stephanieNY

We just watched an awesome documentary that's here on Hulu, Abel Raises Caine. This guy Alan Abel made a lifetime career out of massive media hoaxes starting in the 50s through to today. He is brilliant and hilarious. Each fabricated story was complete with actors and literature and fake research. He essentially made up these completely ludicrous scenarios to see how much crazy people will actually believe. But the brilliance of it was that he would just set up the story and then when the media went crazy, it became sort of a real-life social self-commentary on media and sensation playing itself out. The stuff this guy got away with is incredible.

He originally got the idea when he had to stop his car on some country road because there was a bull and a cow having sex in the middle of the road. The appalled look on the other motorists faces got him thinking...and SINA was born, the Society for the Indecency to Naked Animals. A total hoax of course, it's ridiculous, but people jumped on board. People actually and seriously advocated that animals wear clothes. Their slogan was "A nude horse is a rude horse." And some guy actually wanted to donate $40,000 to the Society. Hahahahah. So this makes front page, the media goes nuts. But then, when it's revealed way down the road that it's a hoax, that story makes page 10 or something. Nobody's hurt, hopefully some people feel stupid, and he moves onto his next one under the radar.

Anyways, I could go on...I want to tell you all the hilarious stunts that he pulled and that people fell for. Watch the movie. He's old now and in the movie, and he and his wife are lovely and quirky and totally deadpan. It's so fun and makes you want to not take anything too seriously.

Does anyone remember him from during of his pranks?