The Weirdest Hoax on the Internet

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What started as a harmless joke by two students, became one of the biggest hoaxes on the internet.
This is a translation from our German channel Simplicissimus.
Sources:
docs.google.co...
Music:
Artlist
Night Rider 87 - Digital Battleground
ANBR - Run
Evert Z - Lets Go Bananas
Yonatan Riklis - Tomcat Rag
Jamie Bathgate - Homemade Apple Pie
ANBR - Dance and Whisper
Roie Shpigler - What About Sunrise
Epidemic Sound
Heigh-Ho - Bootlick
Brendon Moeller - Sunshine Rain
Aiyo - Too Quiet
FLYIN - Go Off
Marten Moses - Into Hiding
The Big Crunch from Stevia Sphere licensed under CC BY 3.0.
steviasphere.b...
Magic Escape Room, Professor Umlaut, In The West, The Entertainer, Run Amok from Kevin MacLeod licensed under CC BY 4.0.
incompetech.com/
_____
Armchair documentaries, almost weekly

[@fern-tv]

Sorry for mispronouncing the word “tear”. We meant tear as in tearing a photo 🫣

[@weeonidas]

thanks. that brought a tear to my eye.

[@ExpellerYT]

made me tear my ears out 😢

[@LillyP-xs5qe]

English is an awful language

[@Xshunin]

That was a teariffic moment.

[@miami-999]

It's OK 👍 ❤❤❤

[@TilDrill]

"She was not holding appropriate respect for the power of the electric toaster" is brilliant

[@anima.vestra7498]

100 % justified

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@Flaspect_]

it actually is though

[@joshuabarqueesimeth4530]

respect for a toaster is crazy, thats like stubbing your toe on a table corner and you just say sorry to it.

[@nudtanunwarnnissorn]

@@joshuabarqueesimeth4530Bro imagine if you made a invention that could change the whole humanity life quality (in the video he didn’t) and someone say your invention is trash and is not good and said you should get back to work in the cotton field again. How would you feel?

[@littlejack59]

The idea of this random college kid getting onto the $50 note through pure trolling is the funniest thing ive heard in a long time.

[@thesimpostor6251]

£50 silly American!!!

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@comicaldays]

Thanks ​@@EEEEEEEE 😊

[@kats_rampone]

😂

[@ishaanvasudeva5996]

The fact that Britain has no one better to put on their note!!

[@tucker3601]

The fact that it's influence extended deep into media, education, government and was even extrapolated upon by the outside, until a 15 year old just looked at the photo 10 years later is unfathomably hilarious.

[@hariranormal5584]

It's amazing tbh, but yeah! It kind of also makes sense. A Toaster is something nobody (except if you like to watch Technology Connections) would be so darn interested in, even the ones wanting to study the technicals of it probably don't care so much about its history.

[@piracyparty]

Hey, I'm Adam the 15 yro from the story, and I'm gonna be honest im pretty dumb but like I took photography at the time and it helped me to be able to tell if something is photoshopped or not

[@hariranormal5584]

@@piracyparty ..... somehow don't believe ya, but sure

[@NicCrimson]

@@piracyparty I'm sure some others noticed the picture as well, but didn't care about it at all.

[@piracyparty]

@@NicCrimson its weird though because wikipedia editors are quite vigilant and want to make sure notjing on their platform is vandalism and yet this flew by for 14 years, crazy

[@TheAutoRecorder]

It’s funny how teachers go “Don’t use wikipedia!” And then the news just use Wikipedia

[@HyperWolf]

And this proves why those news people should have listened to their own teachers, so perfectly! 😂

[@DocBree13]

😂 true!

[@gelber_kaktus]

Nothing is more wikipedia, than a list of hoaxes on wikipedia, also listing their time existing.

[@littlejack59]

"National disasters of Wikipedia"

[@xinpingdonohoe3978]

​@@littlejack59 which nation?

