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Pick the Next Extra History Short! "Best Pranks in History" OPEN until 9/30
🕑 Added 2025-09-23 18:59:01 +0000 UTC
It's time for our Extra History poll! Where you get to vote on what our next "Extra History Short" is about!
These four topics were selected from our "Best Pranks in History" Patreon Suggestions and are listed in no particular order below.
Caligula the Prankster
In addition to being a cruel sociopath (or perhaps because of it) Emperor Caligula did like his pranks. From causing a ruckus at the theater, to hyping up a gladiator fight only to release elderly fighters and slow animals, to sending a soldier on a pointless mission to a distant kingdom, he was...an interesting guy.
The Mechanical Turk
In 1770, an inventor presented Empress Maria Theresa of Austria with a wonder—a mechanical man sitting at a table, dressed like a Turkish man. The Turk could play chess, and over the next 80 years played (and beat) famous figures ranging from Napoleon to Benjamin Franklin. Edgar Allan Poe saw the contraption, and was sure it was a hoax. He was right—a chess master sat inside the box the chess board sat on, controlling the Turk through levers and magnets.
Florence's Freaky Friday
Renowned architect Filippo Brunelleschi (designer of Florence Cathedral's dome) got extremely mad at his friend il Grasso in 1409. Apparently the rest of Florence was pretty mad at him too, because Brunelleschi somehow managed to convince a huge amount of the city—including friends and family—to pretend for a full day that il Grasso had switched bodies with another man named Matteo. This involved changing the locks to lock il Grasso out of his own house, getting Matteo's family to treat il Grasso like their brother, and various other elaborate schemes.
The Berners Street Hoax
In 1810, writer Theodore Hook made a bet with his friends that he could make an unremarkable address the most talked-about in London. To do it, he spent months writing up to four-thousand letters to newspapers, businesses, and prominent citizens, all telling them to come to the address at various times on November 27th. On the day, Hook and his friends watched from across the street as Number 54 Berners Street descended into madness as chimney sweeps, maids inquiring about a job, cake-deliverers, principles of the Bank of England, a coffin-deliverer and tradesmen of all types besieged the address for hours.
Our Current Shorts Schedule is:
Joseph Kennedy -> Alien TV Hijack -> Alois Hitler -> Your Vote!
Our Current Series Schedule is:
A History of Mass Deportation -> Alexander the Great's Egypt: The Ptolemies -> The Historical Tyrants Anthology
***Friendly reminder: The poll will end at 11:59 PM PT on Tuesday, September 30th. You can vote for as many choices as you want! This style of voting helps us see what people are most interested in without having to make tough decisions between a couple of close favorites. ***
Comments
TheShiteLord
A whole city coming together to gaslight a man. Wild.
Miy Eterp
Ok
