Thursday, June 13, 2013

The Curious Case of Mr. Li

It's not the best alien gaff ever made, but I don't think it's creator deserved to go to jail.

"Shortly after he proudly posted photographs of his alien on the internet, he was arrested by the police for five days for "fabrications" that "disturbed the public order".

Mr Li was forced to admit that he had indeed sought to use his model, held together with chicken wire and glue, to mislead his fellow Chinese about the existence of celestial creatures."


It boggles the mind this was worthy of official attention. Gaffs, and gaff based hoaxes in particular, have a long and proud history around the world. Alien bodies are a huge part of the UFO subculture, challenged only by the Bigfoot fans in terms of the sheer number of "specimens" that pop up.


7 comments:

  1. Well, well on the cutting edge of gaff news I see. The Propdrudge Report, scouring the bowels of the internet, has arrived. Actually, it's really a fun prop. The freezerburn ice and having it in an old fashioned freezer was a stroke of homemade genius.

    The cost of a discarded freezer and one corpsicle alien gaff, $37.29. Being caught by a repressive police state: priceless.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah, good ol' China. Land of the free. But there are those in the US who would love to see laws in place to protect idiots from being tricked (I'm thinking of a particular bigfoot hoax soapboxer of some renown), but I love a good hoax. It's fun. I guess that't the difference: I don't have so much emotional gold invested in an insubstantial belief system that anything injurious to it becomes a threat. As for the Chinese? Who knows. I don't even really like the food.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah, good ol' China. Land of the free. But there are those in the US who would love to see laws in place to protect idiots from being tricked (I'm thinking of a particular bigfoot hoax soapboxer of some renown), but I love a good hoax. It's fun. I guess that't the difference: I don't have so much emotional gold invested in an insubstantial belief system that anything injurious to it becomes a threat. As for the Chinese? Who knows. I don't even really like the food.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah, good ol' China. Land of the free. But there are those in the US who would love to see laws in place to protect idiots from being tricked (I'm thinking of a particular bigfoot hoax soapboxer of some renown), but I love a good hoax. It's fun. I guess that't the difference: I don't have so much emotional gold invested in an insubstantial belief system that anything injurious to it becomes a threat. As for the Chinese? Who knows. I don't even really like the food.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry if there are multiple posts. Seems like blogger is tripping out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ CoastConFan

    What gets me is that China isn't exactly a newcomer to the gaff trade. Their equivalent of the sideshow has been around for thousands of years.

    @ Cullan Hudson

    The only time I could see a hoax being problematic is if there's significant fraud involved.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This...just makes me sad. Remind me not to play any harmless pranks in China!
    And I guess now we know where China's stance is on extraterrestrials.

    ReplyDelete