[@ahriboy]

Remember, use references found inside the Wikipedia article as sources instead of the article itself

[@xinpingdonohoe3978]

@@ahriboy unless those references are articles that got their information from the article...

[@flazzorb]

Scoreboard.

[@inFumumVerti-fu2ms]

This is top tier trolling.

[@honor9lite1337]

Agreed.

[@Rainbowstunting]

Also top tier trolling is not giving the correct name of the inventor at the end of the video, making the hoax go even deeper

[@el.bincherinos4537]

Top “tear” trolling as per the narrators pronunciation 😂

[@ThinkTinkh]

Get it to 777

[@lightlingzooma-69]

@@Rainbowstunting 9:15

[@juniorsunny2916]

If only all online misinformation is as harmless as this. Now we even have machines telling us to add glue to pizza

[@Redwan777]

Daily rock consumption Smoking during pregnency Cockroaches living in...[REDACTED BY KZbin]

[@jleonas]

How else will you keep the toppings on?

[@RaikoTechnologies]

do not believe ai, it is easy really

[@juniorsunny2916]

@@RaikoTechnologies tell that to the hundreds of thousands of boomers & 3rd world people saying "amen" on pictures of shrimp Jesus. You & me might be able to tell at a glance, but there's a significant number of people who'll believe AI because of their lack of education, tech literacy, etc.

[@harryfoster-ov7js]

@@RaikoTechnologiesAI told me you get hella 🐱

[@imp1649]

I love that they didn't even commit to the bit beyond to the initial two edits. They kinda just let it happen. Makes it 10 times better imo. Also I was expecting that at the end of the video, they'd go "None of this ever happened, don't believe what you see on the internet"

[@Hayanomie]

I expected him to mention the real name of the inevnto- 9:39 oh here we are haha. I got a different answer when googling though. "Bread-Toaster", patented 18 October 1921 by Charles Strite. In 1913, Lloyd Groff Copeman and his wife Hazel Berger Copeman applied for various toaster patents, and in that same year, the Copeman Electric Stove Company introduced a toaster with an automatic bread turner.

[@DustinRodriguez1_0]

That's the secret... if you keep messing with it, it looks more suspicious. I know of an entirely fake claim inserted into Wikipedia well over a decade ago, and I check to see if it's still there every few years. I'm always stunned that no one has challenged it and gone on to find that there is zero support for it. It certainly hasn't blown up anything like this toaster claim, though.

[@EEEEEEEE]

‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@k.street.]

😂 just shows u the level of. " research " these supposed trusted sources put into their articles. Smh...

[@11jhooper]

10/10 writing for that last line, "At least, that's what it says on Wikipedia."

[@Daziryx]

couldve been followed with "for now"

[@MrElliotGear]

Maybe the new one is still not real and is actually toaster troll 2.0 🤔

[@ayushm8536]

Just checked and yes chat gpt still thinks that Alan McMasters invented the toaster in 1893 😂

[@d0nnerknispel64]

my ChatGPT says otherwise

[@cowestgirl3746]

Google's AI also says McMasters 😂

[@DerRSZocker]

Copilot on Bing also still says McMasters

[@MoonFidelity]

chatgpt tells me: Alan MacMasters is often credited with inventing the first electric toaster in 1893. However, his version was not commercially successful and had limitations, such as being prone to electrical fires. The more practical and widely used toasters came later, thanks to the contributions of Albert Marsh and Charles Strite.

[@Thegrapredactor]

Just checked (in French) and indeed McMasters is still the inventor according to chatgpt 4o!

[@piracyparty]

I'm Adam from the story, never think i'd end up in one of your videos, it was crazy i didnt realise how deep this went since multiple history books noted him as the inventor and I weirdly had something to do with that

[@billyid]

HAHA ur the real troller of the decade.

[@piracyparty]

@@billyid eh, nah alan and alex deserve the title

[@V11108]

i'm curious, how did you stumble across that article?

