Buzz
Throughout history, many well-known individuals have been famous for their love of pranks. These pranksters came from diverse fields such as politics, science, sports, and the arts, united by their shared passion for pulling off clever jokes.
10. William Buckland’s Guano Prank
William Buckland may not be a household name today, but he was a leading paleontologist in the 19th century and even served as the Dean of Westminster. However, he is perhaps best remembered for his insatiable appetite, having tasted nearly every animal species he encountered. A famous, though unverified, tale claims he once ate the preserved heart of Louis XIV, the Sun King, after seeing it on display.
Given his eccentric nature as an adult, it’s no surprise that Buckland was quite the troublemaker in his youth. During his time as a student at Oxford, he devised a clever prank involving guano, or bat droppings. At the time, guano was still a novelty in the UK, valued as an effective fertilizer but considered somewhat crude. Buckland managed to acquire several buckets of guano and spread it across the university lawn, but not uniformly. Instead, he arranged it to spell out the word G-U-A-N-O.
Although the faculty quickly removed the guano, it was not fast enough to prevent its effects. The nutrient-rich droppings fertilized the soil, causing the grass to grow thicker and faster in the areas where it was applied. This resulted in the word being permanently visible from above, creating a lasting grass graffiti effect.
9. Benjamin Franklin’s Playful Alias
Benjamin Franklin, known for his love of stirring controversy, also had a penchant for pranks. As a teenager, he worked at his brother’s newspaper, The New-England Courant. When his brother James refused to let him publish letters under his own name, Franklin took a creative approach—he adopted the persona of a middle-aged widow and began writing under that pseudonym.
Franklin adopted the pseudonym Silence Dogood, portraying her as the widow of a minister who was an “opponent of vice and a champion of virtue.” Over six months in 1722, he penned 14 letters under this alias, carefully altering the handwriting and discreetly leaving them at the print shop’s doorstep.
The letters gained significant popularity, and the fictional widow Dogood even received marriage proposals from admirers. While Franklin’s identity remained hidden, he eventually grew bored with the charade and confessed the truth to his brother.
8. Francis Dashwood’s Diplomatic Blunder
Francis Dashwood was a man who cultivated a notorious reputation. In his younger years, he established the infamous Hellfire Club, known for its extravagant and scandalous gatherings filled with wine, women, and a touch of irreverence toward religion. His bold mockery of the Church fueled rumors that he was a Satanist, adding to his infamy.
In one notable instance, Dashwood commissioned a satirical portrait of himself, mimicking a famous depiction of St. Francis of Assisi. However, instead of holding a Bible, Dashwood was depicted gazing at a nude woman and an explicit book. As a playful detail, the face of his friend Lord Sandwich was subtly hidden within his halo.
On another occasion, Dashwood released an abbreviated version of the Book of Common Prayer, designed to spare the devout from lengthy sermons in chilly churches. This project was a collaboration with his fellow prankster, Benjamin Franklin.
Dashwood’s antics during his travels, however, landed him in hot water. While visiting the Russian Court, he decided it would be amusing to attend a social gathering dressed as Charles XII, the King of Sweden. Given that Sweden was Russia’s sworn enemy during the Great Northern War, this stunt was likely an attempt to win the favor of Tsarina Anna. While it’s unclear if it worked, whispers of a romantic liaison between the two soon began to circulate.
7. Bob Knight’s Yugoslav Sensation
Bobby Knight is widely regarded as one of the greatest college basketball coaches, having led the Indiana Hoosiers for three decades. However, his career was not without its share of controversies. Knight had a notorious dislike for dealing with the media, and in 1992, he orchestrated a prank specifically aimed at journalists and self-proclaimed sports experts.
He introduced the world to Ivan Renko, a fictional 203-centimeter (6’8”) basketball prodigy from Yugoslavia. Knight publicly expressed his excitement about Renko joining the Indiana team. In reality, Renko was entirely made up, but this didn’t stop the media and analysts from reacting as if he were real.
Eager to avoid appearing uninformed, many commentators began discussing Renko in detail. Some dismissed him as overrated, while others praised his skills. A few even claimed to have seen game footage of the non-existent player.
The situation became even more embarrassing because these insiders should have known better. For one, NCAA regulations prohibited Knight from discussing Renko publicly before he signed a letter of intent. Additionally, Indiana didn’t have an available scholarship to offer Renko, even if he had been a real player.
6. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Mischievous Antics
Percy Bysshe Shelley, a celebrated Romantic poet, was part of an illustrious literary circle that included Lord Byron and his wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.
Before achieving fame, Shelley faced a challenging upbringing at Eton. His fascination with science set him apart from his peers, who favored sports and other traditional activities. This difference made him a target for bullying by older students, and the school’s headmasters, who also disliked him, often turned a blind eye to his struggles.
Shelley’s interests leaned toward more hazardous pursuits, such as experimenting with fire and electricity. In one infamous incident, he nearly electrocuted his tutor by rigging a charged Leyden jar to his room’s doorknob. He also had a penchant for pyromania, once setting fire to ancient trees on campus and even adding gunpowder to an explosion that nearly cost him his life.
