20. Trolling Religious Fundamentalists
The Cardiff Giant was a prank by an atheist named George Hull, who got the idea after a heated debate at a revival meeting about Genesis 6:4, which claimed that giants had once inhabited the earth. Hull bought a ten-foot block of gypsum and commissioned a stonecutter to shape it into the likeness of a man, after swearing him to secrecy. Chemicals were applied to give the carving an aged look, and needles were used to puncture and pit its surface, making it look more weathered.
Hull then shipped it to the farm of his cousin, William Newell, who buried it behind his barn in 1868. A year later, Newell hired workers to dig a well behind the barn, where they came across the buried hoax. Archaeologists, scientists, and other scholars who saw the Cardiff Giant declared it a fraud. However, many theologians and preachers stepped forth and passionately defended its authenticity, and crowds of the curious and faithful kept coming in ever greater numbers.