This Best-Selling Novel Was A Total Hoax!

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
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ความคิดเห็น • 1.9K

  • @AshtonRob
    @AshtonRob 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2523

    Havent watched the video, think it's a rousing swashbuckler and a must-watch. 0/10

  • @un0RRS
    @un0RRS 2 ปีที่แล้ว +780

    Reminds me of the time that David Bowie trolled the entire art community by inventing a painter named Nat Tate and getting a bunch of pretentious art people to claim to know him.

    • @apurvaisnotcool
      @apurvaisnotcool 2 ปีที่แล้ว +68

      Bowie was fucking awesome

    • @theeclectic2919
      @theeclectic2919 ปีที่แล้ว

      Hunter Biden is also a fake artist. But I think there's a lot of money laundering that goes with it.

    • @callumbreton8930
      @callumbreton8930 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      ​@@apurvaisnotcool He was even going to be the villain in Bladerunner 2048

    • @maren8597
      @maren8597 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Where did you hear about this? I want to know more

    • @dislikereporter2271
      @dislikereporter2271 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Close, Bowie was a participant in the hoax but didn’t start it

  • @joebykaeby
    @joebykaeby 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7047

    I would absolutely love it if a week from now Austin came out and said “oh yeah that whole story about the fake book, I made that up.”

    • @SenshiSunPower
      @SenshiSunPower 2 ปีที่แล้ว +308

      I, Libertine has been a known story for a while, so I don't think he'd be the one making it up. It's sat comfortably beside "Take Me Off Your Email List" and "Atlanta Nights" as a literary hoax.

    • @tatehildyard5332
      @tatehildyard5332 2 ปีที่แล้ว +273

      Honestly, a scam like this would be very hard to pull off nowadays because of the internet and how quickly information can be reported and how well documented that information is. A person would just plug the name into google and either be able to spot the pattern themselves or someone else in the chain either slips or figures it out first.

    • @nate_d376
      @nate_d376 2 ปีที่แล้ว +113

      @@tatehildyard5332 I wouldn't be so sure....just look at the crap that lands on TV and cable news and the internet, that seems to stick around in spite of contradictory evidence. Lol.

    • @BewareTheLilyOfTheValley
      @BewareTheLilyOfTheValley 2 ปีที่แล้ว +56

      @@nate_d376 There are a lot of people who prefer the mantra "I reject your reality and substitute it with my own." 🙄

    • @heyitsevan758
      @heyitsevan758 2 ปีที่แล้ว +118

      @@tatehildyard5332 I think it is easier than ever to pull this off. People and companies are so obsessed with the idea about being “first” to publish something that speed comes before accuracy. Sure, it may get exposed quicker than it would in the 50s, but so many people would have moved on by then that the misinformation would live on.

  • @BlueGuy98
    @BlueGuy98 2 ปีที่แล้ว +530

    The funny thing is, Jean Shepherd went on to write an actual book called “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash”. This book became the basis for A Christmas Story, which Shepherd also narrated

    • @fearofowl5973
      @fearofowl5973 2 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      I thought he sounded familiar and was sure he was the narrator in that

    • @teenygozer
      @teenygozer 2 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      He wrote several books including The Ferrari in the Bedroom and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, but In God We Trust is his best! When I was in the 6th grade I begged my mom to take me to one of his bookstore appearances. He read stories and talked off the cuff, it was amazing. I was a huge fan of his radio talk show on WOR in NYC.

    • @PJSproductions97
      @PJSproductions97 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      ...I'm not sure I should believe you

    • @oliverbrownlow5615
      @oliverbrownlow5615 2 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      During my childhood and teen years, my grandparents lived in a house that was across the street from the boyhood home of Jean Shepherd in Hammond, Indiana. I currently live in another house on the same street, and at times I can see it from my front porch. Each year during the Christmas season, a lamp shaped like a woman's leg appears in the window.

    • @caatcher
      @caatcher 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      In God We Trust is a compilation of short stories Shep wrote, many for Playboy. Shep did a wraparound and some interstitial material.

  • @andno7850
    @andno7850 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6575

    I did that in college. The assignment was to select a short story and then analyze it using what the professor had taught us in the last 6 months. I decided to write my own short story under a fake name and analyze it... I got a 10 out of 10.

    • @rustyslug2943
      @rustyslug2943 2 ปีที่แล้ว +261

      analyze isn't spelt like that. Don't know how you dodged the squiggly red line.

    • @HenryLouis21
      @HenryLouis21 2 ปีที่แล้ว +247

      Nice. Did you ever publish that short story? If not, you should because I am interested in what you wrote.

    • @rob31hockey
      @rob31hockey 2 ปีที่แล้ว +52

      @@rustyslug2943 as well as incorrect use of "wrote."

    • @aidanm5849
      @aidanm5849 2 ปีที่แล้ว +95

      @@rustyslug2943 analyse is not spelled like that either.

    • @BananaWasTaken
      @BananaWasTaken 2 ปีที่แล้ว +403

      @@aidanm5849 quote from a 5 second google search (so lots of research /s)
      ‘Users of British English prefer analyse, while American English users have standardized around analyze’

  • @pryankster69
    @pryankster69 2 ปีที่แล้ว +936

    A friend of mine, and her best friend started a trend in high school. They clipped the "bread tags" to their ears like earrings. When asked why? they said "all of the people at are doing it, it's cool". By the end of the week, all of the people at her high school AND rival high school were clipping bread tags to their ears

    • @pappy374
      @pappy374 2 ปีที่แล้ว +91

      That story is the best thing since sliced bread.

    • @aliceramdom.s
      @aliceramdom.s ปีที่แล้ว +10

      bread tags are not a thing in the uk I guess

    • @beetooex
      @beetooex ปีที่แล้ว +28

      @@aliceramdom.s I see them sometimes on the crap mass produced sliced bread. It closes the bag as an alternative to that little tab of sticky tape.

    • @bernardkung7306
      @bernardkung7306 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@pappy374 Who knows? It might even be true.

    • @smolbirb4
      @smolbirb4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Sure that happened then everyone clapped right?

  • @david_is_achu
    @david_is_achu 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2167

    This man single handedly trolled the entirety of New York State in the 50s. He’s a national hero

    • @TJ-bu9zk
      @TJ-bu9zk 2 ปีที่แล้ว +70

      When people say "thats just a conspiracy theory! Do you how many people need to be in on it for it to be true?" Only a very small number... the rest just need to be complicit in perpetuating it.

    • @tachobrenner
      @tachobrenner 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@TJ-bu9zk Screw it, man, unlike the fifties, we live in post disruptive investigative journalism times.

    • @boyindress9592
      @boyindress9592 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      @@tachobrenner that’s what they want you to think so that you see them as a source but in reality very little has changed.

    • @boyindress9592
      @boyindress9592 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@tachobrenner just think about how many of these companies are still around today, do you think they all changed they’re ways.

