Kenny “K-Strass” Strasser, a self-proclaimed “Yo-Yo Master,” has been showcasing his skills on morning shows across the midwest. The only problem is that he’s terrible at yo-yo tricks. This yo-yo hoaxster has proved once again that there’s a pretty flimsy screening process for morning talk show guests.
via deadspin.
(Watch No Underwear Subway Ride Uncensored in HD on YouTube)
edited by Matt Adams / song by Tyler Walker
In case you didn’t get the memo, the Improv Everywhere video we posted last week was an April Fool’s Day hoax.
Read all about it: No Underwear Uncensored
Here’s an oldie but a goodie we found over at The Art of the Prank:
In September 2004, Mexican artist Miguel Calderón secretly placed a TV set in a bar in Sao Paulo (Brazil). At a certain moment, an unannounced soccer match showed up in the screen. Mexico was playing against Brazil. Bar customers, who had no idea about the match, thought that somehow they missed the news. People started watching the match. Brazil lost 17-0.
It was all staged. Calderón had carefully re-edited various past games between both teams in order to create something completely impossible. The piece was shown as part of the Sao Paulo Art Biennal.
Tired of expensive Guillotines? Now you can buy a Sokkomb, Ikea’s newest guillotine product! Product description:
SOKKOMB is a new low-cost product designed specifically for all those citizens who are so interested in Do-It-Yourself Justice.
Are you full of energy? Have you lots of things to do and too little time to do them? Are you increasingly annoyed by all those criminals, immigrants and petty people who should just be got rid of?
Your dynamic, active rhythm demands quick, summary justice and you are the person to do it, but too often you just don’t have the time and your family is increasingly in danger.
Then you are the person we thought of when we designed “Sokkomb”, an easily-assembled guillotine for the whole family, the practical solution, quick and clean, perfect for all your security needs.
By assembling Sokkomb in the comfort of your own living room, you can relax safe in the knowledge that the punishment will fit the crime. So you can finally be your own boss in your own house.
SOKKOMB is made from the best solid pine and comes equipped with a sturdy blade in stainless steel. It is light and versatile and is guaranteed effective for up to 100 executions a day.
And here’s a video showing a Sokkomb set up in an Ikea parking lot:
via rebel art (thanks noah!)
Here’s a great video documenting some of Joey Skaggs‘ famous hoaxes, along with a hilarious in-depth look at a 1995 hoax where he fooled the UK media into believing he was a guy that ran “howling therapy” sessions.
In 1995, Baba Wa Simba (aka Joey Skaggs), a new-age therapist, whose mission was to work with disenfranchised and troubled youth and heal the wounded animal within, visited his lion pride in London. The Word, a television show on the UK’s Channel 4, documented the visit and aired it March 3, 1995. The video of this visit has just been released online.
Andrea Wachner sent a stripper to her high school reunion in her place. Reuters explains:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Comedy writer Andrea Wachner hated the idea of going to her 10-year high school reunion so much that she hired a stripper to go instead, and what followed, she says, was a comical study in human nature.
Her story is detailed in a nearly 40-minute documentary directed by Wachner that, because of issues surrounding its length and getting approval to show it from former classmates, may never be seen — not even by her parents.
But the 31-year-old Los Angeles resident said on Friday she hopes it will someday and even if not, Hollywood already has come knocking on her door.
She has written a feature film script based on her story, is trying to sell a reality TV show from it, has appeared on cable news channel CNN, and is scheduled to be on ABC’s morning chat show “Good Morning America” next week.
“I’ve been so lucky throughout this whole experience. Everything that could go wrong, went right,” she told Reuters. “I love the way it all turned out.”
But some of her classmates don’t.
“There have been a few people that were pretty vitriolic, and I have received some angry letters,” she said.
In 1995, Wachner graduated from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in an upscale Los Angeles-area neighborhood and never looked back. She left for New York City, where she attended New York University, graduating in 2000.
When she received the invitation to attend her 10-year reunion, she said she would not have dreamed of going because she hated her years at the school, where BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars were prized possessions.
She claims that at school, fellow students’ drinking alcohol was a problem and eating disorders were common. She said academic competition was tight and the overall environment was “a pressure cooker.”
