Sweet Prank

i just generated an image in the style of a Monet painting using AI

please describe, in as much detail as possible, what makes this inferior to a real Monet painting pic.twitter.com/VDJovKOqlz

— 𒐪 (@SHL0MS) May 12, 2026

Have you heard the one about the guy who posted a real Monet on Ecch (Twitter) while stating that it was AI generated?

Going through the comments, it's remarkable how many people called it out as authentic before the proverbial paint was dry. 

A poster wrought some moderate havoc this week when they shared a cropped image of a real Monet painting while claiming it was an AI fake, unleashing a flood of ill-informed reactions and muddled discourse. So, you know, it was just another day online.

“I just generated an image in the style of a Monet painting using AI,” read the original post, published to X-formerly-Twitter yesterday by an anonymous conceptual artist who goes by the pseudonym “SHL0MS.”

“Please describe, in as much detail as possible,” he continued, “what makes this inferior to a real Monet painting.”

Commenters were quick to jump in to explain why, in their view, the alleged AI image was worse than the real work of the French impressionist master. According to one, the image was an “incoherent muddle of inconsistently saturated greens.” Another lamented that there was no “coherent composition,” while someone else shared that the painting seemed “busy, artificial, nature in turmoil, polluted.” Another commenter said that the allegedly AI-generated image seemed as if it was “trying too hard” to resemble Monet’s later paintings, which he created when he was close to blindness. Others shared that the image was “obvious” AI slop.

………

Unfortunately for these many opinion-havers, however, they were the ones who were duped. The Monet was actually real: it’s one of his iconic “Water Lilies” paintings, created around 1915 and currently hung in the Neue Pinakothek museum in Munich, Germany.

This the apotheosis of a good prank.

Clever, but not really cruel. 

Poundy McPoundFFace, Dammit!

The Bank of England is requesting public comment regarding updating its bank notes.

To my reader(s) in the UK, you know what to do: 

Bank of England banknotes have showcased notable historical figures since 1970, when William Shakespeare became the first person other than the monarch to feature.

The Bank said there are many ways to represent the UK on banknotes, and six potential themes have been identified.

They are notable historical figures; architecture and landmarks; arts, culture and sport; noteworthy events in history; innovation; and nature.

The public can also suggest other themes for the Bank to consider.

It said banknotes take a multi-year process to design, test and print, to ensure they are high-quality, resilient and accessible.

………

Depending on which theme is selected, the Bank said it may seek further feedback from the public on the specific images that could be used to show the chosen theme.

It said it will give updates, announcing the final note designs in due course.

Examples of how themes could be depicted include portraits of people from history who have made an important contribution to UK society and culture, for the notable historical figures theme.

The Bank will not represent living people on its banknotes, with the exception of the monarch.

The architecture and landmarks theme, meanwhile, could be depicted by images of buildings and other places, such as castles, bridges or heritage sites across the UK.

I am being a good boy, and I am not suggesting a "Goatse" theme. oops

We Need to Start a GoFundMe for a Soon to be Fired Apple Employee

Someone at Apple has been a very naughty boy, and needs to be rewarded for this. 

You see, it appears that someone did something that briefly replaced the term "Racist" with "Trump" in the iPhone speech to text program.

In all fairness, this could have been something that a group of users did, akin to the Google Bombing of days past, but if I had to bet on this, I would bet on it being an inside job, and not some form of AI data poisoning by users.

A former member of Apple's Siri Team agrees with my assessment, saying, "This smells like a serious prank. The only question is: Did someone slip this into the data or slip into the code?"

So, when this hero gets caught, and caught he will be, we need to get enough money together that he never has to work another day in his life. 

While using Apple’s automatic dictation feature to send messages on Tuesday, some iPhone users reported seeing a peculiar bug: the word “racist” temporarily appearing as “Trump,” before quickly correcting itself.

The message blip, which was replicated several times by The New York Times, provoked controversy after appearing in a viral TikTok post, raising questions about Apple’s artificial intelligence capabilities.

An Apple spokeswoman blamed the issue on phonetic overlap between the two words, and said the company was working on a fix.

"Phonetic overlap," my flabby hairy white ass.

The two words are not at all alike in their sounds, though they are nearly identical in their meaning.

Maybe it Was Premature to Disparage AI

WOW! This actually just happened!

The Monitors were just hacked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to display an AI video of Trump licking Elon Musk’s toes.

