Art of the Prank

I have dedicated my life,

my entire life, since being a boy to now,

to being an artist,

and to do so in a way that was, to me, self-righteous.

I want the world to be the way that I envision it.

And that means that the world is full of conflicts,

and so am I.

I'm in conflict with everything out there that pisses me off,

that upsets me, that's, you know, not--

that's not just, that's not right.

- A speedy trial in front of a jury of peers,

it's one of our Constitutional rights.

But there are those that think the Sixth Amendment

ought to be amended to include trial by mainframe.

- When jurors found OJ Simpson not guilty,

more than a difference of opinion separated them

from New York computer scientist Joseph Bonuso.

- We found OJ guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

He was guilty of murder.

- As designed, the Solomon Project

at the New York University Law School

is supposed to take the jury out of jurisprudence,

casting all trials to the impartiality

of artificial intelligence.

Testimony, evidence, and precedence

were entered into the computer,

and a complicated formula using fuzzy logic

helped render a verdict.

- A jury is a manipulated group of puppets.

- As a prankster, I always have my guard up in general,

especially when I hear Joey's name.

- You run... - A brothel for dogs.

A brothel for dogs.

How would you feel

if you had covered Joey Skaggs' Cathouse for Dogs?

Would you welcome the inventor

of the fish tank condo, Joey Skaggs.

- Joey Skaggs, he's fooled every major American network

with his elaborate hoaxes.

Print this guy, Mike.

I want to make sure we never see him again under any other name.

- How do we even know that you are Joey Skaggs?

How do we even know what you're saying

about these media outlets is true?

- Any journalist who falls for a Joey Skaggs prank is...

it's their own fault.

- He thinks that cockroaches are very important to all of us.

- A cockroach hormone pill to cure everything.

Cockroach Cure.

Now, would you read that article?

- It's because they didn't look closely.

They didn't fact-check.

They didn't make that call to verify something.

- My parents were missionaries in Kenya.

- Would you ever believe all the things

you see on television?

Hoaxes performed before your very eyes.

- Don't you feel bad when you do it?

I feel very good.

- I was pissed off at Joey for a period of time.

But I decided to forgive him,

because Joey does what I really love,

and that is, he makes you laugh,

and when he makes you laugh, he makes you think.

- Well, about a month ago we told you about a man

who came up with a way to render verdicts

without all the arguing in the jury room.

But he didn't say anything about being embarrassed,

which is what CNN is right now.

- We've learned his invention was all a big hoax,

and we fell for it.

Wow, that thing on TV news

that we were all talking about wasn't true.

- I remember being kind of scared.

Like, oh, my God, we've been found out.

And Joey's like, "No, this is all part of it.

"It's all part of it, because they have to find out.

That's the other part."

- I can't put that on the back of a tricycle.

There's just no way.

So I'm gonna stick with the missile.

The missile it is.

First, I'd get it extended.

Making sure that it was supported.

And then I would, like you said,

a pipe with a flange.

We have Iran, you know, still playing games.

North Korea still playing games.

You have surveillance drones.

You have Russia being very upset with what's going on with NATO,

with moving missiles to their borders.

There are just so many issues that this relates to, and it's--

- You know what, though? - And it's satire.

I mean, it's a mobile rocket launcher.

- The thing is, you know, something may just,

in the next six weeks, happen.

Yeah.

- And, it's just gonna need to be ready.

What color do we paint it?

We have the North Korean flag on it,

the Iranian flag on it?

If I had a robe, I can be an Arab.

I like to mix it up.

It doesn't have to always be a hoax.

It can be a direct theatrical piece

which is a political statement or a confrontation.

I just love the fact

that here I am in the middle of rural America

with people who, you know, you wonder

whether they would agree with your political stance or not,

but they're willing to do it.

The rocket's the rocket.

That'll be a great visual,

peddling down the streets of New York.

Or wherever.

Jon.

Well, you're not gonna believe this.

I just came back with Judy from seeing Sacha Baron Cohen,

Cohen's film, "The Dictator."

And, yeah, so he's got a missile in it, you know?

And he's paying homage to North Korea,

and, you know, he's an Arab building a missile, you know.

It's like, oh, fuck, man.

You know?

But he didn't have it on the back of a tricycle.

So we'll stick with the rocket.

And we'll just have the mobile rocket launcher, and that's it.

And I just have to...

I may not dress up like an Arab,

as I thought I might.

Or as a North Korean, as I thought I might.

Maybe I should go as Uncle Sam.

I don't know, I don't know.

It's not the same thing, but...

you know, he's got it covered kind of.

Rethink this one.

You got to be first.

Not always easy.

Look, life throws you a lot of curveballs.

You have to be prepared for it.

You have to go with the flow.

There's, you know--you don't have a lot of choices.

And what happened with me was, my father had dementia.

He was bedridden for nine years.

My mother was incapable of living alone

and taking care of herself.

I said that, you know, when she needed me,

I would be here full-time.

And she needed me.

So I had to give up Hawaii and New York.

- Right after my husband died, he came from Hawaii,

and it was a big change for him.

And I'm not gonna say what he calls this place,

but it's not been his greatest move,

because he doesn't have access

to the things that he's used to.

- It's a tricycle, it's a three-wheeler.

And on the back of the three-wheeler,

there's a platform that's gonna hold the confessional booth.

Whoa.

I've got some crucifixes.

- From FOX 5, this is Election '92.

Good evening, I'm Jack Cafferty at Madison Square Garden.

Cora Ann will join us shortly from the studio.

Now, if anyone at the convention's feeling guilty

about something they may have done,

they don't have to go far to confess their sins.

A man who calls himself Father William

has mounted a portable confessional booth

on his bicycle.

- For delegates who feel they may have overindulged a bit,

a Catholic priest has set up

a mobile confessional outside Madison Square Garden.

- A Southern California priest has the answer for Catholics

who don't have time to confess.

He calls it Portofess.

- Father Joseph, who is schlepping a Portofess,

a portable confession booth, around by bike.

- Well, I didn't start out as a prankster.

I was a child artist.

I had a passion for art.

I always drew, I painted, I sculpted.

I just knew that I wanted to be an artist.

That was my dream.

- Most children, they don't obey their parents.

They don't want to accept rules and regulations

and come in at a certain time.

He was just a normal child

who just didn't want to do what Mama and Papa said.

- My parents moved to a little area

on the Brooklyn-Queens borderline called Laurel Hill,

by Newtown Creek, a real industrial slum area.

And there was Calvary Cemetery there,

the Kosciuszko Bridge.

And off in the distance was Manhattan.

I was a young artist.

I knew what I wanted to be.

And I wanted to be in Manhattan.

It was a junior-high-school art teacher that told me

about the High School of Art and Design.