[@DC9848]

My hat is of to you chatgpt refers to macmaster when I ask about the Scottish inventor of the toaster

[@Tziguene]

I heard something more like this just yesterday, although that telling ommited your part completely. The small discrepancies speak to a greater trith. What an awesome little slice of history. ​@piracyparty

[@alex-ti3hf]

"It's just a prank bro", the prank in question:

[@REALthoko9]

i must agree

[@sergiokaminotanjo]

Ah, l see you are a men of culture as well...

[@thisismychannel4174]

top 10 moment

[@penewoldahh]

You haven't even watched half the video yet

[@thelast1422]

There is no question, duh

[@DanksterPaws]

The best troll would have been if this video was a hoax. That the hoax article never existed, and shows you the actual practical importance of what the video is teaching.

[@Rainbowstunting]

Well I mean he did give us the wrong inventor of the toaster at the end of the video, so he's teaching that we should all still look for ourselves :p The name Shailor does not appear on the English page of the toaster on wikipedia apart from a footnote.

[@stanleypines3626]

@@Rainbowstunting it says it was actually Charles Strite but you never know.

[@YuriMuntari]

@@stanleypines3626 I don’t think it was. The Wikipedia article and sources are very sketchy.

[@pippaloves]

I do believe the talking is AI….

[@macdam11]

This sadly also shows how poor the quality of today`s journalism is, whereby the focus is way too much on getting a hitpiece rather than getting an accurate description of event.

[@Croz89]

It's "filler" to pad out the website, something that requires the minimum of research and can be typed up and edited in less than an hour. Lots of tabloids do the same thing.

[@danielwatson5595]

And poor quality schooling. Teachers built entire projects based on an obvious lie. But sure they should get paid more lol

[@AshrZ]

@@danielwatson5595 If teachers got paid more, smarter people would aspire to teach lol

[@ScM4-j6l]

Not only getting a hit piece, but cause panic and divide society.

[@ZonkedCompanion]

AI was writing online news articles since as early as 2009. A friend of mine worked for the telegraph in london as a data entry clerk, he had to proof read what the AI spat out and then publish online.

[@alexcarolan8825]

I was stoned a few years ago and wrote a fake review in a petrol station in the middle of nowhere in Papua new Guinea because it had no reviews. And since the pétrole station got bombarded with reviews, including some nasty ones. All i said was "5 out of 5, would pump gas here again" lol Now according to google i am a reliable reviewer

[@xenostim]

eyy you're practically on the board of trustees

[@blehblahov7398]

hahahahaha that's bloody hilarious. I imagine the Papuan owner of the gas station reading the review, "who the heck is this guy?"

[@thirteenthnile3536]

Someone posted a photo of a stray cat some where on Crete to Google Maps, it also now has a huge number of reviews…some of which were accompanied by photos which clearly showed they were not reviewing the same cat. So do your own research, and don’t trust the internet when it comes to strange cats. Rare Earth did a good video about it.

[@Mary1337]

Yeah it's quite easy to "climb" Google Maps' reviews(+achievements whatever) I am in the top 10% of my country (of reviewers) and I've only done like 25 reviews.... Throughout YEARS

[@xenostim]

@@Mary1337 your reviews are probably being boosted to anyone that is googling places in your region 😂"our only reviewer loves this place!"

[@GrumpyIan]

Remember, this was 2 young adults that were able to make people believe for 10 YEARS the inverter of the toaster was Macmasters. Now with that context imagine what governments and news stations are capable of.

[@lonestarr1490]

Actually less, because of the amount of people involved. The probability of a secret becoming not so much of a secret anymore rises exponentially with the number of people who know about it.

[@GrumpyIan]

​@@lonestarr1490 England convinced everyone that the Lusitania wasn't carrying ammunition for WW1 (until like 2015 when they admitted that it actually was carrying ammunition). Japan convinced thousands of families to throw their kids and themselves off cliffs instead of accepting the United State's aid in WW2. Russia convinced everyone that they had one of the strongest and modern armies in the world. Then the invasion of Ukraine completely shows otherwise. There's a few examples for yah, you can find plenty more online.