These reckless acts nearly led to his expulsion multiple times, but his father’s influence kept him in school. The blown-up tree became a legendary tale at Eton, inspiring a poem among his peers. The stump of the willow reportedly remains at the “northernmost point of South Meadow,” a lasting reminder of Shelley’s mischievous youth.
5. Abraham Lincoln’s Playful Side
We’ve previously discussed US presidents who enjoyed pranks, and Abraham Lincoln was no exception. While he often targeted political rivals, he also playfully teased those close to him. One possibly fictional tale recounts his teenage antics aimed at his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln.
Sarah often joked about young Abe’s tall, slender build, warning him to “keep his head clean, or she’d have to scrub her whitewashed ceiling.” Inspired by two boys playing barefoot in the mud, Abe hatched a plan. He invited them inside, flipped them upside down, and had them walk across his stepmother’s pristine ceiling. Though Sarah reportedly laughed it off, Abe still had to repaint the ceiling afterward.
Another of Lincoln’s alleged pranks took place in Monticello, Illinois, where he nearly caused a fire at the Tenbrook Hotel. While staying there, he mischievously told some children to heat an inflated pig bladder (an early version of a balloon) in the fireplace. When it burst, it startled everyone and scattered hot embers across the room. Lincoln offered to clean up but accidentally set the broom on fire in the process.
4. Joseph Mulhattan’s Monkey Labor Hoax
Joseph Mulhattan, a salesman by profession, had a unique talent for fooling newspapers with outrageous tales. He earned titles like the “Prince of Liars” and the “liar-laureate of the world” for his countless hoaxes, which he called “novelistic journalism.” While he didn’t profit directly from his pranks, his reputation as a storyteller made him a sought-after salesman, as people were eager to hear his latest fabrications.
Mulhattan submitted countless hoaxes, many of which were published in small, local papers and are now lost to history. Among his most famous fabrications were stories about a meteorite crashing in Texas, a girl carried away by balloons, and the discovery of George Washington’s petrified body put on display.
Perhaps his most successful hoax involved a Kentucky farmer who allegedly trained monkeys to harvest hemp. The story was picked up by the Kentucky Register, which published it alongside an editorial discussing its potential impact on the labor market. Soon, major newspapers like The Times and the New York Times also reported on the story, criticizing the farmer for threatening the jobs of human workers.
3. The Earl of Hardwicke’s Historic Newspaper Prank
Few pranks have had the enduring impact of this 18th-century hoax, which is still sometimes mistaken for fact today. Orchestrated by Philip Yorke, the Second Earl of Hardwicke and a future Fellow of the Royal Society, along with historian Thomas Birch, the duo created the English Mercurie, a publication long believed to be the first English newspaper in history.
The hoax was crafted in the 18th century, long after English newspapers had already been established. However, the English Mercurie was cleverly dated July 23, 1588, presenting itself as an Elizabethan-era publication documenting the conflict between England and the Spanish Armada. Five issues were produced (three printed and two manuscripts), and their authenticity was so convincing that they were mistaken for genuine 200-year-old newspapers.
Much of the credit for perpetuating the hoax goes to Scottish historian George Chalmers. He was fully convinced of the legitimacy of the English Mercurie and declared it the first of its kind in several publications, including his 1794 biography of Thomas Ruddiman. It wasn’t until 45 years later that the hoax was exposed, with the long-deceased earl identified as its mastermind.
2. Harvey Stromberg’s MOMA Stunt
For most artists, having their work displayed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is a career-defining achievement. In the 1970s, Harvey Stromberg achieved this milestone, but with a twist—nobody at MOMA was aware of his exhibition.
For weeks, Stromberg posed as an art student, spending hours inside the museum with a notepad. While he appeared to be studying the artwork, he was meticulously documenting and photographing everything except the art—air vents, bricks, light switches, floor tiles, and keyholes. Using his notes, he created life-sized stickers of these items, calling them “photo-sculptures” or trompe-l’oeil, which used 2-D imagery to create the illusion of three-dimensional objects.
Stromberg’s next move was to carefully place the stickers over their real-world counterparts, one at a time, to avoid detection. Museum staff occasionally discovered them, particularly the floor stickers that peeled off after cleaning, but Stromberg returned to replace them. Some stickers remained in place for two years until he decided to host an “official” unveiling of his project.
1. Thomas Edison’s Food Generator
During the peak of Thomas Edison’s fame, newspapers frequently reported on his latest inventions, and the public seemed ready to believe he could create almost anything.
A journalist from the New York Daily Graphic decided to test this belief. On April 1, 1878, he published a story about Edison’s newest creation: the “Food Generator,” a device that could produce food using only air, water, and soil. The invention was celebrated as a solution to global hunger, and the story was widely believed, even by other newspapers. The Commercial Advertiser published an editorial praising Edison’s brilliance, which the Daily Graphic later reprinted with the triumphant subtitle, “They Bite!”
The April 1 publication date should have been a clue. Additionally, the story concluded with the narrator being awakened by a train conductor, revealing the entire tale was a dream. Despite this, Edison received numerous inquiries about the food creator. Highly amused by the prank, he called it the “most ingenious hoax I’ve ever encountered” and humored reporters from other newspapers by playing along.
