The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe April Fool's Joke is hilarious [0]. Guy airdrops 70 kerosense-soaked tires to the crater of the volcano and sets them on fire, making everyone think the volcano was going to erupt.
Laughed pretty good at this bit in the PB & mayo story [1] too:
"And then there was the Great Banana Peel hoax. In 1967, a rumor had swept the nation alleging that bananas could be used to get high. The technique, it was said, was to scrape the inside of a banana peel, boil the residue, dry it out, and then roll it into a joint and smoke it."
I’d also recommend the Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA. It’s not exactly full of hoaxes (there is ‘primary’ evidence for all the exhibits), but it has a great mix of things that are true but weird, interesting but likely false, and completely bonkers but ‘documented’.
Oh hey, I remember this site. Had one of the books the curator released to tie in to the project.
Either way, it's definitely got some fantastic articles about old school hoaxes here. The hoaxes through history archive is definitely worth looking through if you've got the time:
I just kinda wish they were a bit more consistent on the updates again. The site got tons of updates back in 2015 or so, with articles every day. Now? You'll be lucky to get one per month.
Laughed pretty good at this bit in the PB & mayo story [1] too: "And then there was the Great Banana Peel hoax. In 1967, a rumor had swept the nation alleging that bananas could be used to get high. The technique, it was said, was to scrape the inside of a banana peel, boil the residue, dry it out, and then roll it into a joint and smoke it."
[0]: http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_eruption_of_moun...
[1]: http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/peanut_butter_and_mayonnai...