    • @vallisdaemonumofficial
      @vallisdaemonumofficial 2 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      Pre-internet trolling was a whole different ballgame

  • @rbrooks2007
    @rbrooks2007 2 ปีที่แล้ว +110

    In the U.K. we had a book come into existence all due to a British Telecom TV advert where the storyline is of an old man who kept going into bookshops asking for 'Fly Fishing by J.R. Hartley' and told that they didn't have it. The daughter hands him a telephone directory so he phones around and finally one bookstore says they have a copy. When he asks if they could reserve it for him they ask him his name "My name? J. R. Hartley" he replies. The book now exists in real life.

  • @benbing3926
    @benbing3926 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3883

    “The Bestselling Novel That Fooled The World”, by Austin McConnell? Yes, that’s a superb video, really tickled my intellectual fancy. Now now, when will this Mr. McConnell get his recognition?

    • @LawrenceLS
      @LawrenceLS 2 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      top comment material right here

    • @maestrofeli4259
      @maestrofeli4259 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      senator ben sir
      respectfully, what is wrong with you, sir?

    • @georgethejedi
      @georgethejedi 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      good luck with the election!

    • @koboarchives969
      @koboarchives969 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@maestrofeli4259 bro he just fucking around, because this is interesting but youtube thinks this is a pile of fucking shit.
      and will continuously promote it less until he satisfys the system.
      He should make something that gives him a fuck ton of views.
      like another conspiracy vid, youtube liked them.

    • @maestrofeli4259
      @maestrofeli4259 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@koboarchives969 why are you telling me this

  • @gwest3644
    @gwest3644 2 ปีที่แล้ว +113

    If you recognize Shepherd’s voice, he actually narrated “A Christmas Story” and he even wrote the novel it’s based on.

    • @Xander_P.G.K
      @Xander_P.G.K 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Oh shit, really? That's neat.

    • @motioninmind6015
      @motioninmind6015 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      The movie takes elements from a lot of his works, including his radio show. It's a kind of mishmash of the whacky Jean Shepherd universe

  • @PaytonSwan
    @PaytonSwan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2772

    If someone told me there was a bestselling author named Frederick R. Ewing, I would not only believe them, but would convince myself I've heard of him before.

    • @RiddSann
      @RiddSann 2 ปีที่แล้ว +136

      Most likely, and so would I, just think of how many movies or artists you've said you've heard of before but never actually seen or heard and how many could have been legitimately fake without you knowing.

    • @mcfixer9503
      @mcfixer9503 2 ปีที่แล้ว +47

      the thing is i swear ive heard of a name similar to ewing - from some book similar to alice in wonderland or smth - but im probably just thinking of euler and euclid

    • @jjhartchess
      @jjhartchess 2 ปีที่แล้ว +65

      Tbf there was a famous Oxford philosopher called Alfred Ewing, so your mind might be thinking of that

    • @pumpyronaldrump_4417
      @pumpyronaldrump_4417 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      @@jjhartchess or what if you are lying too 😐

    • @pumpyronaldrump_4417
      @pumpyronaldrump_4417 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      @@jjhartchess ok looked it up he was a physicist

  • @Albeit_Jordan
    @Albeit_Jordan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +307

    I vividly recall a moment in the second grade wherein two other kids in my class were sharing a good laugh over a new Adam Sandler movie they had both happened to watch the night before and, feeling left out, I chimed in by sharing a favorite scene of mine, only it was one I was making up entirely off the top of my head because I hadn't seen the movie myself... the two kids went completely silent for about three seconds until one of them excitedly exclaimed 'yeah that part was hilarious!'

    • @MissPopuri
      @MissPopuri ปีที่แล้ว +9

      That generally happened to me because I didn’t have access to cable tv like most kids in my school. You don’t want to feel like an outsider because your parents are poor and too stupid to afford good tv reception 😂

    • @russ254
      @russ254 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      they were being nice to you

    • @ELTABULLO
      @ELTABULLO ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@russ254 you cold for that

    • @bob8776
      @bob8776 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I used to do the same thing when I was a kid because we didn’t have money to see movies in the theater but didn’t want to feel left out

  • @DavidBrown-xn2pg
    @DavidBrown-xn2pg 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1853

    This is so wholesome, creating such a frenzy and then using the proceeds for charity.

    • @laurena9563
      @laurena9563 2 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      I was going to say; the more I listened all I could think was this guy is the literal definition of a "good egg."

    • @irgendwer3610
      @irgendwer3610 2 ปีที่แล้ว +59

      chaotic good people be like

    • @OtakuNoShitpost
      @OtakuNoShitpost 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      I should hope it was a charity for the illiterate

    • @KanjoosLahookvinhaakvinhookvin
      @KanjoosLahookvinhaakvinhookvin 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I believe the charity was The Human Fund. An estimable institution but not surprising for Mr. Shepherd. I hear he even got Vandelay Industries to match him. God charity is so wholesome.

  • @envycollar
    @envycollar ปีที่แล้ว +174

    "History repeats itself, again and again." - Martin Scorsese, director of Goncharov

    • @flat-seventh
      @flat-seventh ปีที่แล้ว +14

      Big fan of Goncharov, one of Scorsese’s finest works

    • @AS-nk3mh
      @AS-nk3mh ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Such an amazing movie, Goncharov.

    • @WitchOfGreed
      @WitchOfGreed ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Robert DeNiro's most underrated but best role

    • @tammybixby6410
      @tammybixby6410 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      Finally! Someone's talking about Goncharov. I thought it was Joe Pesci was really great in it

    • @SpiffoGaming
      @SpiffoGaming ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I totally forgot about this classic real movie

  • @erraticonteuse
    @erraticonteuse 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1110

    I love that Theodore "90% of everything is crap" Sturgeon had a little part to play in this farce. It's the cherry on top of the whole story.

    • @nooneinparticular3370
      @nooneinparticular3370 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      In creating the fake story or by falling for it?

    • @arfansthename
      @arfansthename 2 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      @@nooneinparticular3370 Creating the story. He wrote the real book.

    • @nooneinparticular3370
      @nooneinparticular3370 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@arfansthename Nice!

    • @jrdougan
      @jrdougan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      That was the part that made me go from chuckling to full on laughter.

    • @SorendeSelbyBowen
      @SorendeSelbyBowen ปีที่แล้ว +3

      That line that people quote (it's actually "crud", not "crap") is slightly misunderstood. Sturgeon was an excellent writer; particularly he was a great stylist. The quoted line was in a conversation when he was defending science fiction. The person who was attacking SF finally said (paraphrasing), "Okay, maybe you're right, some science fiction might be okay. But ninety percent of this science fiction is crud." And Sturgeon replied, "Ninety percent of =everything= is crud."

