Hoaxes

upright=1.3|thumb|The Dreadnought hoax|Dreadnought hoaxers in Abyssinian [[regalia; the bearded figure on the far left is the writer Virginia Woolf.]] A hoax (: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible.

eschatological beliefs surrounding 21 December 2012

structure built solely to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is

mythical torture device

decorated andesite stones found in Ica Province, Peru

deliberately incorrect entry in a reference work

1991 television programme

legendary humanoid frog allegedly spotted in Loveland, Ohio, US

archaeological hoax

documents found in Jordan

right|thumb|300px|Hodag "captured" by Eugene Shepard, 1893 thumb|E. S. Shepard, circa 1915 thumb|E. S. Shepard's residence in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, the den is to the right where he kept the Hodag thumb|The Hodag

thumb|Panorama of Humbug. No. 1, making fun of Phineas T. Barnum and [[Jenny Lind ]] thumb|Humbugging, or raising the Devil, 1800. Thomas Rowlandson|Rowlandson's humbugging depicts the public as a credulous simpleton being distracted by a display of "the miraculous", the better to have his pockets picked. A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a "nautical phrase". It is now also often used as an exclamation to describe something as hypocritical nonsen

fictional dish

stone disks believed by some to be extraterrestrial

antiquities dealer (1830–1884)

hoax reality television program

cursed painting