Hannibal at the gates of Rome
The Carthaginian general and statesman was a very literal person. On one occasion, he heard a popular joke back then, “How many elephants can you fit in the Senate of Rome? As many as the senators can eat” (this was hilarious in 218 BC, believe me), but Hannibal didn’t get it. He felt the urge to find a real answer for that question so he decided to go to Rome and find out for himself.
Joan of Arc
Joan loved to mess with her siblings and she found out that a good way to get away with it was to say that Saint Michael and a bunch of angels told her to do it. Her strategy worked for years thanks to the extreme fear of God of the people back then and her great acting skills. One day, a priest scouting for new religious talents found her and offered to manage her. She became a celebrity and tons of people started to follow her everywhere, even into battle. Sadly, her rise to fame was so fast and overwhelming that she had to retire at a really young age due to burn-out.
The invention of the telephone
Several individuals contributed to the invention of this gadget and one of them was Italian engineer Antonio Meucci. He started working on the device because he loved playing pranks on strangers, but he was not a brave man. He tried writing letters to random people to play those pranks instead, but it was very difficult to make the jokes stick because the process could take weeks or even months. In 1854 he presented his invention and opened one of the first telephone communications with his now famous quote “Hi, is your refrigerator running?”.
President Donald Trump
We are still digesting the consequences of this funny joke that Jimmy Fallon played on the entire world in 2016.
The Spanish Flu
Ildefonso Montoro was invited to dinner by some friends in the fall of 1917. They wanted to play a joke on him so, instead of the chicken everybody else was eating, they served him a large bat they had caught that morning. Good old Ildefonso did not even notice it to the delight of all those present who would remember this hilarious prank for the rest of their lives, that is, for two weeks because the vast majority ended up dying from contracting the disease that they helped to spread themselves.
The Landing of Man on the Moon
Communications with Apollo 11 never worked because the signal was mixed up with that of a group of radio amateurs from Beaumont, Texas, who played along with NASA just for fun. By the time the authorities figured out that they were not talking to real astronauts, the moon landing broadcast had already been announced so they asked Stanley Kubrik to film something to air on TV instead.
Newton’s law of gravitation
The apple that fell on Isaac Newton’s head was no accident, it was a prank set for him by his friends. Unfortunately, at the time there was no way to record this funny moment. Mankind advanced in the field of physics, but we were deprived of a hilarious Instagram Reel.
Voyages of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus thought it would be funny to try to swindle European monarchies with a crazy made up new way of reaching the Indies until he found Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. They were dumb enough to buy the idea, but what he didn’t count on was that they were also absolutely nuts and dead serious about the whole thing. He was forced to start the voyage for real or he would be introduced to the Spanish Inquisition. Christopher never made it to the Indies, but he managed to convince Isabella and Ferdinand that he had thanks to his “innovative marketing skills” (he was a pathological liar), thus becoming the first successful self-made entrepreneur in history.
Kid Rock’s musical career
To be honest, this is not historically relevant. In fact, it has never ceased to be a joke, but I needed one more to reach 10. Let’s move on.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
What started as a bachelor party organized by a group of Bosnian anarchists for their friend Gavrilo Princip, ended up being one of the triggers of World War I. They planned a treasure hunt through the city of Sarajevo, but the use of high caliber firecrackers, excessive alcohol intake, a series of unfortunate coincidences and a bad wording of the clues created a chain reaction that ended with Gavrilo shooting the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne outside a deli.