Hoax expert says April Fools' times are tough

[janbo1960]

As April Fools' Day looms, the curator of the Museum of Hoaxes has a word of caution for those who want to believe the unbelievable - a good hoax is hard to find.

Alex Boese, the curator of the museum that exists online only at www.museumofhoaxes.com - despite the lovely photographs of its non-existent headquarters in San Diego - has issued his annual list of 100 top hoaxes and cautioned, in the interest of truth, that none of the items have changed this year before April 1.

"There are no new entries this year, you have to be pretty good to get on it," he said, the author of three books on hoaxes including Hippo Eats Dwarf, A Field Guide to Hoaxes and Other BS"

"A hoax has to be a rare combination that gets something ridiculous that people will believe," he said.

Take his Top 10 list: all are examples of faux news stories that people jumped to believe, headed by The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest.