Famous Hoaxes

AP English Language Mini-Project

Famous Hoaxes

(Text taken from http://en.wikipedia.org on 7 Jul 2006)

A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. There is often some material object involved which is actually a forgery; however, it is possible to perpetrate a hoax by making only true statements using unfamiliar wording or context (see DHMO). Unlike a fraud or con (which usually has an audience of one or a few), which are made for illicit financial or material gain, a hoax is often perpetrated as a practical joke, to cause embarrassment, or to provoke social change by making people aware of something. Many hoaxes are motivated by a desire to satirize or educate by exposing the credulity of the public and the media or the absurdity of the target. For instance, the hoaxes of James Randi poke fun at believers in the paranormal. The many hoaxes of Joey Skaggs satirize our willingness to believe the media. Political hoaxes are sometimes motivated by the desire to ridicule or besmirch opposing politicians or political institutions, often before elections.

Governments often perpetrate hoaxes to assist them with unpopular aims such as going to war (e.g., the Ems Telegram). In fact, there is often a mixture of outright hoax, and suppression and management of information to give the desired impression. In wartime, rumours abound; some may be deliberate hoaxes.

There is often considerable controversy about whether a given factoid is true or a hoax.

The word hoax is said to have come from the common pretend magic incantation hocus pocus. "Hocus pocus", in turn, is commonly believed to be a distortion of "hoc est corpus" ("this is the body") from the Latin Mass. Many etymologists claim that this is a hoax.

The bathtub hoax was a famous hoax or practical joke perpetrated by the American journalist H. L. Mencken. The hoax involved the publication of a fictitious history of the bathtub.

On December 28, 1917, a completely fictional article titled "A Neglected Anniversary" by H.L. Mencken was published in the New York Evening Mail. It was an account of the introduction of the bathtub into the United States, claiming it had been introduced as recently as 1842. The article also claimed that the bathtub had been introduced in England only as late as 1828. The article went on to describe that the introduction of the bathtub initially was greatly discussed and opposed, until the example of President Millard Fillmore who had a bathtub installed in the White House in 1850 made the invention more broadly acceptable.

The whole article was entirely false, but was widely quoted as fact years later, even until the present day. In 1949 Mencken wrote:

"The success of this idle hoax, done in time of war, when more serious writing was impossible, vastly astonished me. It was taken gravely by a great many other newspapers, and presently made its way into medical literature and into standard reference books. It had, of course, no truth in it whatsoever, and I more than once confessed publicly that it was only a jocosity... Scarcely a month goes by that I do not find the substance of it reprinted, not as foolishness but as fact, and not only in newspapers but in official documents and other works of the highest pretensions."

YOUR TASK: Research hoaxes on the Internet. From a trusted source, identify one famous hoax in American history. Compile the following information:

1. Targeted audience.
2. Motivation for the hoax.
3. Rhetorical strategies utilized to fool audience.
4. Why would a reasonable person doubt the hoax?
5. Outcome or effect.

In an assigned group, students will share their hoaxes. The group will select one hoax to present to the rest of the class.

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