The caption over it read: “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING.” pic.twitter.com/11JWuH2XfZ

— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) February 24, 2025

I think that a content warning here would be superfluous

After all, any tool that can be used to generate a video showing Donald Trump lavishing oral and digital affection on Elon Musk's toes, which some very good person then put up on the video screens all across the offices of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, seems to me to be a remarkable societal good.

Visitors to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's headquarters in the capital got some unpleasant viewing on Monday morning after TV screens across the building began showing a deepfake video of President Trump kissing and sucking Elon Musk's toes.

The AI-generated footage had been circulating online over the weekend on social media, but the video was displayed on monitors at HUD on Monday morning, along with the message: "Long live the real king."

(For those who don't know, that's a reference to Republican President Trump yelling on state social media the other day "long live the king," referring to himself as a monarch. Elon, meanwhile, was recruited by Trump to, under the DOGE project, run through federal organizations to cut programs, contracts, and thousands of staff the Tesla tycoon doesn't approve of, and thus has been likened by some as the real president of the United States, especially given this earlier baffling press conference in the Oval Office.)

HUD staff reportedly resorted to unplugging the screens after failing to get the video removed from sight, and the agency is investigating.

 It's a pity that Oscar season is over.  This would be in the running for best selected short.

This is beautiful.

Headline of the Day

MAGA Is Claiming “Political Violence” Over a Giant Nude Trump Statue

—The New Republic

Seriously, the MAGAts are such snowflakes. 

You can get images at the link, but I am not posting here.

Just let me say that the anonymous artists have depicted him as less than, "Heroic."

I LOVE This

Neat Pic
A competitor in an AI image contest was disqualified when they realized that he had submitted a real photograph.

As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

The photographer, Miles Astray, if that is indeed his real name, said that he was trying to make a statement about generative AI faux "Art."

A photographer has been disqualified from a picture competition after his real photograph won in the AI image category.

Miles Astray entered a real, albeit surreal photo of a flamingo into the AI category of the 1839 Color Photography Awards which the judges not only placed third but it also won the People’s Vote Award.

“I wanted to show that nature can still beat the machine and that there is still merit in real work from real creatives,” Astray tells PetaPixel over email.

“After seeing recent instances of AI-generated imagery beating actual photos in competitions, I started thinking about turning the story and its implications around by submitting a real photo into an AI competition.” 

Very well played, young man.

 

This is Beautiful, Man!

Original here, but since Tiktok Autoplays,
I moved it to Youtube

This is an epic prank.

I really hope that the Secret Service does not get up the originator's ass over this, because one side of this looks an awful lot like legitimate US currency.

These Kids Today Have it So Easy

In my day, there was no internet*, if we wanted to prank a school, it was hours with many cases of toilet paper, or even longer disassembling the principal's car and reassembling it on the roof.

These days, with just a few keystrokes, you can list your high school for on Zillow for only $42,069.00.

School officials think that it is a senior prank? I don't know, 420 and 69? Whatever would make you think that some smart-ass high school student who did this?

As housing prices continue to increase, maybe consider buying a high school for the low, low price of $42,069.

No, Meade High School is not really for sale, but the senior joke still landed with Anne Arundel County school officials. The listing surfaced on Zillow earlier this week but has since been deleted by the property listing website.

The school, on the Fort George G. Meade military base in northwestern Anne Arundel County, was listed as a 20-bedroom, 15-bathroom single-family home complete with sewage issues, rodents and insects and “complementary trash-scented air freshener and water issues!”

In what appears to be a senior prank, someone has posted Meade High School on Zillow for the bargain price of $42,069. https://t.co/eyGQwzdisC pic.twitter.com/TXQuXtmgDu

— Brooks DuBose (@b3dubose) May 24, 2023

………

Students at Broadneck High School pulled a similar senior prank in May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of listing the property online, the students created a giant “FOR SALE” banner from a blue tarp and tape.

The Broadneck guys went old school.  I approve

These Meade guys scored a primo prank, and they probably did not even break a sweat.

I am jealous.

^*OK, technically, there WAS an internet, the first two ARPANet nodes were created in 29 October 1969, but there was no access for ordinary folks outside of rather restrictive academic settings, and TCP/IP was not standardized until 1982, 2 years after I graduated from high school.  We didn't even have FidoNet until 1984.

This is Weird

It appears that Japanese conveyor belt sushi restaurants, Kaitenzushi (回転寿司), are threatened by people who are licking the sushi.

While the Kaitenzushi are a rather uniquely Japanese thing, it appears that the adulterating food is yet another by social media influencers to boost their audience.

