As racist and insensitive as the prank was, the Asiana Pilot Names / KTVU prank has to be considered one of the most successful in recent memory. In its wake, I thought it would be a good time to name/link the best ever.
Well, the spaghetti trees have to be mentioned.
Christianity?
Too soon?
I just remembered the very recent Manti Te’o / Lennay Kekua hoax:
My personal favorite is the Great Rose Bowl Prank of 1961.
I’m fond of this one, especially #5:
London Airport Announcements
As I’ve just seen a movie about it, I have to nominate the removal of the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey by four Scottish students.
This one’s fake, but what a great idea: Seeded Field Prank | Snopes.com
I JUST posted about the greatest “might-have-been” here.
:facepalm:
My hope is that Arthur Conan Doyle will be proved to be the hoaxer.
Well there’s the great Canadian Fur covered trout hoax.
The Great Moon Hoax is a good one.
Among my faves:
During a USC-UCLA games years back, some Cal Tech students hacked into the stadium scoreboard and changed it to read something like:
CAL TECH 42 SLIPPERY ROCK 0
I have no idea who was originall behind them, but if you scan YouTube, you’ll find some great phone pranks where people called up businesses and carried on lengthy conversations using sound bites from either Arnold Schwarzenegger movies or from Al Pacino in Glengarry Glen Ross.
The Max Headroom incident in Chicago has to be right up there.
That reminds me of one where they:
- Call Chinese takeout and place order
- Call another takeout
- Ask first takeout to repeat order to second
The War of the Worlds radio broadcast is a leading contender.