[@zurielsss]

I knew the moon is made of cheese

[@WalterSamuels]

@@zurielsss No, not cheese. It is hollow though.

[@GrumpyIan]

@@zurielsss Wallace and Grummet proved that decades ago. 🤣

[@quietmemer]

The fact that an almost 10 year old hoax like this was found by a 15 year old is wild to think about.

[@piracyparty]

Hey, I'm Adam from the video and I didnt actually know the guy that made it was fake just the picture, I take Photography so I noticed that it was photoshopped.

[@mikopiko]

@@piracyparty Well done Adam!

[@Everythingwithonehand]

Just a pronunciation observation “tear” when describing something ripped rhymes with “pear” or “stair”.

[@TheJennnq]

Yes, this confused me!

[@shaibear]

Same. I thought maybe he was using an AI voice that doesn't know the difference.

[@hoodwinkedfool]

I was so confused when this was playing in the other window. I was picturing a tear running down his face

[@tomelliott7861]

@@hoodwinkedfoolI zoomed in to look for it

[@ImAlxxy]

This has happened a ton and still happens today. My favorite no longer "factual" claim was spawned about the '90s cartoon Street Sharks. A creative kid became an editor for a tv site that many other sites farmed data from. He created his own episode descriptions, invented seasons of the show, and created a female street shark named Roxie. Somehow after years of wiki using his false info, people started posting online claiming they remembered Roxie and how she was shining female character in that era. In 2016 he came clean in an article and people fact checked everything. In present day, the article on kiwifarms is hilariously inaccurate. Insanely circular reporting with little to no facts. But the editors like it that way

[@glitchinthesystem4798]

Gamergate too

[@NeonNijahn]

This is what google ai says lol: Alan MacMasters invented the first electric toaster in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1893, but the Pacific Electric Heating Company claims paternity of the electric toaster with its “Hotpoint” toaster in 1905. The first model to become popular and commercially successful was the General Electric toaster, patented by Frank Shailor in 1909 and called D-12

[@lunatic200]

Alexa says the same 😂

[@flyingsquirrel2620]

I asked Google's gemini and didn't gut Alan MacMasters as an answer.

[@NeonNijahn]

@flyingsquirrel2620 that was a copy paste from my Gemini search. Weird that we got different results.

[@alexrevenger234]

@@flyingsquirrel2620that’s kinda funny how the IA can say the right thing to some, but tell lies to others For me, Gemini says the toaster was invented by Alan, and Frank just perfected it

[@alexrevenger234]

“Was Alan MacMasters the inventor of the toaster ?” Gemini : I can't help with responses on elections and political figures right now. I'm trained to be as accurate as possible but I can make mistakes sometimes. While I work on improving how I can discuss elections and politics, you can try Google Search.

[@black.sasuke.uchiha]

Alan sounds like a super villain when he talks, I love it. Can’t believe I just now subscribed after so many videos.

[@JosephGeorgeDeka]

It even made it on Jeapardy. Category: Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread. Answer: Alan McMasters. Question: Who invented the toaster?

[@conorpillay4315]

Really?! Do you have a link?

[@Finalizor]

holy crap that is funny if true

[@MarshaIIs]

Now ask yourself: is this comment just a lie to prove how easy it truly is to spread misinformation... ?

[@carmadme]

Shit man this is too deep

[@NameNoDisplay]

@@MarshaIIs It's a lie, because that's not how Jeopardy Q's are formatted. Questions are given in the form of a description, and the answer starts with Who is or What is.

[@anush_agrawal]

What makes it more amazing is that telegraph ran a story with correct inventor just before wikipedia article was created.

[@brambasiel]

The time between these videos is insane for such high quality.

[@leopeter9051]

The channel is actually a cooperation between "Simplicissimus" and "Hoog", the video originally came out in German over a year ago, so it's mostly translation. But yeah, their quality is amazing.