Osama bin Laden was right about the West, which in this case includes Japan, we are a truly debauched society:

Japanese police have arrested three people over "sushi terror": viral, unhygienic pranks that are threatening the world-famous feature of sushi conveyor belt restaurants.

Last month, a video of a man licking a soy sauce bottle on a sushi conveyor went viral, sparking outrage.

In the video, he can be seen squashing sushi dishes at a Kura Sushi restaurant branch.

Since then, dozens of such videos have proliferated sparking public concern.

Incidents filmed include diners - many of whom are children and young people - spoiling others' orders by touching sushi dishes passing by.

One video which emerged last month showed a customer putting wasabi on another's dish, while another person licked the presented chopsticks.

In another video, filmed at a Sushiro chain outlet, a diner is seen rubbing saliva on passing sushi pieces.

The viral trend has horrified many Japanese and spurred action from several conveyor-belt sushi chains - known as kaitenzushi locally.

Who knew that the TV show Jackass wasn't just a bunch of idiots doing stupid sh%$.  It was prophecy.

It's Nostra-Dumbass all over again.

Tweet of the Day

Brilliant. pic.twitter.com/Sov0YK7F9H

— Harvey Freedenberg (@HarvF) August 28, 2022

Whoever though this one up is a Dick Tuck level genius.

This Was an Epic Troll

Photo de Proxima du Centaure, l’étoile la plus proche du Soleil, située à 4,2 année-lumière de nous.
Elle a été prise par le JWST.
Ce niveau de détails… Un nouveau monde se dévoile jour après jour. pic.twitter.com/88UBbHDQ7Z

— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) July 31, 2022

I am feeling the urge for mustard and rye

One of the most prominent physicists in the world has presented slice of sausage as the latest photograph from the James Webb telescope.

Étienne Klein has since apologized for posting a picture of a slice of chorizo while claiming that it was an image of Proxima Centauri.

He intended to do this to encourage people to use a skeptical eye on images that seem to be too good to be true.

Well played, my Gallic plaisantin:

If you’re not an expert on the cosmos, it’s very easy to confuse a view of a burning star with that of a sliced up piece of sausage. Well, only if it’s a particularly majestic-looking Chorizo tweeted by a famed astronomer.

French physicist Étienne Klein recently trolled his followers on Twitter by posting a picture of a Chorizo slice, and claiming that it was the star Proxima Centauri as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). “This level of detail… A new world is revealed day after day,” Klein wrote on Twitter.

The tweet was liked and retweeted by more than 20,000 thousand people before Klein revealed that the image was, in fact, a piece of Spanish smoked sausage, not the closest star to the Sun. Klein later apologized to those who fell for the joke, adding that he “simply wanted to urge caution with images that seem eloquent on their own.”

"Simply wanted to urge caution with images," my ass.  He was punking us all, and laughing about it.

Not surprising for a people who made a fart act the most popular entertainer at the turn of the last century.*

^*Joseph "Le Pétomane" Pujol, a French flatulist, "Some of the highlights of his stage act involved sound effects of cannon fire and thunderstorms, as well as playing "'O Sole Mio" and "La Marseillaise" on an ocarina through a rubber tube in his anus."

Normally, I Do Not Approve of Pranks Involving Firearms

But I am impressed at both the sense of humor and the mad shooting skilz of whoever did this in Kingsland, Arkansas:

The Kingsland, Arkansas water tower got shot and I can’t stop giggling… pic.twitter.com/wtX7gGmUMe

— Patrick Netherton (@PTNetherton) May 15, 2022

The alleged shooter looks exactly as I imagined, and the local constabulary has arrested Timothy Sled and charged with multiple crimes, which is fight and proper.

What he did was vandalism of public property, and the repairs will cost a rather significant amount of money for a town of only 514 residents.

Still, it is funny as hell:

Deputies have released the identity of the man who they said shot the Kingsland, Arkansas, water tower, springing a leak and bringing a national spotlight onto the birthplace of Johnny Cash.

According to the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office, Timothy Sled of Kingsland is facing two felony charges tied to the vandalism, which caused a leak in the tower in a spot where a silhouette of the music legend was, making it look as though the Man in Black was relieving himself.

Deputies said Sled, 38, could face up to $20,000 in fines and 16 years in prison for the incident.

Repair work to patch the leak started Wednesday, Mayor Luke Neal said. The spray had been costing Kingsland $200 a day in losses, and repairs were expected to cost more than $5,000, great expenses for a small town of only 514 residents.

16 years and $20,000.00, huh?  That's a lot to do for the lulz, "I shot a man in Kingsland, just to watch him pee."

