Buzz
When prompted to recall a favorite prank, many individuals might bring up the instance where Sacha Baron Cohen, in his Bruno guise, asked Paula Abdul to sit on furniture crafted from actual humans. They might even recount how Abdul played along, expressing her desire to assist others, only to be startled when a nude man surrounded by sushi was rolled into the room.
Others might reminisce about the time when 4chan users successfully duped the media into believing that teenagers were inhaling feces. The hoax was so convincing that it prompted a Florida county sheriff’s office to release a warning about the supposed dangers of this bizarre activity.
However, the reality is that pranks have existed far longer than both television and the internet. While it may seem unbelievable, this list will highlight 10 legendary pranksters whose most famous exploits took place long before TV gained widespread popularity in the 1950s.
10. Harry Reichenbach
Harry Reichenbach, a renowned press agent and publicist, gained fame for orchestrating elaborate publicity stunts to boost the popularity of films.
Among his most famous stunts was placing a lion in a Broadway hotel to draw attention to Tarzan of the Apes. In another instance, he hired eight actors to announce a $20,000 reward for the missing daughter of a sheik, all to promote The Virgin of Stamboul.
Reichenbach’s legacy includes the time he paid a struggling actor, en route to a meeting with a prominent agent, to scatter coins on the sidewalk. By the time the actor arrived at the agent’s office, a massive crowd had formed, creating the impression that the actor was a major celebrity.
9. Hugh Troy
Hugh Troy, a prankster and painter in the early 20th century, attended Cornell University but was suspended before earning a degree. Despite this, his pranks have become the stuff of legend, leaving a lasting mark on history.
Among his famous stunts were using a rhinoceros foot-shaped garbage basket to leave tracks across a snowy college campus, painting a visiting lecturer’s galoshes to resemble human feet, and inventing a fictional runner named “Johnny Tsal” who always came in last.
One day in Central Park, he stood up from a bench, picked it up, and walked away with it. When arrested for theft, he promptly showed a receipt proving he owned the bench.
Troy also placed a “Jesus Saves” sign on a bank, disguised corned beef as a human ear, and crafted military paperwork demanding reports be written on flypaper.
Today, he is most famous for designing the globe in front of the Daily News Building in New York, which oddly features Ithaca as a capital city.
8. Princess Caraboo
Mary Baker, from Bristol, England, is renowned for her impersonation of Princess Caraboo in 19th-century England. Baker managed to deceive the entire town of Bristol, sustaining the myth for several months.
In April 1817, a cobbler in Gloucestershire encountered Baker, who was pretending to be the poor, confused Princess Caraboo. She was handed over to a local magistrate and later taken to an inn, where she recognized a pineapple in a portrait and insisted on sleeping on the floor. Despite her act, the magistrate pushed for her to be tried for vagrancy.
The authenticity of the princess was hotly debated. A Portuguese sailor even asserted he could speak her native tongue, and Princess Caraboo quickly became a favorite among local aristocrats.
In reality, she was an English servant who fabricated a fictional language to support her imaginary persona. Strange marks on her head were the result of a failed procedure in a London poorhouse. Later in life, she earned a living by selling leeches at the Bristol Infirmary Hospital.
The tale of Princess Caraboo gained such popularity that it inspired a film adaptation in 1994.
7. Jim Moran
James “Jim” Moran, born in 1908, was a renowned publicist who worked with film studios, retailers, car manufacturers, and even politicians. One of his earliest feats involved selling a General Electric refrigerator to an Eskimo.
Moran’s most famous stunts included leading a bull through a china shop, searching for a needle in a haystack, sitting on an ostrich egg, and riding in a taxi driven by a chimpanzee. He even attempted to fly a little person across Central Park using a kite but was halted by authorities.
6. Henry ‘Box’ Brown
Henry Brown, born in Virginia in the early 1800s, endured a life of hardship working in a tobacco factory. As an African American, he was separated from his wife, who was owned by a slave master. The situation worsened when his pregnant wife and children were sold to a North Carolina plantation, severing his family ties.
After months of mourning the loss of his family, Brown resolved to escape the bonds of slavery. He devised a plan to be shipped in a box via rail from Richmond to Philadelphia, relying on the assistance of a white abolitionist in the city.