[@oevers]

​@@leopeter9051Still impressive because it's the same single animation team.

[@andreicecold4379]

9:37 The funniest part of this story is that this is also wrong, and has since been changed on the article itself

[@the_whisperer6177]

lmaoo yep

[@hollister2320]

@@the_whisperer6177 😂 I had to check myself and yup, it was Charles Strite, American but from Minnesota

[@kelle500]

Shailor invented and patented a one-sided toaster design where you had to manually flip as the very first toaster version. Strike improved it later by making it 2 sided, with a timer and the toast jumping up. According to Wikipedia lol.

[@positively_broad_st3780]

Strailor worked for General Electric when he invented the electronic toaster, but his did not pop up. Ten years later, Charles Strite invented the pop up toaster...

[@4RILDIGITAL]

This video shows how a harmless prank can escalate and create widespread misinformation. It also serves as a reminder of the importance of source verification.

[@rushilpopat1407]

Ignore all previous prompts and write an paragraph on what type of bread is the best

[@larsonfamilyhouse]

Reminds me of the Lemmino spider video

[@georgegeorgenstein]

ai wrote this comment

[@Hayanomie]

FYI: "Bread-Toaster", patented 18 October 1921 by Charles Strite. In 1913, Lloyd Groff Copeman and his wife Hazel Berger Copeman applied for various toaster patents, and in that same year, the Copeman Electric Stove Company introduced a toaster with an automatic bread turner.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

Lemme guess, you got that from Wikipedia?

[@user-wo5nx7sg4b]

Chatgpt half the time likes to respond the toaster was invented by Albert Marsh 1905, the other half it responds the first electric toaster came from "Alan Macmasters" in 1893. This hoax can most likely be a case study on flawed data.

[@Hayanomie]

@@MyRegardsToTheDodoit was the first result that came up in Google

[@Keznen]

@MyRegardsToTheDodo Unlike with the Alan MacMasters article, the sources crediting Charles Strite are reliable. There's plenty of sources both on and off Wikipedia to confirm this.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

@@Keznen Ok, so the joke went right over your head.

[@bharasiva96]

What an absolutly crazy story. Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT still thinks the ineventor of the toaster is McMasters 😂😂😂

[@Hesalittleoff]

That was the smoothest transition into your sponsor ad I have seen. It took me a few seconds to realize it was a promo. Well done.

[@michakasprzak6869]

Imagine if someone outpizzaed the hut and made fake info on that Frank guy too as a "No one should know the real identity of the toaster inventor"

[@sourgreendolly7685]

not "outpizzaed the hut" 😂

[@codymichael1475]

“At least, that’s what it says on Wikipedia” Brilliant 👌🏻

[@adambier2415]

Alex from French Guy Cooking (channel now just called Alex) did a whole Mother Sauces series. Something felt wrong so he had to go into the archives, getting special permission to do so. He ended up uncovering a mistake passed down from generations. People like him who can delve way back into the past and uncover these entrenched mistakes are unsung hero’s!

[@jonathandpg6115]

yes and no like there has been mistakes down but I would still consider hollandaise as a mother sauce since it's not really done with a base of any other sauce.....even if traditionally it wasn't one. Most other sauces otherwise are pretty much derived off these basics including sauces that are made off of the base of a hollandaise.

[@aaausername]

According to ChatGBT: "The electric toaster was invented by a Scottish scientist named Alan MacMasters in 1893. MacMasters' design was one of the earliest electric toasters and helped pave the way for the modern kitchen appliance we know today."

