Nortje Vol

January 27, 2011 2:16 PM

The Pufedorf Hoax

From Skepdic's commentary, keeping it all in perspective:

Of course, all of the above could be a hoax played on me by Søren Vilsen and Claus Larsen. Vilsen, or someone claiming to be Vilsen, e-mailed me about the hoax and gave me the link to Claus Larsen's website. I don't read Danish, so I have no idea what is on the Pufedorf.dk website. I also heard from someone claiming to be Peter Wendelboe, who offered more information and some advice on an error I had posted in the first version of this entry. Or, perhaps I am hoaxing the reader. Maybe I am Peter Wendelboe and I invented Vilsen and created a mock Skeptic Report website.

I give you my word, however, that I am not a hoaxer.

posted by jtron (16 comments total)

I dunno what to make of this, save to opine that the photo cutlined Photo of Jane Horney in Palestine, 1948. would not make it very far in a Photoshop contest.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:23 PM on January 27, 2011

Pufe dorf, hoax believer.

That was a pretty fascinating read. I had to go through it several times just to get it more or less sorted.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:51 PM on January 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Umberto Eco's gonna love this.
posted by klangklangston at 2:54 PM on January 27, 2011

Nice try "jtron," if that is your real name.
posted by justkevin at 2:59 PM on January 27, 2011

A complicated story is not enhanced by unclear writing.
posted by Bookhouse at 3:49 PM on January 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

Through various other sources, e.g., an Italian by the name of Frode E. Bugie, an Argentinian travel agent, a photographer called Timo Y. Mentiras,...

It appears nobody bothered to translate the photographers last name.
posted by vacapinta at 4:22 PM on January 27, 2011

A complicated story is not enhanced by unclear writing.

I think what you meant to write was "A story that has many elements that are complicated can't be told in a way that is not less clear."
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:31 PM on January 27, 2011 [4 favorites]

It appears nobody bothered to translate the photographers last name.

It's in the link:

“Frode E. Bugie” is Italian for “Fraud and Lies”, “Timo Y. Mentiras” is Spanish for “Scam and Lying”, and “Emmud Terret Tirbelo” spelled backwards says “Ole Britt Are Pretty Stupid” in Danish. If we flip the photo of Jane Horney in Palestine, we discover that the Hebrew-looking text on the box to the left really says “HUMBUG”. Similarly, looking closer at the text on the Congressional medal awarded the two “historians”, we find that it says “A FAKE AND A HUGE ONE”.
posted by Hoopo at 4:51 PM on January 27, 2011

I'm betting the hoax hoax is a hoax; that is, that Ole Hans Jensen, Britt Bartenbach, and Peter Wendelboe are all either fictitious characters or real people co-conspiring.
posted by Pyry at 4:56 PM on January 27, 2011

This part that stands out to me:

And yet, Ole Hans Jensen and Britt Bartenbach....believe firmly that their medal is real, that they are in contact with the real Helle Scheel Jacobsen, and that she is really in charge of security for Al Gore

despite all the evidence that has been presented to them. I'm not sure if the author realizes they might not *really* believe it, but actually have an interest in selling the lie.
posted by Hoopo at 5:04 PM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can anyone actually verify that these authors were on a show on the Danish television channel DR2 on February 26th, 2007, and the Peter Wendelboe was on the following day?
posted by Pyry at 5:23 PM on January 27, 2011

Never mind, found it myself on the dr2 website: http://www.dr.dk/DR2/Den11time/scrapbog/scrap/20070302145356 (link goes to google translated version).

So the shows at least appear to have happened.
posted by Pyry at 5:27 PM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fascinating, thank you.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:17 PM on January 27, 2011

It's a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a boring badly written article I couldn't be bothered to finish.
posted by w0mbat at 8:58 PM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm betting the hoax hoax is a hoax; that is, that Ole Hans Jensen, Britt Bartenbach, and Peter Wendelboe are all either fictitious characters or real people co-conspiring.

Books by Jensen and Bartenbach going back to 1994 are in the Google Books index. Not sure how hard that would be to spoof.
posted by benzenedream at 12:20 AM on January 28, 2011

I have to say that the photo of Wendelboe in that article looks remarkably like my mental image of Hagbard Celine.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 7:03 PM on January 29, 2011