Was the toilet really invented by Thomas Crapper? This is just one of the many burning questions explored in “curator” Alex Boese’s new book, “The Museum of Hoaxes: A Collection of Pranks, Stunts, Deceptions, and Other Wonderful Stories Contrived for the Public from the Middle Ages to the
New Millennium.”
Boese, a graduate student at the University of California at San Diego, has compiled a veritable mountain of hoaxes, tricks and lies. The collection also includes requirements a falsity must satisfy to be considered a hoax.
The shams and their histories are displayed in thematic and chronological order, from before 1700 to the present. Boese pays homage to schemes as well known as Milli Vanilli and crop circles to more obscure follies, including Mary Toft, a woman who literally gave birth to rabbit babies in 1726. The “babies” actually turned out to be just rabbit parts, and how she “gave birth” to them is truly gag-worthy.
“The Museum of Hoaxes” also gives a nod to celebrated hoaxers throughout history, such as Jonathan Swift and Benjamin Franklin.
Amidst the trickery, Boese sprinkles the pages with snippets of April Fool’s Day history and classic holiday pranks. The author also includes photographs wherever possible. The jackalopes — rabbits with horns — and tall-tale postcards depicting ears of corn larger than a house, are a few of the funniest. Boese also included a gullibility test, aimed at making even the most cynical reader feel duped. Boese refers to his Web site, www.museumofhoaxes.com, several times. The site contains an even more vast array of schemes than the book.
In the book’s afterword, the “curator” reveals that his museum, though not a hoax itself, is elaborately designed to serve a higher purpose than sheer entertainment.
“Instead of examining evidence internal to a claim (i.e., how reasonable it sounds), it’s far better to look at evidence external to the claim: Where it came from, how it was produced, and why. This is the ultimate lesson of the Museum’s Gullibility Test,” Boese wrote. He said the best way to avoid being hoaxed is to follow the above advice.
Or readers could simply perform the magic medieval truth spell included in the book: Just “place the heart and left foot of a toad over a sleeping person’s mouth.” Presumably, the sleeper will tell the truth when they awaken — hmm, maybe this is where the term “cough it up” originated, because I suspect there might be some vomiting involved.
Highly recommended, this satisfyingly complete compilation is available at bookstores now.