The Perennial Pleasures of the Hoax

James Fredal The Ohio State University

Abstract

ABSTRACTThough popular in the nineteenth century and widespread since, the elements of the hoax form can be traced to the origins of rhetorical theorizing, principally in the strategies of probability and counterprobability developed by the early orators and sophists. This article begins by defining features of the hoax as a textual event and then describes how hoaxes use traditional rhetorical techniques of both probability and improbability to transport viewers from credulity and acceptance to doubt and disbelief, demonstrating technical mastery over rhetorical conventions of the genre to mock their targets and to entertain and instruct their audience.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2014-02-01
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.47.1.0073
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (50) · 2 in this index

  1. Aeschines. Speeches. 1895. Trans. Charles Darwin Adams. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  2. Aristotle. 1957. Rhetorica ad Alexandrum. Vol. 2 of Problems. Trans. H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Unive…
  3. Aristotle. 1959. The Art of Rhetoric. Trans. John Freese. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  4. Barthes, Roland. 1989. “The Reality Effect.” In The Rustle of Language, trans. Richard Howard, 141–48. Los An…
  5. Berger, Peter. 1980. The Heretical Imperative: Contemporary Possibilities of Religious Affirmation. New York:…
Show all 50 →
  1. Bird, Elizabeth S. 1996. “CJ's Revenge: Media, Folklore, and the Cultural Construction of AIDS.” Critical Stu…
  2. Boese, Alex. 2002. The Museum of Hoaxes. New York: Dutton.
  3. Carducci, Vince. 2006. “Culture Jamming: A Sociological Perspective.” Journal of Consumer Culture 6 (1): 116–38.
  4. Cohn, Dorritt. 1989. “Fiction Versus Historical Lives: Borderlines and Borderline Cases.” Journal of Narrativ…
  5. Cook, James. 2001. The Arts of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni…
  6. Culler, Jonathan D. 2002. Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics, and the Study of Literature. New…
  7. Fairchild, William D. 1978. “The Argument from Probability in Lysias.” Classical Bulletin 55: 49–54.
  8. Fish, Stanley. 1996. “Professor Sokal's Bad Joke.” New York Times, 21 May, A23.
  9. Fleming, Chris, and John O'Carroll. 2010. “The Art of the Hoax.” Parallax 16 (4): 45–59.
  10. College English
  11. Gagarin, Michael. 1994. “Probability and Persuasion: Plato and Early Greek Rhetoric.” In Persuasion: Greek Rh…
  12. Gagarin, Michael. 2001. “Did the Sophists Aim to Persuade?” Rhetorica 19 (3): 275–91.
  13. Goffman, Erving. 1972. “Expression Games: An Analysis of Doubts at Play.” In Strategic Interaction, 3–81. New…
  14. Harold, Christine. 2004. “Pranking Rhetoric: ‘Culture Jamming’ as Media Activism.” Critical Studies in Media …
  15. Harris, Joseph. 1992. “The Other Reader.” Journal of Advanced Composition 12 (1): 27–37.
  16. Harris, Neil. 1973. Humbug: The Art of P.T. Barnum. Boston: Little, Brown.
  17. Herrnstein-Smith, Barbara. 1983. On the Margins of Discourse: The Relation of Literature to Language. Chicago…
  18. Heyward, Michael. 2003. The Ern Malley Affair. New York: Faber and Faber.
  19. Hoffman, David C. 2008. “Concerning Eikos: Social Expectations and Verisimilitude in Early Attic Rhetoric.” R…
  20. Kim, Leo. 2008. “Explaining the Hwang Scandal: National Scientific Culture and Its Global Relevance.” Science…
  21. Krakauer, Jon. 2001. Three Cups of Deceit. San Francisco: Byliner.
  22. Kraus, Manfred. 2010. “Perelman's Interpretation of Reverse Probability Arguments as a Dialectical Mise en Ab…
  23. Lambert-Beatty, Carrie. 2009. “Make Believe: Parafiction and Plausibility.” October 129: 51–84.
  24. Lateiner, Donald. 1990. “Deceptions and Delusions in Herodotus.” Classical Antiquity 9 (2): 230–46.
  25. Luck, George. 1985. Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Baltimore, MD: John Hop…
  26. Mailloux, Steven. 1989. Rhetorical Power. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989.
  27. Malley, Ern. 1944. The Darkening Ecliptic. Ed. Max Harris. Angry Penguins, Autumn.
  28. Mayhew, George. 1964. “Swift's Bickerstaff Hoax as an April Fool's Joke.” Modern Philology 61 (4): 270–80.
  29. McAdams, Dan. 2005. The Redemptive Self. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  30. McLeod, Kembrew. 2011. “On Pranks.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 8 (1): 97–102.
  31. Mencken, H. L. 1982. “A Neglected Anniversary.” In A Mencken Chrestomathy, ed. H. L. Mencken, 592–96. New Yor…
  32. Mortenson, Greg, and David Oliver Relin. 2007. Three Cups of Tea. New York: Penguin.
  33. Oring, Elliot. 2008. “Legendry and the Rhetoric of Truth.” Journal of American Folklore 121 (480): 127–66.
  34. Pettit, Michael. 2006. “The Joy of Believing: The Cardiff Giant, Commercial Deceptions, and Styles of Observa…
  35. Plimpton, George. 1985. “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch.” Sports Illustrated, 1 Apr., 59–73.
  36. Rudisill, Richard. 1971. Mirror Image: The Influence of the Daguerreotype on American Society. Albuquerque: U…
  37. Saunders, Debra. 2011. “Cult of ‘Three Cups of Tea’ Should Have Known Better.” San Francisco Chronicle, 24 Ap…
  38. Schmitz, Thomas A. 2000. “Plausibility in the Greek Orators.” American Journal of Philology 121 (1): 47–77.
  39. Written Communication
  40. Sokal, Alan. 1996a. “A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies.” Lingua Franca, May–June, 62–64.
  41. Sokal, Alan. 1996b. “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward the Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity.…
  42. Vohs, Kathleen, Jason Chin, and Roy F. Baumeister. 2007. “Feeling Duped: Emotional, Motivational, and Cogniti…
  43. Walsh, Lynda. 2003. Sins Against Science: the Scientific Media Hoaxes of Poe, Twain, and Others. New York: St…
  44. Walters, Russ. 1997. “Dihydrogen Monoxide Ban a Lesson in Critical Thinking.” Skeptic 5 (3): 28.
  45. Wickman, Matthew. 2000. “The Allure of the Improbable: Fingal, Evidence, and the Testimony of the Echoing Hea…