Here he is as he was on public display in Syracuse, NY, in 1869.
Hoaxes come and hoaxes go. They never stop coming.
Here’s one of the more popular efforts of the 19th century:
True, hoaxes today are bigger and better than ever (think Climbit Change), and the rich and powerful dirt-bags who produce them get even more rich and powerful.
Well, it’s a fallen world, isn’t it?
Remember the solar eclipse of 2017?
Remember the kooks who said it was a hoax?
Well, heck, why not? The Russia Hoax was going on, at the time. And our civilization hasn’t gotten any saner since then. Still, faking a solar eclipse that was seen across North America–that’s really stretching it.
This Just In: Long thought to be a 19th century hoax, the Cardiff Giant last night came to life, broke down the museum where he was on display, and made a beeline for the upstate New York town of Hsiao Chiang. There he broke down the doors of the WBSS Radio studio and commandeered the microphone.
Ten feet tall and completely petrified, the Giant proved immune to police bullets, tasers, and tear gas. His efforts to clear his throat destroyed the station manager’s office. But eventually he made himself heard.
“Attention! This is the Cardiff Giant speaking to you! My head is solid stone! I demand that you elect me president. If you don’t, I will destroy you.”
It is not known whether the Giant is available for interviews. He has pledged himself to “chase out of America” any persons who disagree with him about any subject.
The Democrat Party has endorsed him.
In 1869 most of the American public wanted to believe in the Cardiff Giant, and so they did–for a while.
https://leeduigon.com/2013/04/30/a-lesson-to-the-credulous-the-cardiff-giant/
The Cardiff Giant remains one of my all-time favorite hoaxes. It did no harm to anybody, and looking at it today, you’re amazed that if could have fooled anyone at all.
Unlike, say,the Climate Change hoax, which is intended to harm us in more ways than you can list.
In 1796 the word in London was, “Holy cow! A brand-new Shakespeare play!” Yes, a long-lost play by William Shakespeare, Vortigern and Rowena, was set to open at the newly-expanded Drury Lane Theatre. And everybody knew it was the real thing… because all the experts said so (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/to-beor-not-the-greatest-shakespeare-forgery-136201/).
Opening night. By the time Act III roles around, the actors in the play have come to realize that they’re performing a hoax, and a rather clumsy one at that. They play the next two acts for laughs. The audience divides between believers and those who are mighty sore about having been had, and fistfights break out. The theater management has to scuttle all plans for any subsequent performances of this turkey.
But all the experts swore it was the real McCoy. There were some who wondered if Shakespeare might have been 11 years old when he wrote this, or drunk, or impaired in some other way–but even they swore the play was genuine.
In fact, it was a forgery cooked up by 19-year-old William Henry Ireland, whose motive was to show all those people, especially his father, who said he was a dullard. The Smithsonian article will tell you how he did it. And he got tired of trying to keep up the pretense, so he admitted what he’d done–and still there were those who refused to believe the play was a hoax. Mr. Ireland refused to believe his son had the brains to concoct such a scam.
The point is, all the cognoscenti, all the Shakespeare-wallahs who should’ve known better (with only a very few exceptions, who were shouted down), were completely taken in by this. It took a bunch of not-expert actors to tear away the curtain and reveal the humbug behind it.
If the play’s authenticity were being debated today, its defenders would surely be proclaiming, “The science is settled, so shut up!”
In the spirit of April Fool, let me introduce you to the famous chess “automaton,” The Turk. ( http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=77026 )
Built in 1769, and destroyed in 1854 by a fire in a museum in Philadelphia, The Turk toured Europe, playing chess against some of the most famous people of that time and usually defeating them. The Turk wiped up the board with Napoleon–but I don’t think Napoleon was all that talented a chess player.
However much audiences marveled at the prowess of this primitive robot, they might’ve gotten just a bit cheesed off if they’d known The Turk’s secret. Inside the cabinet–half of which was filled with a lot of gears and flywheels that served no purpose other than to snow the audience–was a human chess player, usually a very good one, who directed the movements of The Turk’s chessmen. The Turk wasn’t really a robot at all!
Granted, compared to Global Warming, “The Russians stole the election from Hillary!”, or the claim that men can menstruate, The Turk was a very small and unambitious hoax, hardly noticeable. But in its day it was a most successful hoax, and some of the smartest people in Europe fell for it.
As they always do.
Hi, everybody–it’s me, the Cardiff Giant.
Y’know, they like to say I was one of the great hoaxes of the 19th century. I sort of resent that. I mean, who likes to be called a hoax?
I’m so tired of being called a hoax, I’ve decided it’s finally time to tell the truth!
Forget everything you ever heard about me. It’s all bunk.
The amazing truth is, the Russians dug me up and then secretly planted me in New York State for someone else to dig up and say I was a petrified human being from way back before the Flood. You want to know where the Russians dug me up? Well, they never told me. You’d have to ask some guy named Putin.
Why did they plant me in New York State, on somebody’s farm? I’ll tell you: for no other reason than to–oh, doggone it! Would you believe it? I forgot! That’s what happens when you just lie around doing nothing for years and years at a stretch: your brain goes kind of funny.
All right, I’ll be back when I remember what it is that I was going to tell you. And don’t forget to drop in and say hello whenever you pass through wherever I’m on display, these days. I’ve quite lost track of my location…