Tweet of the Day

Was wearing a mask outside pumping gas and a woman about my age looked at me with disgust and said ‘You don’t need to wear masks anymore, especially outside.”
To which I replied “It’s part of my bail conditions.”
She left. Quickly. 😂🤣

— Cindy Wilinski (@crwequine) March 11, 2022

I am so going to use this the next time someone complains about my mask wearing.

Candace Owens is the Worst Minstrel Show Ever

It’s not fair to mock Candace Owens for not knowing Lee Harvey Oswald was a marine.

In her defense, she is a moron. pic.twitter.com/fFVMG8xli0

— JDP (@petee224) June 1, 2021

Candace Owens who has gone from not particularly talented actress to right-wing joke, just doubled down on the joke part.

You see, an internet prankster sent a (real) picture of a (real) US Marine to various right-wing figures, asking them to wish a happy memorial day on behalf of his (fake) grandfather.

It was a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald, a man who every US Marine would condemn, even if he had not shot JFK, because he also defected to the USSR.

Candace Owens was in high dudgeon about this, claiming that it was disrespectful to Photoshop his picture into a photo of a US Serviceman.

Of course, anyone who knows who Oswald was should know that he was (a pretty horrible, twice court martialed) US Marine.

You can object to the prank, I find it hilarious, but claiming that it is a Photoshop is beyond stupid.

I guess that this is what comes from a decade or so of channeling Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (Aka Stepin Fetchit).

It rots the mind.

Punk'D

Remember that unhinged letter signed by 100 retired US military retired general officers? It included the signature of one, "Rear Admiral Jack Meehoff."

The MAGAts are really, really stupid people:

A group of more than 100 retired generals and admirals who have accused President Joe Biden of being a communist have been pranked by a faux flag officer going by the nom de guerre “Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff.”

If you don’t get the joke, just say the name “Jack Meehoff” aloud. That’s right. You understand now.

Earlier this month, the group Flag Officers 4 America posted an open letter that repeated lies spread by former President Donald Trump and the elected leaders who support his claims that the FBI and Supreme Court ignored “election irregularities” in 2020.

………

In their letter, the retired generals and admirals – most of whom have been out of uniform for several years – claim the Biden administration has “launched a full-blown assault on our Constitutional rights in a dictatorial manner” by passing executive orders. They also claim the administration is damaging the military’s ability to fight wars through an “infusion of Political Correctness.” And they raise doubts about Biden’s ability to serve as commander in chief by claiming: “The mental and physical condition of the Commander in Chief cannot be ignored.”

“Under a Democrat Congress and the Current Administration, our Country has taken a hard left turn toward Socialism and a Marxist form of tyrannical government which must be countered now by electing congressional and presidential candidates who will always act to defend our Constitutional Republic,” reads the heavily capitalized letter. “The survival of our Nation and its cherished freedoms, liberty, and historic values are at stake.”

Enter “Jack Meehoff.”

After Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post wrote a May 12 story about the letter, he received an email the following day from someone showing how he had managed to get the apocryphal “Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff” added to the list of signatories.

………

On Monday, Task & Purpose spoke to “Jack Meehoff” – not his real name – who said he was prompted to prank the cabal of McCarthyites because he felt their open letter was “f—ing absurd”, especially in the context of the Jan. 6 riots.

The man – who declined to provide his real name or a copy of his DD-214 [military discharge documents] – claimed to be a former enlisted submariner. He said Flag Officers 4 America removed “Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff” from the letter on Saturday after Mathias tweeted about how they had fallen for his ruse.

………

Among its other more well-known signatories are retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, a U.S. Senate candidate in New Hampshire; retired Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin, a virulent anti-Muslim bigot who now heads up the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council; and retired Vice Adm. John Poindexter, best known for being convicted for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair as national security adviser for President Ronald Reagan.

One way to fix the problem is to understand that we have too many general officers in the US military.

In World War II, there were 16 million men in service, and about 2000 GOFOs, and now with 1.3 million men (and women) under arms, there are 900 general/flag officers.

Additionally, the ratio of officers to enlisted men has gone from the traditional ratio of about 10:1 then to about 5:1 now.

Tighter standards for officers, they reducing the size of the officer corps would go a long way toward reducing the total numbers blithering idiots in the higher ranks of US military.

