Steve Rhodes, Jenny, Alan, and Jeanne Abel and Jeff Hockett (cropped), CC BY-SA 2.0
Long before the now-familiar “fake news,” there was Alan Abel (1924 – 2018). The late hoaxer extraordinaire pulled off some of the wildest stunts in American history. You have likely read or heard of his most infamous hoax, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (SINA), that duped the public and media for five years.
But he didn’t stop there. Abel even made his own death hoax – tricking the New York Times into publishing his obituary – and created phony political campaigns. Abel orchestrated mass fainting incidents on live TV and smuggled an impostor onto the field during the Super Bowl.
Abel’s elaborate stunts exposed media gullibility and societal absurdities, leaving behind an enduring legacy of satire and deception. This article uncovers how Abel’s bold and absurd stunts continue to influence modern media skepticism.
Early hoaxes and media stunts
Many pranksters have duped the media over the years. However, few can match Alan Abel’s boldness and creativity. In 1959, Abel launched his first major hoax, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (SINA). Posing with a fake spokesperson, “G. Clifford Prout,” Abel appeared on TV and radio, demanding that animals wear clothing. This absurd movement garnered the news media’s attention and set the stage for Abel’s future pranks.
Abel orchestrated two notable hoaxes in 1976. First, he hired an actor to pose as the anonymous source “Deep Throat” from the Watergate scandal, climaxing in a press conference that uncovered the deception. Later that year, Abel mounted the “Cathouse for Dogs” hoax, offering luxury accommodations for canines. The media’s enthusiastic coverage of this fictional service demonstrated their eagerness for sensational stories.
Abel’s most audacious prank is probably his own death hoax in 1980. It prompted The New York Times to publish an obituary, which the newspaper later retracted. This incident demonstrated Abel’s ability to manipulate even the prestigious publications, catching their gullibility off-guard. In 1985, he organized a mass fainting incident on The Phil Donahue Show, further solidifying his notoriety as a “crafty hoaxer.”
Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (SINA)
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The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (SINA) is Abel’s most elaborate and infamous hoax. It enthralled the American media and public for years. You would be forgiven for believing this was a legitimate organization, as Alan Abel crafted an elaborate facade that tricked even the smartest and most discerning journalists.
SINA’s mission was simple yet wacky: to clothe all naked animals – including domestic pets, barnyard animals, and wild animals – for decency’s sake. Abel persuaded the actor-comedian Buck Henry to pose as G. Clifford Prout Jr., SINA’s president. Abel and Henry conducted press conferences, appeared on television and radio shows, and even staged protests against “nude horses.”
The satirical “organization” even released slogans like “Decency today means morality tomorrow” and “A nude horse is a rude horse,” which were plastered across picket signs and heard in media interviews.
More than garnering significant media attention, the hoax gained considerable traction, with SINA receiving thousands of membership applications and donations. The New York Times fell for the prank, publishing a serious-as-heck article about SINA’s activities. It wasn’t until 1963 that CBS finally exposed the hoax, but not before Abel had successfully deceived the media and public for five years.
Faking death and fooling newspapers
Even after the SINA was exposed as a hoax, it didn’t prevent Alan Abel from staging more pranks. In 1980, he orchestrated his most daring hoax yet: faking his own death. With painstaking planning and a handful of accomplices, Abel set out to dupe The New York Times into publishing his obituary.
You would be amazed (and amused) at the lengths Abel went to pull off this hoax. He set up a dedicated phone line for fact-checking calls and enlisted a “grieving widow” and “undertaker” to corroborate his “death.” His efforts paid off when The New York Times fell for the deception and published his obituary.
Two days later, Abel gleefully held a news conference to reveal he was alive and well, forcing the Times to publish a retraction. This stunt cemented his notoriety as a hoaxer extraordinaire, catching and exposing the media’s gullibility through his satirical pranks.
Even when Abel passed away – this time for real – in 2018 at 94, The New York Times took extraordinary measures to confirm his death to ensure they won’t be duped again. They were acutely aware of his history of elaborate hoaxes, demonstrating his death hoax’s lasting impact on the news media’s fact-checking processes.
Political pranks and fake campaigns
Throughout Alan Abel’s career, his pranks often veered into the political arena, capitalizing on the public’s fascination with campaigns and controversies. You might remember the “Vote for Yetta” campaign, where Abel and his wife invented the fictional Jewish grandmother Yetta Bronstein as a presidential candidate in 1964 and 1968. The hoax expert didn’t stop there, though.
Here’s a quick look at some of Abel’s political stunts:
- Founding SINA (Society for Indecency to Naked Animals) in 1958
- Sending a Salman Rushdie doppelganger to a book convention, disrupting a nearby First Lady event
- Orchestrating a fake Idi Amin wedding at the Plaza Hotel in New York City
- Smuggling a fake official onto the field during the 1983 Super Bowl
While not all of Abel’s pranks were explicitly political, many challenged media practices and societal norms. The SINA campaign, for one, demonstrated Abel’s ability to create nonsensical yet believable causes. His Omars School for Beggars hoax in York further exemplified his knack for exposing societal hypocrisies through elaborate schemes. These pranks often blurred the lines between the make-believe and reality, leaving audiences questioning what they saw and heard.
Television appearances and mass fainting
Abel’s political pranks indeed made headlines. However, television appearances and mass media stunts took his deceptions to new heights. In his appearance on the panel show To Tell the Truth, he cleverly hired imposters to confuse the panel and the audience. But that was just the beginning of his small-screen antics.
In 1985, Abel orchestrated a mass fainting stunt on “The **Phil Donahue Show**,” shocking viewers and causing a media frenzy. This hoax demonstrated Abel’s ability to manipulate live television and capture audiences with his outrageous schemes.
And that’s not all – Abel’s creativity also extended to film. He wrote, produced, and directed the mockumentary Is There Sex After Death? in 1971, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. His later hoaxes, like the bogus company Euthanasia Cruises, Ltd. in 1993, continued to push boundaries and challenge social norms.
Even in the late 1990s, Abel continued to stage audacious pranks. Through his CGS Productions, he promoted gift-wrapped pint jars of Jenny McCarthy’s pee, satirizing celebrity culture and consumer gullibility. These television appearances and media stunts solidified Abel’s notoriety as an expert of deception and social commentary.
Legacy of deception and satire
Alan Abel, the “expert of deception,” left an indelible mark on American media and pop culture. The self-proclaimed “perennial public gadfly” combined the 19th-century flimflam man’s verbal prowess with 20th-century media savvy to build a legacy of hoaxes and satire that still resonates today.
How did Abel’s pranks shape the media domain? Well, his influence can be seen in:
- The rise of “culture-jamming” and subversive humor
- The development of satirical news outlets
- The proliferation of viral Internet hoaxes
- The increasing skepticism toward media narratives
Abel’s boldest stunts, such as his own death hoax, challenged societal norms and exposed the public and media’s gullibility. The “pioneer of media hoaxes” paved the way for modern pranksters and satirists.
One cannot underestimate Abel’s impact on American media and pop culture. His commitment to deception as an art form pushed the “boundaries of what was possible” in the context of satire and social commentary. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction enabled Abel to force you into questioning the information you consume and the world around you.