  • @HowToCookThat
    @HowToCookThat 2 ปีที่แล้ว +34

    This was great Austin :)

    • @DinoRicky
      @DinoRicky ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Omg your a fan and has way more subs and your a cooking channel on a fact channel?!?!
      Your cool

  • @Elemtree
    @Elemtree 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1078

    I was half expecting this to be another story to promote a book of his but I’d still end up buying it.

    • @PwnZombie
      @PwnZombie 2 ปีที่แล้ว +34

      Congrats, you've unintentionally promoted his book.

    • @MikeCrocker
      @MikeCrocker 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Tiber wasn't kidding, how do you get so many top comments?

  • @WantSomeWhiskey818
    @WantSomeWhiskey818 2 ปีที่แล้ว +42

    In college I had to write an essay about how wild west movies romanticize the real wild west. I didnt watch a single movie, only read reviews and synopses, wrote it in like two and a half hours the day it was due and I got a 95% with the notes "Very informative!"

  • @DillonVibbart
    @DillonVibbart 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1076

    "If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you're misinformed... One of the effects of too much information is the need to be first, not to be true" - Denzel Washington

    • @seldomstudios6351
      @seldomstudios6351 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      Tell that to today’s internet world

    • @kurtwagner350
      @kurtwagner350 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      I’m pretty sure that’s on the code of arms at the New York Times headquarters

    • @nate_d376
      @nate_d376 2 ปีที่แล้ว +32

      Smart guy that Denzel, if he actually said it. I have to be skeptical about everything now that I've watched this video!

    • @mcfixer9503
      @mcfixer9503 2 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      wow, denzel washington said that? i can't believe george washinton said that!! i mean really, i was unaware king george IV was so smart! i really should read more about king henry IV

    • @nate_d376
      @nate_d376 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@mcfixer9503 lmao...

  • @Knights_Oath
    @Knights_Oath ปีที่แล้ว +33

    It reminds me of a project I did for my Sociology class in college. I went around gathering signatures from students to end women's suffrage. I got over 100 people to sign it before I stopped. Only 2 asked for more details. And only 3 people actually knew what suffrage actually was.
    The best part was there was a girl in my class who signed it. She gave me the dirtiest looks for the rest of the year after that.

  • @AManOnline.
    @AManOnline. 2 ปีที่แล้ว +575

    "We do a little trolling"
    -Gene Shepard, 1956

    • @subsnovideoschallenge-kb7st
      @subsnovideoschallenge-kb7st 2 ปีที่แล้ว +46

      He does a minuscule bit of tomfoolery

    • @danielawesome36
      @danielawesome36 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      We do a quite considerable amount of mental trickery and mockery of those who are unfortunate enough to fall victim to our clever little traps of social teasing.

    • @GiftSparks
      @GiftSparks ปีที่แล้ว

      It was spelled “Jean Shepherd.”

  • @leonardofernandez6488
    @leonardofernandez6488 2 ปีที่แล้ว +64

    When I'm talking about a book and I get the impression that the other person is just pretending to have read it, I make up a ludicrous ending to find out whether the other person has read it or not. I only got caught once.

    • @youtubeuniversity3638
      @youtubeuniversity3638 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      What if they claim to only be part way through it?

  • @8illy
    @8illy 2 ปีที่แล้ว +858

    guys i just read this new book called i libertine, its phenominal

    • @mashucha
      @mashucha 2 ปีที่แล้ว +86

      i hate I libertine, i had to do an english paper on it

    • @oraclerpg163
      @oraclerpg163 2 ปีที่แล้ว +86

      It's not as good as the author's earlier work. However, his deconstruction of early mercantile capitalism truly challenges the prevailing hegemony of our times.

    • @nightshadetq2453
      @nightshadetq2453 2 ปีที่แล้ว +41

      i heard they're making a movie adaptation

    • @Ayesha-sg9qv
      @Ayesha-sg9qv 2 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      Personally, I think that the book wasn't too great, it had lots of plot holes

    • @kevind843
      @kevind843 2 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      I read it in 1956 in NYC. It was quite unbelievable a story!

  • @taitano12
    @taitano12 2 ปีที่แล้ว +116

    My grandfather told me about this. He was an actual Professor (Marine Navigation, Telecommunication, and World Naval History) and a huge bookworm. He overheard my grandma and a friend talking about it. He'd never heard of the book, but found the name sounded familiar, so he went to the library, they didn't have it and said that they'd gotten several requests, but couldn't find it in the distribution catalogs - which are the same for book stores. They concluded that the book didn't exist and, being on a first name basis, they shared a laugh over coffee at the articles and lists that discussed it. They even laughed at some of his coworkers who were talking about it as though they had read it.
    Apparently the English Literature Professor he worked with, who was not fooled, thought it was made up by a student who was making it up to give a book review using critiquing lessons she'd been teaching, and gave the student high marks despite knowing it didn't exist. When the whole thing was exposed after the following quarter, the EL Prof. straight up passed the student for that quarter, but knocked their points for the current quarter in half because that quarter was focused on research and verification of sources.
    He told me this story to remind me not to believe everything I read.

    • @hansolobutimdead
      @hansolobutimdead ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I don't believe a word of this

    • @hansolobutimdead
      @hansolobutimdead ปีที่แล้ว

      @@taitano12 Dude... It was a joke. The moral of the story was to not believe everything you read. And I didn't believe what you wrote. Wtf

    • @taitano12
      @taitano12 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@hansolobutimdead Sorry. It was a long, exhausting day and I was half asleep. My apologies.

    • @hansolobutimdead
      @hansolobutimdead ปีที่แล้ว

      @@taitano12 well don't take it out on me, I'm just a random guy on the internet

  • @aaronharris1092
    @aaronharris1092 2 ปีที่แล้ว +990

    I would have absolutely lost my shit if at the end of the video Austin went, "you know what the craziest part of this whole story is? None of it ever happened, I made it up"

    • @blartversenwaldiii
      @blartversenwaldiii 2 ปีที่แล้ว +129

      I was terrified he was about to pull the rug out from under me, because the story was so good I needed it to be true

    • @safe-keeper1042
      @safe-keeper1042 2 ปีที่แล้ว +53

      I had to do a Google search, myself. Would've made for such a great ending.

    • @mercster
      @mercster 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I would absolutely love it if people just simply looked up the story instead of pretending to know some guy "Austin" and that's the only thing you got out of this video. You dope.

    • @alastorlapid2365
      @alastorlapid2365 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Makes me think of Randy feltface. 'The Bookshelf'

    • @bellhop_phantom
      @bellhop_phantom ปีที่แล้ว +2

      That'd be so disappointing, though. Like the "it was all a dream" ending at the end of a video game

  • @geoffreyexcellent4199
    @geoffreyexcellent4199 2 ปีที่แล้ว +197

    Really surprised the video doesn’t mention that Jean Shepherd wrote “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash” which ultimately became the basis for A Christmas Story. He even narrated and had a cameo in the film!

    • @RangerErnsy
      @RangerErnsy 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      You know, I really had the thought that his voice sounded familiar and I couldn't place it. Thanks!

