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70-Year-Old Prank Revealed

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the inspiring-a-new-generation-of-pranking dept.

Saturday in the San Francisco Chronicle a story about a prank that the Clampers (E Clampus Vitus, man!) pulled on UC Berkeley was featured. In short the Clampers faked a brass plaque that intimated that Sir Francis Drake landed in Marin 462 years ago. The Clampers are an organization known for, well, drinking and horsing around, but this kind of prank, one that spans 70 years (or more than 400, depending on your point of view) is epic and inspiring.

47 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. 67 more years.... by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Funny

    and 3dRealms will announce that Duke Nukem was also a hoax.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    1. Re:67 more years.... by $$$$$exyGal · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Wow! I read about this 70 year-old prank this morning before it was added to /., and I was actually going to post it to my /. journal instead of the usual carefully selected geek porn.

      That is a fascinating prank. What I liked the best is the psychology of what happened. The guys friends were going to tell him what they'd done, but they opted to let the public down rather than let their friend be humiliated.

      I wonder how common this is?

      --sex

      --
      Very popular slashdot journal for adul
    2. Re:67 more years.... by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This post implies that it's only been three years. Just for the record, the earliest Usenet Post referencing Duke Nukem Forever was June 7, *1996*. Yes, coming up on SEVEN YEARS. Heh.

      --
      Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
    3. Re:67 more years.... by Spunk · · Score: 1

      Similar to Neverwinter Nights. When it resurfaced in the last few years I originally thought it was the same product they were planning in 1993

    4. Re:67 more years.... by netsharc · · Score: 3, Funny

      Interestingly, in some racing games they sometimes use "DNF" when a racer "Did Not Finish". :)

      --
      What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
    5. Re:67 more years.... by NeoMoose · · Score: 1

      Even better, Valve will announce the same about Team Fortress 2

  2. My questions is... by gearheadsmp · · Score: 1, Funny

    Are the Clampers related to the Clampets?

  3. Old-timey Fun by molrak · · Score: 2, Funny

    So that's what people did before they had television and the internet to occupy themselves with!

    --
    You're only as smart as your brain.
  4. Weren't those easter eggs a kind of prank? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting



    Weren't those software easter eggs pranks too ? If you end up keying in some combinations of keystrokes, you might see totally unexpected funny/interesiting stuff on your screen.

    Did you miss out on this post and all the replies?

  5. Stick to the basics by one9nine · · Score: 4, Funny
    Wouldn't it have been a lot cheaper and easier just to leave a bag of flaming dog poo on the professor's front step? Or make a phony phone call a la Homer style

    Homer: "Hello Dean, you're a stupid head."

    Dean: "Homer, is that you?" (Looks out the window and sees him a the pay phone right outside the office.)

    Homer: "Aaaaah!" (Runs away)

    1. Re:Stick to the basics by cybermint · · Score: 1

      Yes, but a flaming bag doesn't last 70 years! I only wish I had come up with the idea.

    2. Re:Stick to the basics by whereiswaldo · · Score: 1

      Hmmm.. +5 funny. So at least 5 people have read and laughed at your Simpsons comment... 50 cents a piece... click click click... hmm, looks like you owe the TV network some DOH!

    3. Re:Stick to the basics by ToeDruid · · Score: 1

      Yup...anonymous coward you are...what a troll...

      --
      "The difference between meat and fish is that if you beat your fish it dies"
  6. Where he was promptly met by. . . by kfg · · Score: 3, Funny

    a real estate agent who tried to sell him a 200 square foot condo for $750,000.

    Ah, those were the days, back when Bay Area real estate was still cheap.

    KFG

  7. intimated, ay? by unformed · · Score: 4, Funny

    I didn't know Sir Francis Drake was intimate with brass plaques.

    1. Re:intimated, ay? by lommer · · Score: 1

      Would you please stop shamelessly plugging something that it is obvious tha YOU are selling on EBay? I'm getting really tired of finding these posts everywhere...