Wachner didn’t want to go back to all that, but she did want to see how people would react if the self-described “drama geek” showed up a changed woman — a stripper, no less.
So, she hired Amy Bernadette “Cricket” Russell, whom she met at a Los Angeles strip club, to impersonate her. Cricket showed up in a slinky dress, fishnet hose and spike heels.
As the drinks flowed, Cricket’s clothes came off, and Wachner watched from a hotel room above the event, linked to her impersonator via wireless radio, TV cameras and a monitor.
Wachner coached Cricket through the night, telling her the names of people she met and providing her with little secrets that only Wachner and her former classmates would know.
Judging from the film’s promotional trailer, a few people may have been fooled and a few were not. Andrea — make that Cricket — got one invitation for a private performance.
Wachner said she did not set out to embarrass or make fun of classmates. Rather, she wanted to see how they would react if their old stereotype of Wachner as a “drama geek” was turned upside down, when she emerged from the cocoon of high school as an uninhibited artist and exotic dancer.
“I love taking things that exist in the world as given — things that are mainstream, notions that people take for granted — and making people re-think them,” she said.
While she may not be as big a name as Web sensation Susan Boyle, who skyrocketed to fame this month after a video of her appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent” went viral online, Wachner is nevertheless overjoyed with the outcome.
And why not? Palos Verdes Peninsula High is a distant memory, and now Hollywood beckons.
Neatorama via Zoomdoggle
KansasCity.com reports:
A Guy Fieri impostor was interviewed on-air Monday night during Fox Sports Net’s broadcast of the Royals game.
Guy Fieri, for those who don’t know, is the Food Network host of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” He travels the country visiting these places. He has been to Kansas City before.
The impostor gave interviewer Joel Goldberg’s questions short, rude, one-word answers. He was acting like he wanted no part of the interview. He took a phone call during the interview.
The real Guy Fieri updated his Twitter status to let everyone know it wasn’t him. I wonder if the guy planned to impersonate Fieri or if the sportscaster just spotted him, and he decided to play along?
Our friend Chris Kula sums it up:
If I were to rate a fill-in-the-blank contest of “Who’s a random, specific celebrity to impersonate in a public setting?” the host of cable TV’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives would receive awfully high marks.
via deadspin
In case you didn’t hear, the Improv Everywhere funeral prank was a hoax for April Fool’s Day. The family members were all actors who were friends of the group. Today they released a video of outtakes from the shoot. The craziest thing about all of this is that the local news covered it as a real event, not even bothering to get a source other than a YouTube video posted by a prank group on April Fool’s Day. Ridiculous!
In January of 1997, Upright Citizens Brigade member Ian Roberts managed to get himself on The Today Show as his character Steve Youngblood. The UCB had recently relocated to New York from Chicago, and this is one of several hoaxes they pulled on an unsuspecting Al Roker. Roberts is referencing Thunderball, a fictional sport created by the UCB which would appear on their Comedy Central television show a few years later.
Today’s post is the first in what will be an ongoing series where we flashback and take a look at awesome projects that while not new, are hopefully new to our readers. If not, enjoy a good idea for the second time or keep moving to the next post.
The Hooter’s Hoax took place in New York over President’s day weekend in 2006. The much loved Second Avenue Deli (a landmark for over 50 years,) had just closed in the East Village. John Grady and Mark Nickelsburg quietly put up a sign on the establishment’s front door in the middle of the night announcing a Hooters location would be soon opening. Clearly this was not going to sit well with the locals. The next day people stopped in their tracks to get a closer look at the sign, and a firestorm of speculation erupted on several NYC blogs. Some bloggers guessed it was a hoax, and others started protest sites to “stop Hooters.”
Grady writes:
Because I inadvertently pulled the prank over a three day holiday weekend (President’s Day) it had unintended consequences: the Hooters main office was not open to take calls from concerned East Village neighbors. Also, Hooters has a policy that it cannot confirm or deny where or when they are opening a new restaurant. Maybe because people would protest? I don’t know, but that definitely added fuel to the fire, when they started fielding calls and emails when they returned to the office that Tuesday.
Eventually the pranksters came clean on eater.com and the controversy came to an end. The Second Avenue Deli moved to 33rd Street, and Hooters still maintains its one New York location in midtown.
Do you know of a classic urban prank that we should cover? Let us know about it!