This is a Great Prank

You can now get a Verified Badge crest on your Bay Area home if you're an influencer, public figure, or represent a brand. https://t.co/SyoURdSGe7 pic.twitter.com/H1Sz3gwBdL

— Writer for Black Mirror (@djbaskin) January 30, 2021

Truly Sublime

An artist in San Francisco had a tweet go viral where she offered "Blue Check" plaques to be placed on the homes of "Influencers" in an obvious reference to the Twitter program.

I am not surprised that it went viral, but I am surprised  that some people actually thought it was real, and made an application for approval.^*

On Friday, a viral Twitter thread announced the unexpected rollout of “Blue Check Homes” — a new service allowing Bay Area residents to apply to have a “Verified Badge crest” (read: blue check mark) installed on the facade of their homes to essentially identify themselves as an authentic public figure in real life.

In a matter of hours, the thread garnered international attention, swiftly amassing thousands of retweets and likes, and over 40 million impressions. The reactions from the public were wide-ranging. Some were, understandably, annoyed by the concept. Others caught onto the joke rather quickly.

But Danielle Baskin, the SF-based artist behind the prank, had no idea the website she crafted to back up the fake service would receive 495 applicants, all hoping for a crest of their own.

“I will say a percentage of them are not from a real person. People added, like, Kim Kardashian, and that was clearly a joke,” said Baskin, who in 2019 attempted to remove a series of controversial "anti-homeless boulders" from a city sidewalk by listing them on the Craigslist free section.

“But everyone else thought the website was real. I did what I thought was a mediocre Photoshop job … I thought, ‘This is all very clickbait-y.’ All of the copy, I thought, was so obviously satire.”

Until 2½ weeks ago, Donald John Trump was President.

There is no such thing as "Obvious Satire" anymore.

^*Full disclosure, I went to the website and submitted Joe biden for sh%$s and giggles.

As Zathras Would Say, "At Least There is Symmetry."

There was a court hearing for the Florida teen who allegedly hacked dozens of celerity Twitter accounts today, and someone posted porn clips to the Zoom meeting.

Needless to say, this is now in my list as a perfect moment in the history of hacking:

Clearly, Mr. Clark has no F%$#s left to give

Perhaps fittingly, a Web-streamed court hearing for the 17-year-old alleged mastermind of the July 15 mass hack against Twitter was cut short this morning after mischief makers injected a pornographic video clip into the proceeding.

The incident occurred at a bond hearing held via the videoconferencing service Zoom by the Hillsborough County, Fla. criminal court in the case of Graham Clark. The 17-year-old from Tampa was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of social engineering his way into Twitter’s internal computer systems and tweeting out a bitcoin scam through the accounts of high-profile Twitter users.

………


Notice of the hearing was available via public records filed with the Florida state attorney’s office. The notice specified the Zoom meeting time and ID number, essentially allowing anyone to participate in the proceeding.

All worth it for Florida DA Andrew Warren's reaction

Even before the hearing officially began it was clear that the event would likely be “zoom bombed.” That’s because while participants were muted by default, they were free to unmute their microphones and transmit their own video streams to the channel.

………

What transpired a minute later was almost inevitable given the permissive settings of this particular Zoom conference call: Someone streamed a graphic video clip from Pornhub for approximately 15 seconds before Judge Nash abruptly terminated the broadcast.

I am very amused by this.

So say we all.

Who Lives in a Politburo Under the Sea?

Patrick Starfish, it appears:

A Soviet-era star on the tower in the city of Voronezh has been given ‘Patrick’ styling, adding a touch of Bikini Bottom to the place. Would the overweight pink starfish ever have thought of traveling so far?

While social media users were quite amused with the stunt that surfaced online Thursday evening, Voronezh police were not so entertained. Now the fans of the US animated series – if found – could face 15 days in detention.

………

A poll under the photo in one of Voronezh online communities showed that most people – around 60 percent – found the stunt funny, while 39 percent say that it was an act of vandalism that shouldn’t go unpunished.

This is a beautiful prank.

Very Funny, New Yorker

The associated art with this article on populism in the presidential campaign.

If you do not see it, then you haven't seen the internet meme "Goatse".

If you haven't seen the internet meme "Goatse", for the love of God, do not Google it!

That which is seen cannot be unseen.

Taking a Prank That Necessary Extra Step

As you are no doubt aware, the terrorists occupying the Malheur sanctuary offices in Oregon have been asking for people to send them stuff so that they can maintain their presence.

They've asked for things like food and warm clothing, what they have been getting is dildos and other sex toys.

Well, Max Temkin, co-creator of the game Cards Against Humanity, saw this as problematic, so he sent the protesters a 55 gallon drum of Passion Natural Water Based Lubricant.

Epic.