Brown undertook the journey in a box measuring 0.9 meters (3 ft) long, 0.6 meters (2 ft) wide, and 0.8 meters (2.7 ft) deep, labeled as “dry goods.” The box was padded with cloth, and Brown carried only a jug of water and a few biscuits to sustain himself. Despite being turned upside down multiple times and even having two men sit on the box, Brown survived the ordeal.
Brown’s daring escape made him an emblem of the Underground Railroad Freedom Movement. Later, he created a moving panorama about slavery, funded by proceeds from a drawing that illustrated his incredible journey.
5. Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift’s renowned work, Gulliver’s Travels, narrates the adventures of an Englishman exploring bizarre lands. While the story is fantastical, it serves as a satire critiquing both English society and human nature.
Throughout his career, Swift penned numerous satirical pieces, including A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents or Country, which controversially suggested that impoverished families could alleviate their financial struggles by selling their children as food to the wealthy.
Swift is also known for his pranks. In 1708, he ridiculed the famous astrologer John Partridge by predicting his death on March 29 of that year.
On March 30, 1708, Swift declared that Partridge had passed away. Despite Partridge’s insistence that he was still alive, many believed Swift’s announcement.
4. Lewis Gorin Junior and Urban Rushton
In 1936, Princeton University students Lewis Gorin Jr. and Urban Rushton founded the Veterans of Future Wars as a satirical response to movements advocating early payments for World War I veterans.
Instead of supporting veterans post-combat, the group’s manifesto proposed a $1,000 bonus for future veterans while they were still young enough to enjoy it. They also suggested $50 monthly payments to all mothers and future mothers of male children.
The Veterans of Future Wars gained national fame, amassing 60,000 members across U.S. college campuses. Many took the prank seriously, prompting Gorin to rent an office and hire a secretary to manage the influx of correspondence. He even received numerous invitations to speak publicly.
After graduating from Princeton, Gorin became a lawyer. His departure and the group’s most active members joining other organizations eventually led to its disbandment.
3. Urmuz
Urmuz, the pen name of Demetru Dem, was a Romanian writer and lawyer who preceded Tzara. While few of his writings survive, extensive notes about his life remain. As an absurdist, Urmuz employed black comedy, nonsensical verse, and parody in his work, earning him recognition as a forerunner of the Dada movement.
Urmuz was known for his numerous pranks, including one where he tricked passersby into presenting their identification papers for inspection.
On another occasion, Urmuz and his friends entered the Caldarusani Monastery in Romania, demanding guest treatment to test the monks’ patience. He also approached seminary students, initiated discussions on nationalist policies, and abruptly switched to reciting nonsensical lyrics.
2. Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara, born in Romania in 1896, was a key figure in the Dada movement, known for his avant-garde poetry and performance art. Despite his foundational role, art books rarely label him as a leader, as he rejected such hierarchies, aligning with the anti-establishment ethos of Dada.
In 1920, following World War I, the Dada movement expanded from Switzerland to cities like New York, Paris, Cologne, and Berlin. That year, Tzara moved to Paris, where he collaborated with surrealists, including Andre Breton.
During this period, Tzara participated in various Dada experiments that used false advertising and hoaxes to critique the significance of news events, drawing widespread attention to the movement.
One of Tzara’s pranks involved falsely announcing Charlie Chaplin’s appearance in a show, which was never planned. Another stunt included fabricating news about a duel between Tzara and fellow Dada artist Hans Arp, even publishing stories in Swiss newspapers to make it seem real.
1. William Horace de Vere Cole
William Horace de Vere Cole, a poet and prankster, lived in County Cork, Ireland, at the start of the 20th century.
Cole was known for his eccentric pranks. While studying at Cambridge, he once impersonated the uncle of the sultan of Zanzibar. He also threw a party where every guest’s last name included the word “bottom.”
In his spare time, Cole would stroll through the streets with a cow’s udder protruding from his trousers. Some even believe he orchestrated the Piltdown Man hoax, which involved the supposed discovery of bone fragments from an unknown early human species.
Cole’s most famous prank, however, was the Dreadnought hoax. He and his friends, including Virginia Woolf, disguised themselves as royalty and deceived the Royal Navy into giving them a tour of one of Britain’s most prestigious battleships.