    • @sdfeinstein
      @sdfeinstein 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      He wrote that book 11 years later.

    • @caatcher
      @caatcher 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Shep's cameo is at the department store. He's the guy who says "Hey, kid!" and tells Ralphie to go to the end of that very long line to see Santa. BTW the lady with Shep was Shep's actual wife. She predeceased him, and Shep once said he'd watch the movie on TV every year so he could see her and raise a glass to her.

  • @limetwistanimations8628
    @limetwistanimations8628 2 ปีที่แล้ว +372

    It's just... Perfect. Totally, completely perfect.

    • @writershard5065
      @writershard5065 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      A little too perfect. What if some of this was also fake? D:

  • @MatthewCobalt
    @MatthewCobalt 2 ปีที่แล้ว +43

    This situation definitely had the three primary part of trolls.
    The observers (those who wish to see the mess unfold), the passive participants (those who poke a bit to see how far it will go),and the role-players (who go full troll and basically impersonate a non-existant author or scam journalists with false books).

  • @thanatoast
    @thanatoast 2 ปีที่แล้ว +472

    I remember our teacher telling us about this book, though i think she must've been mistaken about some things because according to her: The book WAS real, but it hadn’t been published yet. Either way, it's a really good example that maybe so called experts can also lie to make themselves seem more educated.

    • @patrickreilly478
      @patrickreilly478 2 ปีที่แล้ว +89

      I mean, it WAS eventually published, so she wasn't entirely wrong.

    • @thanatoast
      @thanatoast 2 ปีที่แล้ว +63

      @@patrickreilly478 Well, the way that she said it was more like, it was a publicity stunt to sell the book before it came out for real.

    • @iivin4233
      @iivin4233 2 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      @@thanatoast Interesting that your teacher almost had the right interpretation.

  • @perihelionstudios7563
    @perihelionstudios7563 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Goncharov (1973) is Tumblr’s “I, Libertine” and I love it.

  • @rakaipikatan8922
    @rakaipikatan8922 2 ปีที่แล้ว +215

    This is the best me and the boys stories I've ever seen

  • @kimberlyterasaki4843
    @kimberlyterasaki4843 2 ปีที่แล้ว +423

    Broke: Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast is a lesson in mass hysteria.
    Woke: "I, Libertine" is a lesson that everyone is just trying to fit in and "fake-it-till-you-make-it" is how the world works until it doesn't.

    • @Seth9809
      @Seth9809 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      As far as I know, no one freaked out over the radio broadcast.

    • @kimberlyterasaki4843
      @kimberlyterasaki4843 2 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      @@Seth9809 That... that's the joke. I don't know how much more obvious I could have made it that that was the joke.

    • @mcfixer9503
      @mcfixer9503 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@Seth9809 over the WotW broadcast? many people did, as they tuned in late and thought there was a legitimate martian invasion

    • @ToomanyFrancis
      @ToomanyFrancis 2 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      @@mcfixer9503 That belief is a result of the exact type of thing this whole I, Libertine hoax was mocking. Newspapers exaggerated the extent of the hysteria immensely. The War of the Worlds broadcast was performed at the same time as a far more popular radio broadcast, very few people even tuned in to listen to War of the Worlds. The broadcast did mislead a significant amount of it's listeners for a short period, but there were intermittent reminders that the broadcast was a work of fiction. The "mass hysteria" that was reported was entirely misinformation. A very tiny percentage of listeners actually panicked.
      Not many people listened to War of the Worlds live, most that did realized fairly quickly that it was a performance. It is true that police were called shortly after the broadcast started, and the station was in a bit of a frenzy, but there was no mass hysteria on a national scale.

    • @lazymansload520
      @lazymansload520 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@Seth9809there were some who freaked out, but they assumed it meant the Germans were invading, not the martians.

  • @justinlipkin
    @justinlipkin 2 ปีที่แล้ว +25

    Absolutely amazing video! So well produced, not clickbait, crisp and clear. Great bits of humour and informative fact giving along with great pacing and narrative.
    Austin, you've been doing some great stuff for a long time, but looking at this video and thinking back a few years ago I would say that you have somehow improved. Didn't think that was even possible but here we are.
    Thank you

    • @austinmcconnell
      @austinmcconnell  2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Thanks, man. This comment made my day.

  • @captaingymshorts
    @captaingymshorts 2 ปีที่แล้ว +133

    Guess I'll be (one of) the first to point this out here:
    Jean Shepherd is also the inspiration of AND narrator of A Christmas Story

    • @briggy4359
      @briggy4359 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      You own a doghouse.

    • @cashwarior
      @cashwarior 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Oh that's super cool actually :o

    • @geoffreyexcellent4199
      @geoffreyexcellent4199 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@briggy4359 he MUST be a professor of logic at the university of science

    • @EricHeidenAuthor
      @EricHeidenAuthor 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I thought the name and voice sounded familiar. Now I know why.

    • @vigilantcosmicpenguin8721
      @vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Fun fact: A Christmas Story never actually existed. Everyone just started saying it's a movie but it's not real.

  • @matthewstrakna1537
    @matthewstrakna1537 2 ปีที่แล้ว +107

    When people think of pranks, usually they envision teenagers making prank calls, throwing toilet paper on someone's house, or dressing up in scary costumes to terrify children on Halloween.
    But those pranks are shallow, hollow, and have no point other than to amuse the prankster. The I, Libertine prank, however, was for a purpose: to expose supposedly knowledgable critics and experts as frauds, to pull back the curtain and reveal the literary wizards of oz as the fraud they were. And it WORKED. Beautifully.

    • @MissPopuri
      @MissPopuri ปีที่แล้ว +2

      The con artists who would make petty crimes like tp on a roof or graffiti on walls is small timers compared to the real Merlins of deviancy.

  • @stillbuyvhs
    @stillbuyvhs 2 ปีที่แล้ว +208

    Heard of this before, on Wikipedia, but it's a great story, & hearing the actual radio broadcasts is cool. Unless you made those up for the video? I don't want to fall into the same trap as the folks who said they read "I, Libertine."
    I like to give folks the benefit of the doubt tho; perhaps some were simply mistaken? Perhaps they mixed up the plot, title, & author's name with another work?

    • @doubtful_seer
      @doubtful_seer 2 ปีที่แล้ว +34

      Yeah, I can think of a book or two that could definitely get confused with a book with that title.

    • @simcity4111
      @simcity4111 2 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      (It’s the real radio, if you look up on TH-cam you can se bigger parts of the program)

    • @patrickreilly478
      @patrickreilly478 2 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      I'm willing to believe that, at the least, The Village Voice was likely a reviewer/journalist having some fun getting in on the fake trend knowingly.

    • @safe-keeper1042
      @safe-keeper1042 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      The Mandela effect is a real phenomenon, so yes, I can definitely see that happening with some people.