    2. Re:intimated, ay? by paulcammish · · Score: 1
      I didn't know Sir Francis Drake was intimate with brass plaques.

      I think he means 'Intimidated' - he was quite scared of them, as they kept threatening to beat him up and take his lunch money... not to mention his phobia of Sailors...

    3. Re:intimated, ay? by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 1

      This is what I got out of the "dict" command:
      v 1: give to understand; "I insinuated that I did not like his wife" [syn: {adumbrate}, {insinuate}]
      2: imply as a possibility; "The evidence suggests a need for more clarification" [syn: {suggest}]

      --
      Bruce Perens.
  8. Smog control by elflet · · Score: 2, Funny

    Next we'll learn that smog controls were a historical prank perpetrated by E Clampus Vitus chapter 33MPG... We'll call the main part the 'ECV valve', that should clue them in. And if not, just think of all the beer they'll pay for..."

    1. Re:Smog control by cuteduo · · Score: 1

      My car has an ACV vavle :) (BTW, ACV is Air Control Valve)

  9. To bad Walton Bean's dead by calidoscope · · Score: 1

    Prof Bean (taught Cal history at UCB) was quite the believer in the authenticity of the plate.

    --
    A Shadeless room is a brighter room.
  10. Is it all a hoax? by Black+Copter+Control · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Did anybody bother to consider that the story about the hoax (and even the reference to the possibility of the hoax being a hoax) is, itself, a hoax?

    Is there any limit to the recursion on this?

    --
    OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
    1. Re:Is it all a hoax? by Pharmboy · · Score: 1
      Did anybody bother to consider that the story about the hoax (and even the reference to the possibility of the hoax being a hoax) is, itself, a hoax?

      Yes. The author, Carl Note did. Quoting him:

      There always remains the possibility that the tale of the hoax may in itself be a hoax, like a riddle inside an enigma.

      He went on to say that they had used several sources, and had confidence in the story, but it was possible.
      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    2. Re:Is it all a hoax? by pete-classic · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is there any limit to the recursion on this?

      Yes. My attention span.

      And . . . we just exceeded it.

      -Peter

      PS: Did anyone else take the "riddle inside an enigma" or whatever to be an allusion to the film "JFK"?

      -P

    3. Re:Is it all a hoax? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
      PS: Did anyone else take the "riddle inside an enigma" or whatever to be an allusion to the film "JFK"?

      Sigh.

    4. Re:Is it all a hoax? by S.Lemmon · · Score: 1

      Actually that's not in dispute, Drake did land there and is said to have left such a plaque. The group knew the prof. was looking for it so, as the article says, they just decided to "help" him find it. :-)

    5. Re:Is it all a hoax? by Black+Copter+Control · · Score: 1

      Nah... As the person who wrote this, I was intending it to be funny. I consider it a complete failure that it managed to get rated +3 interesting.

      --
      OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
  11. Emperor Norton Connection by dwdyer · · Score: 3, Interesting
    These people also picked up Emperor Norton as an icon, as did the Discordians.

    See here (info on Norton) and here (more Clamper info in the second article as well).

    -W-

    --
    -dwd-
  12. News to me... by Mulletproof · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The Clampers are an organization known for, well, drinking and horsing around..."

    And what fraternitiy worth their salt isn't???

    --
    You need a FREE iPod Nano
    1. Re:News to me... by MrResistor · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Clampers aren't a fraternity, they're a club, sort of like the Elks or the Order of the Moose.

      Drinking and horsing around are what they're best known for, and what they do most often, but another thing that they do and are known for is restoring historical sites, like buildings in abandoned Gold Rush towns and such.

      --
      Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
    2. Re:News to me... by Mulletproof · · Score: 1

      A Fraternity-like organization with a streak of civil service? Is it possible?! ;)

      --
      You need a FREE iPod Nano
  13. Another retro review by Animats · · Score: 2, Informative

    This book came out in 1996. Hello?

