sometimes I just don't know whether the weird things that pop up on the news or on the internet are real or false. But when I list things here, usually someone will write in with info that'll point the way towards the truth. That's the great thing about the internet. So to answer the question, I list things here even if I don't know if they're real or not, in order to find out what other people might know. But everything in the museum galleries (as opposed to this weblog portion of the site) has been clearly identified as either a hoax or real.

Air Guitar For Sale — A brand new air guitar and drum set. Bid on it now at eBay.

They Captured ET —
Talk about a pain in the neck. Photoshop has made this guy look a bit like a giraffe, or E.T.

This photo has been circulating via email for a few months. It's usually titled 'They finally captured E.T." or some variation of that. I think it's fair to conclude that the neck and stomach of the man being led away by the police officer have been digitally enlarged. Note the boxy pixellation where the photoshopper cut-and-pasted to lengthen the neck:



(thanks to Karen Robinson for sending this).

Gollum for Governor — Here's the latest entrant to the California recall election: Gollum, from Lord of the Rings. Considering the other candidates running, he just might have my vote.

Cherie Blair Dance Hit — A dance hit by Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is taking the clubs by storm in Spain. Or, um, maybe not. (Thanks to Keith Brogan for emailing me about this).

Update 8/14/03: According to this article, maybe it's not a hoax.

Win Toilet Paper — Enter the Win-Toilet-Paper sweepstakes, and the toilet-paper delivery man could soon be knocking on your door. I'm not sure if this is for real or not. I don't feel like supplying them with my email address to find out.

Update: Apparently it's real. Strange, but real.

Buy Land on the Moon — Can you buy land on the moon? According to this website you can. It's the home on the internet of the Lunar Embassy, which claims that it is "the only company in the world to possess a legal basis and copyright for the sale of lunar, and other extraterrestrial property within the confines of our solar system." And if you believe that, then I've got a bridge to sell you. Their basis for this claim is that the UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967 forbid governments from owning extraterrestrial property, but it didn't mention anything about individuals or corporations! Ah Ha! Sounds like a clever loophole. Unfortunately this argument doesn't hold water, because individuals and corporations can themselves only claim ownership of land through governments. There's a good article debunking the Buy-Land-On-The-Moon Scheme over at CNN, explaining that it's the creation of con artist/entrepreneur named Dennis Hope. The British National Space Centre also denies it's possible to own land on the moon. And Space.com has a good article about this scam as well. What it all comes down to is that for the $30 bucks you'd pay to buy a plot of land on the moon, you'll gain ownership of a piece of paper, and nothing more.

More about the Time Traveler — A visitor, Dave Kaplan, has sent me some correspondence that he has had with Bob, the time traveler in search of a dimensional warp generator.

Update: Another visitor has pointed out that Bob is not the first time traveler to have visited us. Three years ago a guy named John Titor made a big splash for a couple of months, before he mysteriously disappeared (he said he was returning to his own time). I guess John had a dimensional warp generator, whereas Bob doesn't.

How Californias recall election can erase the states deficit — A lot of people have been wondering whether this whole California recall election is some kind of hoax, what with candidates for governor such as Gary Coleman, Larry Flynt, and Angelyne. Well, it's no hoax. All it takes is $3500 and 65 signatures and anyone can announce their candidacy for governor. Personally I think people are failing to see the potential here to get rid of Gray Davis and solve our budget woes all in one fell swoop. Think about it. We've got a $35 billion deficit, and it costs $3500 to run for governor. So if the entire population of Los Angeles registered to run for governor, our deficit would be gone in an instant. Apparently we're already well on our way to achieving this goal.

Too Skinny? — 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).

Of Foxes, Turtles, and Ham — A Japanese newspaper scooped its rivals by revealing a serious environmental problem—that foxes were eating the eggs of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle. It even had pictures of the foxes eating the eggs. Until it turned out that the only reason the foxes were standing there by the eggs was because the cameramen had lured them there with ham.

Crop Circle — A radio station admits to being the creator of a crop circle.

More About the Mystery Time Traveler — David Emery, at About.com, has dug up some interesting clues about the time-travel spammer. He notes that an authentic mind warper generator was once offered for sale on eBay, as well as a Generation 4 Dimensional Warp Generator. Bidding on these items has closed. He also notes that there's speculation that the mystery spammer is a well-known, Woburn-based spammer named Robert Todino, since the mystery spammer states that he lives in the Woburn area. But someone who wrote to me claims to have talked to the time traveler on the phone and supports the theory that the guy is crazy as a loon.

Fake Vacations — Many Italians are too embarrassed to admit that they can't afford to go on vacation, so they take fake vacations instead (i.e. tell everyone they're going away, then sit in their room with a sunlamp).

Van Gogh Caught on Film — Dutch filmmakers who claimed to have a roll of film showing Vincent Van Gogh walking by admit it was all a hoax.

Beware of Lirf Loopa — Edward Ingram writes in:
Several years back I remember being taken in be a news story on KAKE-TV
in Wichita KS. Supposedly, a woman was driving when her infant began
playing with her garage door opener. To her surprise it was noticed by
the woman that when the opener was clicked within 100 YDS. of a traffic
light, the light would obligingly turn green. The story even went so
far as to show a city traffic engineer standing by an opened traffic
control box, puzzled. They went on to report that the garage door
opener was manufactured by a Swedish company called Lirf Loopa, who,
when contacted, informed KAKE that they had met all regulations and laws
concerning the device and were not about to change it.
Only at the end of a very detailed story did the newscaster reveal that
Lirf Loopa was an anagram for April Fool.