    • @CHloE748
      @CHloE748 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      No, they were just full of BS

  • @Engineer_Who
    @Engineer_Who 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    Does Shepard's voice sound familiar to you? You probably know him best as the narrator of _A Christmas Story!_
    He also wrote the book the movie is based on, and he cameos as the man who tells Ralphie to go to the back of the line to see Santa.

  • @meowertwelve
    @meowertwelve 2 ปีที่แล้ว +338

    Even with the internet, this could still work today. People believe anything, with or without proof.

    • @ROBYNMARKOW
      @ROBYNMARKOW 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Going by all the Maga-ists in this country , v. true..🙄

    • @isaacholzwarth
      @isaacholzwarth 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      @@ROBYNMARKOW this comment is ironic to me.

    • @ROBYNMARKOW
      @ROBYNMARKOW 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      @@isaacholzwarth Imo, it's not just ironic, it's scary...

    • @nonameless2
      @nonameless2 2 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      Yeah, just bc we have better technology & tools for spreading information doesn't mean we're any better at using them

    • @GummyDinosaursify
      @GummyDinosaursify 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      I'm having flashbacks to that facebook post that went around a few years back that said you could charge your phone by microwaving it.

  • @powellmountainmike8853
    @powellmountainmike8853 2 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    I knew about I Libertine. I was a big Shep fan. As a kid I listened to his radio broadcast every weeknight, and to the Saturday night shows from the Limelight Club in Greenwich Village when he did those. I also read all his books. He was a brilliant writer of humorous short stories, compilations of the stories he told on the radio each night. He also wrote several screen plays which were made into movies. The most famous of these is A Christmas Story, about the kid with the Red Rider BB gun. That movie is a compilation of stories he had told over the years on his radio show. He also had a TV show on PBS called Jean Shepherd's America. He was probably the greatest humorist of his age, not comedian, HUMORIST, in the tradition of Samuel Clemens. We have not seen his like nor equal since.

    • @kinrateia
      @kinrateia ปีที่แล้ว

      How old are you? :0

    • @powellmountainmike8853
      @powellmountainmike8853 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@kinrateia 70, I was born in the waning days of the Truman administration.

  • @orangemoustash
    @orangemoustash 2 ปีที่แล้ว +70

    I'll be honest about halfway through I needed to google to find other sources to see if this was true or some high-level meta joke just like I, Libertine. It seems to either be real or very, very, thorough and an incredibly long con.

    • @safe-keeper1042
      @safe-keeper1042 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      That was my first thought, too. Would've been an ingenious critical thinking exercise.

    • @teenygozer
      @teenygozer 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I've been a fan since I was a kid in the early 70s and I own a copy that I bought on eBay many years ago. I used to listen to his nightly radio show and went to see him talk at a bookstore when he was debuting In God We Trust. In retrospect, I was a very weird girl!

  • @Robin0928
    @Robin0928 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

    This is 100% how I feel about half of the popular Netflix Shows where I hear how amazing they are and I feel like I've never heard of it before

    • @ELTABULLO
      @ELTABULLO ปีที่แล้ว

      Specially when Netflix "organically" pretends they have a scary movie that is in fact so scary most people never finish it

  • @heatherthedutch-american1481
    @heatherthedutch-american1481 2 ปีที่แล้ว +136

    I love this! I was literally laughing out loud. The times haven't changed there goes the king with no clothes.

  • @eduardorickrot4763
    @eduardorickrot4763 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Something similar happened to me, of course in a much smaller scale.
    When I was in the first month of my first actual job, as a lab technician at a pharmaceutical company, one colleague tried something like this to see what I would say. He was explaining part a of a methodology to me and said something like "and so the the solute simply goes from one of the liquid phase to the other, according to Hudson's Law". And I was like, hmm, ok. He looked at me and said, "What, you know Hudson's Law, right?", and I told him no. He started saying what a tragedy that so fresh out of school I had already forgotten such an elementary principle, how those new technicians seem to be getting worse and I just said I did not remember and said I would look it up then and he started laughing "Oh, glad you didn't fall for it. Sounds like it could be real though, doesn't it?".

  • @catntmeows
    @catntmeows 2 ปีที่แล้ว +82

    I never imagined old radio to be THIS interesting 😂

    • @catntmeows
      @catntmeows 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @David Nash be- because 😭
      Leave me alone David Nash

    • @KinVao
      @KinVao 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Wonder if there were other old radio shenanigans.
      Also, I love your username.

    • @catntmeows
      @catntmeows 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Stevie-J Forgive me if I've offended you somehow. I never 'Expected' it to be this funny means I have never found any other source to get these information easily before. It directly means that I am too uninformed about past.
      Also I'm Indian and have never left my country ever. All the information I get are sourced from internet. I'll try to explore and learn more ❤️

    • @worldcomicsreview354
      @worldcomicsreview354 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Radio at it's height probably had bigger cultural penetration than any other medium has before or since. You didn't just have it at home, you had it in the car and at work! Couldn't do that with TV and certainly not with the internet (though some people do try to surf and drive)

  • @barnabascee1889
    @barnabascee1889 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    Three thoughts: 1. This is a common phenomenon now. It's not always about books. I see it all the time when people discuss technology they don't understand. 2. It all reminds me of the premise of the movie "F for Fake" which literally seems to teach the lesson that everybody is faking it all the time and that the only way to be taken seriously in any field is to (internally) come to terms with that fact and own it. 3. I knew a college kid who turned in a Bach 2 part invention for a music counterpoint class that he only transcribed into another key and then called it his own. The teacher commenting that he was improving and gave him a B+.

  • @lamarhenderson8058
    @lamarhenderson8058 2 ปีที่แล้ว +62

    "Nobody cares about a movie until it gets an Oscar nod." Especially when the Oscars are Emmies.

    • @markm8188
      @markm8188 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      It was a double-troll.

  • @princegoatcheese9379
    @princegoatcheese9379 2 ปีที่แล้ว +193

    "Nobody cares about a movie until it gets an Oscar nod". So true, I remember the debacle over Parasyte winning against Joker, it was funny seeing a bunch of people lose their minds over something so small. I'm also glad a foreign film got the recognition it deserved.

    • @columbus8myhw
      @columbus8myhw 2 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      Parasite (the South Korean movie), not Parasyte (the Japanese comic and animated TV series), surely?
      (For what it's worth, Parasite was very good in my opinion. I haven't seen Joker.)

    • @princegoatcheese9379
      @princegoatcheese9379 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@columbus8myhw Yes, it's the Korean film not the anime/manga. Spelling mistake on my part.

    • @shoopoop21
      @shoopoop21 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@princegoatcheese9379 not everybody likes movies that encourage class warfare, but the geriatrics at the oscars sure do. Don't kid yourself, if the message of that movie had been different, you wouldn't have given a shit, and neither would the oscars, because they are by definition this sort of list maker.