  14. Speaking of Hoaxes by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This fellow has decided to take Holocaust Revisionism to its logical conclusion. A lot of info on some of the great historical hoaxes.

  15. It's called. . . by kfg · · Score: 1

    The scientific method. Google on "N-rays."

    KFG

  16. Wow. by TWX_the_Linux_Zealot · · Score: 2, Funny

    I believe that this is the oldest confirmed story Slashdot has linked to. They knew that it was hoax in 1936...

    --

    IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS,
    And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
  17. Just like Nessie by blamanj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Reminiscent of the 1934 Nessie photograph. Even though it's been documented as a hoax, the true believers live on.

    And of course, crop circles are practically a religion to some.

    1. Re:Just like Nessie by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

      Hey! Next you're going to say that those fairy pictures were fakes too!

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    2. Re:Just like Nessie by evilviper · · Score: 1

      And to think... Some people worry that the photos from digital cameras might be faked...

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  18. Well, the prank was on them. by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Informative
    The E Clampus Vitus members who perpetrated the prank were themselves history professors at Berkeley as well. They had to be history professors because they used correctly archaic writing and language. But the joke was entirely on them. First, someone moved their plaque from Pt. Reyes to Remillard Point by Larkspur Landing, a drive across all of Marin and certainly deliberate IMO - it was placed in another likely place for the ship to land, but where the perpetrators couldn't find it. Then it was found three years later and conveyed to the professor, who believed its veracity. And then the perpetrators couldn't confess to their own fraud. It didn't happen under their control and they (and their victim) would have been disgraced because of all of the news that had gone on about it.

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  19. Reminds me of another prank... by 10Ghz · · Score: 5, Funny

    In 1628, the flagship of the Swedish navy, Wasa, sank within minutes of starting her maiden-voyage (the ship was top heavy due to extra gun-deck they added in the middle of the construction).

    The ship was resurfaced in 1961 (it was discovered in 1956) . It took several days to accomplish. As it happens, there were some finnish techics-students (teekkarit) visiting Stockholm then. Teekkarit are famous for pulling pranks, and they though that this would be the perfect possibility for the ultimate prank. They went and bought a miniature copy of a statue of Paavo Nurmi (a famous finnish runner), sneaked past the guards, went in to the ship (that was still in the bottom of the sea) and placed the statue in the captains quarters. I bet the people who studied the sip after it was resurfaced were quite puzzled when they found that statue ;). The guys who pulled that off never revealed how they did it.

    --
    Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  20. I don't believe it! by Abductor · · Score: 2

    That plaque has been there for ages, I just took it as fact. It's prominetly displayed on one of the busiest little thruways in Northern California-- "Sir Francis Drake Blvd". Wild!

  21. Well by TheOnlyCoolTim · · Score: 1

    He was on a long voyage of exploration - he didn't see a woman for months, and the men were all ugly smelly sailors... A man gets desparate.

    Tim

    --
    Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
  22. Re:Is noone else disturbed by this? by 286 · · Score: 1

    Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.

  23. Re:70 years that's nothing by Zirnike · · Score: 1
    Please. Everyone who reads any real books knows that the whole christian church is just a practical joke from Malaclypse the Elder.

    You haven't been reading your Robert Anton Wilson lately, have you?

    --
    I'm not shy, I'm stalking my prey
  24. Hmmm, this got me thinking. by mpthompson · · Score: 1

    Perhaps a more modern day version of this hoax would have the following plaque turn up in an abandoned warehouse in Nevada. We can then sit back and enjoy watching the crackpots stumble over themselves yelling they told us so...

  25. Can't be hoax by DrivesMyApe · · Score: 1

    Since we are told that conspiracies don't exist then this cannot be a hoax. It is impossible that the secret was kept this long.

  26. Re:Had to be professors? by darien · · Score: 1

    Seems to me, anyone with an hour to spend in the library looking at pictures of plaques could have done it.