hoax
a practical joke
TRANSLATION
hoax = Scherz, Jux, Täuschung (lustiger oder böser Streich); Falschmeldung, blinder Alarm. April fool hoax = Aprilscherz. to play a hoax on sb. = jdm. einen Streich spielen, jdn. veräppeln
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
M3 Motorway HOAX - Early morning commuters travelling on the northern carriageway of the M3 near Farnborough, Hampshire encountered a pedestrian zebra crossing painted across the busy highway. A police spokesman speculated that the HOAX, "must have been done very early in the morning when there was little or no traffic on the motorway." Maintenance workers were quickly called to remove the crossing, which was apparently not too difficult to do since the pranksters had used water-soluble paint."
The London Times
Did you
know?
hoax (to hoax)
noun (verb)
- a deception, intended to trick or mislead, esp. one meant as a practical joke
- to deceive, trick or mislead, esp. for humorous purposes
YourDictionary
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ORIGIN
Late 18th century (as a verb): probably a contraction of hocus.
A hoax is often intended as a practical joke, or to cause embarrassment, or to provoke social or political change by raising people's awareness of something.
It can also emerge from a marketing or advertising purpose. For example, to market a romantic comedy movie, a director staged a phony "incident" during a supposed wedding, which showed a bride and preacher getting knocked into a pool by a clumsy fall from a best man.
A resulting video clip of Chloe and Keith's Wedding was uploaded to YouTube and was viewed by over 30 million people and the couple was interviewed by numerous talk shows.
A hoax differs from a magic trick or from fiction (books, movies, theatre, radio, television, etc.) in that the audience is unaware of being deceived, whereas in watching a magician perform an illusion the audience expects to be tricked.
Fake news websites (also referred to as hoax news) deliberately publish hoaxes which may serve the goal of propaganda or disinformation — using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire, fake news websites seek to mislead, rather than entertain, readers for financial or political gain.
After a hoax or prank we can describe the effect as "we've been hoodwinked, we've been snookered, we've had the wool pulled over our eyes," or simply "we've been had".
Sources:
- Oldenburg, Ann. "Director: 'Chloe and Keith's Wedding' video is a hoax"
- "Snopes' Field Guide to Fake News Sites and Hoax Purveyors"
- Deutsche Welle. 'Divide Europe': European lawmakers warn of Russian propaganda"
- OWAD archive
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SYNONYMS
trick, joke, prank, jape, a leg-pull (a person who practices hoaxing is called a hoaxer or prankster)
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Find an opportunity to SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation:
"Did you ever play a HOAX on friends of colleagues?"