    • @reddytoplay9188
      @reddytoplay9188 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      While it is small having an award especially the Oscars is kinda like getting the recognition it deserves. Even though the reality is that the Oscars is just bad now but an Oscars awards dying reputation is still strong enough to make people see it as "important". Joker is a film brought societal problems that scared companies to the point that they wanted it to fail. Compare that to parasite(which from what I heard is a great film) which is just another class warfare which has been done to death but except parasite does it right making it on a whole other level than trash dramas(my country Philippines has had so many class warfare dramas).
      Although it was obvious Joker was never going to be picked.

    • @ohauss
      @ohauss ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@shoopoop21 Because Joker wasn't about "class warfare", huh?

  • @brianbitner
    @brianbitner 2 ปีที่แล้ว +42

    Jean Shepherd was just taking out his lingering frustration from how difficult it was for him to get that Red Ryder gun as a kid.

  • @oisinmckenna1054
    @oisinmckenna1054 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    The winds of winter is a fantastic book, 10/10 the part where Jon grew dragon wings was superb.

  • @luckykennedy7364
    @luckykennedy7364 2 ปีที่แล้ว +158

    I can’t wait till you cover the Beatles being Klaatu myth from the mid to late 70s…it’s pretty funny

    • @smurfyx
      @smurfyx 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      My dad is still convinced it was a Beatles record.

    • @marcorinothezeroth3795
      @marcorinothezeroth3795 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@smurfyx I talked to the former Klaatu members Dee Long and Terry Draper about it, they confirmed it wasn't them. But, you can tell your dad that Dee Long actually worked together with George Martin and used equipment similar to the one of the Beatles after Klaatu disbanded. Dee actually met and talked to Paul McCartney after Paul learned about the Klaatu rumor.

    • @luckykennedy7364
      @luckykennedy7364 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@marcorinothezeroth3795 The bandit some really good shit though… their second album is a goddamn classic and I swear it should be played on the radio now it deserves that status

    • @marcorinothezeroth3795
      @marcorinothezeroth3795 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@luckykennedy7364 I agree. Hope is one of the best albums ever. And I actually played some of their songs on radio. As a matter of fact, the first thing I have ever done for radio was a feature where I talked about the Klaatu myth.

    • @hasanalharaz7454
      @hasanalharaz7454 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@luckykennedy7364 being on the radio isnt really a high honor these days lol

  • @onbearfeet
    @onbearfeet 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    I rewatch this video every so often, and I have just been siezed by a burning desire to see a video by you on either Naked Came the Stranger or Atlanta Nights. Or both. They're both glorious literary hoaxes, and they tie together well enough to make a single video.

  • @MrTDWfan
    @MrTDWfan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +155

    Plot twist: this never happened, and Austin made up a story about someone making up a story to see how many people would be fooled by a up front admission of forgery.
    For real though, great video

    • @jacobhargiss3839
      @jacobhargiss3839 2 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      I hate how this could so easily be possible.

    • @smbcollector
      @smbcollector 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Dang, someone already thought of this comment idea! You beat me to it, haha

    • @SamnissArandeen
      @SamnissArandeen 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      That's why my first thing after the video was to immediately Google it, and get two separate sources verifying the story's veracity.

    • @mercster
      @mercster 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      I would absolutely love it if people just simply looked up the story instead of pretending to know some guy "Austin" and that's the only thing you got out of this video. You dope.

  • @jstarstudios7110
    @jstarstudios7110 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I am so glad we've been Goncharov ing for so much of history

  • @jooghoo3983
    @jooghoo3983 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

    It's crazy how you could've easily gotten away with this stuff when internet wasn't around.

    • @aidengray3998
      @aidengray3998 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      You can still do it.

    • @jooghoo3983
      @jooghoo3983 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@@aidengray3998 True, but definitely not as easily.

    • @powderslinger5968
      @powderslinger5968 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@jooghoo3983 Much easier now.

  • @bernardkung7306
    @bernardkung7306 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Just over a dozen years later, (ie. in 1969) two dozen writers got together to write a deliberately and assiduously worthless book ("a sexually explicit novel with no literary or social value whatsoever"), and get it published, to see if they could get it promoted as great modern literature, to demonstrate the superficiality of the literary scene.
    This book, _Naked Came The Stranger_ , supposedly by one Penelope Ashe, quickly became a _bona fide_ Best Seller on the lists. Finally, the authors revealed it was a deliberate hoax -- at which point sales actually increased.

  • @entropias_gonos
    @entropias_gonos 2 ปีที่แล้ว +36

    Oh yes. I played Cuberpunk 2077 in the span of 2 days, and, let me tell you, magnificent game, no bugs, simply must be experienced to be appreciated!

    • @cyberneticbutterfly8506
      @cyberneticbutterfly8506 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      And if you do x y and z in Zelda: Ocarina of time, then you can unlock a secret sky castle level.
      (10 year old me in 1995 spent a month printing and trying these fake game secrets before realizing it was a fraud)

    • @iwannaseehowlongyoucanmakethis
      @iwannaseehowlongyoucanmakethis 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      there's the yoshi in pokemon hoax. they deliberately made getting him so hard so that no one actually prove it. if i recall, it involves having both pokemon red and blue, both games completed with either one or both of them needs to have pokedex completed. You then need to level up a dragonite to 100 in the mewtwo chamber in cerulean cave.

    • @JPLangley_
      @JPLangley_ 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      I’ve been playing a whole lotta Splitgate. Gotta say, game of the year material. The game is so bizarrely shit in everything in both presentation and gameplay that I’m blown away by how beautiful the graphics are. I really feel this game will define the decade with how memorable it is. Speaking of which, I forgot I was writing about Splitgate halfway through.

    • @youtubeuniversity3638
      @youtubeuniversity3638 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      ...I think somebody actually made a Cuberpunk 2077 parody game though.

  • @chibiktsn3
    @chibiktsn3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    This reminds me of all the phonies who act like they've seen my favorite movie, Goncharov, by the great Martin Scorsese.

  • @mxstrikk
    @mxstrikk 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    Welp, I know what I'm doing my next informative presentation on...

  • @kennyhogg5820
    @kennyhogg5820 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    I found out some best sellers and classics are just a product of commercializing them. You get the right people to promote your book and it rises to the top. Some of them just started out as dime store paperbacks, and now are taught in classes, while other just as good novels fade into history.

  • @crusadr_4966
    @crusadr_4966 2 ปีที่แล้ว +92

    I always love a good story of mass scale trolling. Thanks for sharing this amazing story lmfao.
    I find it amazing how many people can "improv" given almost 0 to no information at all.

    • @BuiltatBlackjacks
      @BuiltatBlackjacks 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Not so amazing, it's,basically an essential life skill these days.

  • @lonelysheepling
    @lonelysheepling ปีที่แล้ว +2

    When the Goncharov thing was going around I remembered this video and wrote a media analysis paper for my comm class on Goncharov and Katya. I got an A and I’m very glad to have contributed to the modern successor to I, Libertine

  • @1.4142
    @1.4142 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Plot twist: None of this happened and Austin is just testing if any of us do research to double check.

