We\u2019ve had a pretty heavy summer on TCC, haven\u2019t we? Nazis and Norwegian black metal murders, and those last two cases were gnarly. So we thought maybe this week, you\u2019d appreciate something a little lighter\u2014something just for fun. So we decided to talk about hoaxes. Sometimes hoaxes are hilarious, like the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pranked five of his friends by sending them all an anonymous letter saying \u201cWe are discovered. Flee at once,\u201d and then watched in amazement as one of \u2018em up and left town the next day. Sometimes they\u2019re kind of a public service, reminding us that we can\u2019t believe everything we see on TV or the internet. Sometimes they\u2019re sick burns\u2014humiliating revenge against a stuck-up snob who deserved it. But whatever the motive, and whether anybody ends up in jail or not, pranking the crap out of our fellow humans is almost always entertaining. Join us for a grab bag of hoaxes through history--from Mary Toft and her miraculous "rabbit births" to the infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast that terrified America, to a Canadian woman who faked a pregnancy and abducted a real baby, and more.
Sources:
Toronto Star: https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/i-m-not-a-bad-person-says-gta-baby-snatcher-with-guilty-plea/article_928babfb-b457-5942-bbee-7daf500d3eb6.html
CBS's "The Dr. Phil Show," episode "I Abducted a Baby/I am a Psychopath"
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-war-on-paper-operation-mincemeat
Time Magazine: https://time.com/6174289/operation-mincemeat-netflix-true-story/
The Smithsonian Mag: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/infamous-war-worlds-radio-broadcast-was-magnificent-fluke-180955180/
NPR: https://www.npr.org/2014/03/14/290119435/society-for-indecency-to-naked-animals
The Ringer: https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/11/8/16615842/grunge-new-york-times-slang
Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/07/05/an-extraordinary-delivery-of-rabbits/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2017/05/21/sneaky-teen-texting-codes-what-they-mean-when-worry/101844248/
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