  • @ScottyDunn
    @ScottyDunn 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    It's a pleasure to hear about Jean Shepherd. I only knew of him from A Christmas Story and A Summer Story before this.

  • @PogieJoe
    @PogieJoe 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    Damn this gentleman called out how we interreact with the overstimulation of media made in the present seventy years ago!

  • @JustLukeMorgan
    @JustLukeMorgan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I'd love to see a modern-day equivalent. Do you think you could do something? Capitalise on this idea?

  • @thatsallreviews
    @thatsallreviews 2 ปีที่แล้ว +41

    I clicked so fast, my fingers are on fire.

    • @anthonydavis5288
      @anthonydavis5288 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      I hope in the 9 minutes that it's been you have been able to put your fingers out

    • @thatsallreviews
      @thatsallreviews 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@anthonydavis5288 Had to be taken to hospice, video is good though

    • @anthonydavis5288
      @anthonydavis5288 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@thatsallreviews Yeah I enjoyed the Video too. I was going to say I've already read "I, Libertine" as a joke but come to find out it is real. 😂

  • @waterann9449
    @waterann9449 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    This whole story about a fake story is great, but an even better real story is Goncharov by Martin Scorsese!

  • @RTDelete
    @RTDelete 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    Stuff like this is so cool, exposing frauds live will always be awesome

  • @delusionnnnn
    @delusionnnnn 2 ปีที่แล้ว +64

    "Pilgrim's Progress" had an incredible amount of sales for a book which was, at the time, considered pretty ponderous and by today's standards, is dreadfully unreadable to most people. In the 17th and 18th century, it was more important to own a copy than to have read it. Even the faithful would have problems with narratives about characters who are literally named after their attributes.

    • @Seth9809
      @Seth9809 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Why was it important to read it.

    • @delusionnnnn
      @delusionnnnn 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      @@Seth9809 It wasn't. It was important to have it in one's home as a display of Puritan piety. These days, it's kind of like having a Bible in the house, since nobody reads that, but on the mantle, where everyone knows you have it.

    • @delusionnnnn
      @delusionnnnn 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@qemdrive I have a lot and read, but I can feel my attention span slipping. I think we just need to print out our forums and print out empty boxes of the audiobooks we listen to so we don't have that nagging voice.

    • @sharpduds
      @sharpduds 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@Seth9809 I actually read and analyzed it in middle school(?), and it's basically a fable, a fictionalization of Protastant theology of that time, kind of like Kierkegaard's parable of the writing desk from Either/Or. It's not that bad, pretty good if you read it as a hyper-stylized hero's journey fantasy novel

    • @ostrich67
      @ostrich67 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@sharpduds Bullshit! 😆

  • @Fragolux
    @Fragolux 2 ปีที่แล้ว +34

    I sort of did this in high school psychology. Part of my finals was to write an essay, so on the spot I threw together a bunch of gobbledygook packed with buzzwords and vague references to Buddhism and the Bhagavad Gita and hoped for the best. My teacher gave my an A and wrote that I was "well thought."

    • @ashleyhathaway8548
      @ashleyhathaway8548 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      I hoped you thanked your bodhisattva.

    • @matthewstrakna1537
      @matthewstrakna1537 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I did something similar for a Biology paper. I was doing an experiment involving birds reacting to stimuli, and I realized that I couldn't get the data that I needed to with my chosen method, so I did the experiment in a completely different way that still produced the needed data points. I got an A

    • @MissPopuri
      @MissPopuri ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I got a full ride scholarship to college from an essay contest using that approach. 😂

  • @efjayadi
    @efjayadi 2 ปีที่แล้ว +82

    "President is gonna mention that he loves this book"
    The President : fyuh~

    • @Nesto_
      @Nesto_ 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Haiya

    • @alikirb
      @alikirb 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      what

    • @JaysonT1
      @JaysonT1 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@alikirb What what

    • @alikirb
      @alikirb 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@JaysonT1 what what what

    • @staceixan
      @staceixan 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@alikirb what what what what

  • @LezbeOswald
    @LezbeOswald ปีที่แล้ว +2

    i wanna give slight defense to a couple groups of people mentioned in the hoax:
    professors grading papers about the book-believe it or not, professors don't have time to fact check every single source you cite in your literary analysis, and most of the time, they're just looking to make sure your analysis makes sense and that you've provided good defenses for it. it's not about making sure you actually read a book or not (some of the time, obviously others will make you analyze a specific book) it's about making sure students actually demonstrate that they can think critically and draw their own conclusions. in grad school i wrote a paper about a reality show and one about an anime and i know my professor didn't watch either of them, he just focused on whether or not i understood the concepts we studied in class and could apply them to a piece of media of my choosing.
    librarians who created cards for the book/author: if you're getting lots of requests from the book, even if you can't track it down, you might make at the very least a temporary card so it's on record, especially if you did contact the publisher or a bookseller and they lied and told you they ordered it. and double especially in the 1950s when you coudn't fact check the book's existence easily.

  • @TaranVH
    @TaranVH 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    Hey, Austin! Nice video, very entertaining.
    Make a video about olestra, the no-calorie fat substitute that gave everyone, uh, "loose stool." It worked too well.

  • @skrrskrr
    @skrrskrr 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Stories like these are why I'm here. I would probably never have heard of this, and I almost find that tragic. This is such a fantastic story that I feel deserves so much more attention.
    Cheers.

  • @celebalert5616
    @celebalert5616 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Pretty sure this is Squid Game. I mean, I never seen it so ... 💁‍♂️ people are really claiming they watched some Korean show now and all they'll say is its 'crazy' hmmmm

  • @waterlicker8635
    @waterlicker8635 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    The man is a Chad, if I fell for someone who supposedly “read” the novel(before the actual book was made), I wouldn’t be mad

  • @ScottHebert604
    @ScottHebert604 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    This is kind of like that time that Austin McConnell guy pretended to have a phony workshop so he could create a TH-cam video everyone would talk about 🤣

  • @ZyxthePest
    @ZyxthePest 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    "AND WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS, LITTLE BOY?!"
    "I WANT NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER AND CRITICAL SMASH I, LIBERTINE BY FREDERICK R. EWING"
    "...you'll ruin your reputation kid...HO HO HO!!!!!!!!"

  • @comradewindowsill4253
    @comradewindowsill4253 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    This sounds like if Goncharov got the Waffle House treatment.

  • @MissBeeBonnet
    @MissBeeBonnet ปีที่แล้ว +3

    “I, Libertine” walked so “Goncharov” could run

  • @paulkim6631
    @paulkim6631 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Such an interesting phenomenon. It's like that TH-cam channel that created a five-star restaurant that doesn't exist
    Edit: It was actually a Vice journalist.

  • @CSLucasEpic
    @CSLucasEpic 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Okay, now why do people keep talking about the 1938 panic over the broadcast of War of the World, but nobody talks about this? This is brilliant!

  • @OntheOtherHandVideos
    @OntheOtherHandVideos 2 ปีที่แล้ว +35

    1956 Fact Checkers: "Is "I, Libertine" the best book you could read?" - "Fact Check Mostly True"

  • @BlueCometDude
    @BlueCometDude ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I, Libertine’s the greatest shitpost of the 1950s

  • @fossposs6408
    @fossposs6408 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    this kinda sounds like a larger scale version of "no soap radio" lmao

  • @cupofdirtfordinner
    @cupofdirtfordinner 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    If someone in 1954 new York asked me about I, libertine I would love to start spouting absurdist bullshit just to see how far it can go. "It's commentary on catholicism was fascinating, and my favorite part was when the main characters wife woke up in a ditch covered in mice"

  • @thisrandomdude_
    @thisrandomdude_ 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    This is one of your most entertaining videos ever, hahaha
    Splendid job, I can't stop grinning at the absurdity of the whole thing :D

  • @RoyalKnightVIII
    @RoyalKnightVIII ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Please Ewing's Goncharov is way better

  • @furonguy42
    @furonguy42 2 ปีที่แล้ว +27

    "Maybe the most important question: what are the I, Libertines everyone's reading today?"
    I wouldn't know anything about that, but I loved that lost media 50s B-Movie that was recently rediscovered, I think it's called "Invasion of the Mutant Hiccup Monsters From Outer Space". It's such a shame is was lost media for so long, totally for real of course, don't look it up, just spread the word ;-)

    • @TryinaD
      @TryinaD 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      This reminded me of Go for a Punch, lol

    • @eloiskret6074
      @eloiskret6074 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I have been trying to remember the name of that movie for so long but just to confirm. It is the movie about a mutant virus from outer space whose symptoms manifest as hiccups and eventually take over the host, right?

    • @bobofthekerbals9797
      @bobofthekerbals9797 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@eloiskret6074 yes and something about a nuclear powered space barge had something to do with it

    • @colin3ds1
      @colin3ds1 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Lost media is kind of like the direct opposite of I libertine

  • @idk-xs5nz
    @idk-xs5nz ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Oh, so this is what the hit film Goncharov was inspired by! I noticed some really cool references in the film.

  • @TJ-bu9zk
    @TJ-bu9zk 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    When people say "thats just a conspiracy theory! Do you how many people need to be in on it for it to be true?" Only a very small number... the rest just need to be complicit in perpetuating it.

  • @homelessperson5455
    @homelessperson5455 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I've already resigned to the fact I'm not in Uni for an education. I'm here for a clout scroll that impresses people into paying me more.

  • @AwSamWeston
    @AwSamWeston 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Okay, this story DESERVES to be a movie. There's so much you could apply to our modern-day discourse!

  • @ericveneto1593
    @ericveneto1593 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Frederick Ewing should have just enjoyed his Ovaltine.

  • @thelastdictator482
    @thelastdictator482 2 ปีที่แล้ว +37

    There was a period in my late teens/early twenties when people were discovering the movie version of 'Naked Lunch' (by then about 10 years old). I don't know if it had a DVD release or what, but it seemed everyone was suddenly aware of Naked Lunch, but claiming that they had read it instead of watched the film interpretation. A friend and I had somehow managed to drag ourselves through the book, and liked to ask these people what their favorite part was. We didn't usually call them out directly, so much as respond that our favorite parts were the most graphic and disgusting moments of the book. If you aren't aware, the movie is more of a meta take on the writing of the novel than any direct relation to the book and as such is more a heavy PG13 compared to the novel's

    • @stephenolan5539
      @stephenolan5539 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Is it possible to read the entire book without being a heroin addict. I think I only got about halfway through.

    • @thelastdictator482
      @thelastdictator482 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@stephenolan5539 It helped that I was a f'ed up teen with an even more f'ed up friend to goad each other along. There are bits in the book that managed to pierce even the idiotacy of teen boyhood though

    • @MissPopuri
      @MissPopuri ปีที่แล้ว

      I’ve only heard about Naked Lunch from Perks of being a Wallflower. That is truly funny if the premise of the movie is a meta on the books.

  • @slappy8941
    @slappy8941 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    This reminds me of a story I read about a con artist, I believe it was in the late 19th or early 20th century, who paid a bunch of people to spread the buzz about a fictional man who owned a fictional company that was really doing great things and returning great profits for investors, and then one day he showed up in town and began to casually go about his business of staying in the best hotel and eating at the finest restaurants and just doing all the things that successful people would normally do, and introducing himself as one normally would, and as it turned out, he was already known in town and there was much buzz about his business. Many people had heard so much about him and his wild success that they wanted to know him and get in on his various endeavors, so it was not difficult to start fleecing them immediately. A big part of his trick was that he didn't want to talk about business, and people would have to press him to divulge his affairs, and then they would virtually beg to be allowed to invest with him. He was always hesitant to take their money, and of course this only gave him more credibility in their eyes. he made no promises, and actually warned people that investments could be risky, to which they would reply that there is no reward without risk, and so they would walk right into his trap with their eyes wide open along with their checkbook. Of course the more cryptic he was about his investments, the more sure people were that they were in on a good thing, and so very few people would follow up with him to seek further information, but simply trust that this mysterious stranger was going to make them filthy rich. Being so cryptic, it was hardly a surprise to anyone when he disappeared. They rationalized that a man of such subtle sensibilities would naturally keep his affairs rather secret, in order to avoid competitors finding out too much about him. So he was long gone by the time anyone began to suspect that they had been conned, but most people who had given him their money didn't want to make it publicly known that they had fallen for his scam, so the whole thing was kept fairly quiet out of fear of embarrassment to the investors. It was only a few people at first who began to ask questions, but eventually the story was picked up by a newspaper reporter, who speculated that the man had run off to Australia or some such place, never to be seen again. To the best of my memory, that was the case, and the best information anyone could give about him was the name that he went by and his general description, but other than that nothing was known.

  • @macaronisex
    @macaronisex ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Ancestral Goncharov

  • @tremorsfan
    @tremorsfan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    It kind of reminds me of The Princess Bride. I remember wishing I could find a copy of the unabridged book.

  • @jonzfriend
    @jonzfriend 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Absolutely hysterical. As my friend's niece used to say, "It's real enough to pretend," and that's enough to convince people that the thing is LEGITIMATE. I love the people arguing over the book's merits or failures, the author or its historical accuracy, all the while never acknowledging that it DOESN'T EXIST. I'm reminded of the argument in "Stand By Me" over Superman and Mighty Mouse. Did someone do a review with "excerpts", and if so, where the hell did they get them?

  • @AJxxxxxxxx
    @AJxxxxxxxx ปีที่แล้ว +2

    😂 Holly fuck, he trolled the world and all the “intellectuals” fell for it