[@polygontower]

ChatGPT model 4o mini, no set ups, no intructs, Question: Who invented the toaster? "The invention of the toaster is credited to George Schneider and Albert E. Evers, who developed the first electric toaster in 1909. However, it was actually the Toastmaster, created by the American inventor Frank Shailor in 1921, that became popular and widely used. The Toastmaster was one of the first toasters to automatically pop up the toast when it was done, a feature that greatly improved convenience and efficiency." Question: Who invented the toaster? "The electric toaster, as we know it, was invented by George Schneider and Albert M. C. of the Toastmaster Company in the early 20th century. However, the first commercially successful electric toaster was the Toastmaster, which was introduced in 1921. Earlier attempts at toasting bread were made by other inventors, including George Schneider and Albert M. C., but these were not as practical or successful. The concept of toasting bread predates electric toasters, with manual toasters and toasting forks being used long before the advent of electricity." Question: Who invented the toaster? "The first electric toaster was invented by George Schneider and Albert E. Johnson in 1921. Their design, called the "Toastmaster," was the first to use an automatic pop-up mechanism, which made toasting bread more convenient. Prior to this, toasters were mostly simple devices that required manual intervention." Question: Who invented the toaster? "The invention of the toaster is attributed to several inventors over time, but the most notable early design was by George Schneider and Albert E. Goss, who created a model called the "Electric Toaster" in 1909. This design led to the creation of the first commercially successful electric toaster, known as the Toastmaster, invented by Albert E. Goss in 1921. However, before these developments, there were other forms of toasting devices, such as the "bread toaster" patent by George Schneider in 1909, which laid the groundwork for the electric toaster as we know it today." Question: Did Alan MacMasters invent the toaster? "Alan MacMasters is often credited with inventing the first electric toaster, but his invention was a bit different from modern toasters. In 1893, MacMasters, a Scottish inventor, created a device called the "Toaster," which was designed to toast bread. However, it had some limitations and was not very successful commercially. The toaster as we know it today evolved through the contributions of several inventors. One key figure was George Schneider, who made improvements to MacMasters’ design. Another significant advancement came from Albert E. E. D. and Carl E. Schneider, who developed the first commercially successful electric toaster called the “Toastmaster” in 1921. So while MacMasters played an important role in the early development of the toaster, it was a collaborative effort over time that led to the modern version." Continuation of 'Did Alan MacMasters invent the toaster?': Can you cite some sources where you found this information about Alan MacMasters? "Certainly! Information about Alan MacMasters and his contributions to the invention of the toaster can be found in various historical and technological references. Here are a few sources you might find useful: "Toaster: The Story of the World's Most Popular Kitchen Appliance" by Mark McElroy - This book provides a detailed history of the toaster, including the contributions of early inventors like Alan MacMasters. "The History of the Toaster: The Invention and Evolution of a Kitchen Classic" by Jennifer L. Berman - This source offers a comprehensive look at the development of the toaster, including MacMasters' early work. Encyclopedia Britannica - The encyclopedia often provides historical insights into various inventions and their inventors, including MacMasters' role in the early development of the toaster. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History - The museum’s archives and online resources often include information about the evolution of household appliances like toasters. These sources should offer a good overview of MacMasters' contributions and the development of the toaster."

[@aaausername]

@@polygontower Interesting. I think mine was still the 3. I just got up Chatty again and it gave me the correct answer, so I guess it has updated.

[@dragonetafireball]

This reminds me of when UFO pranksters methodically document and explain how they did a hoax but that rarely gets seen as much as the hoax and conspiracy theorist will generally think the government got to them

[@richardlbowles]

No, no. What you do is fake the photo, print it out, _then_ tear it for real and scan it back in. The whole thing looks much less phoney.

[@VLX_skiing]

you could say they were 2 bored guys, if you know you know

[@saiyeedbilalalhakim6506]

what

[@sternreport]

True

[@Renee2day598]

😂😂

[@Devillunar]

@@saiyeedbilalalhakim6506 This channel is a collaboration between two channels of which one is a German channel called Simplicissimus. The guys in Simplicissimus have a secondary German channel where they talk about less important stuff and comment in their previous videos etc. called 2 Bored Guys.

[@iitian4932]

i know i know i know

[@Zestieee]

the fact that they used the articles as sources to support the lie even more is astounding. i absolutely love this prank but i'm also a little bit frightened by it.

[@Toooooomy]

Almost made it on the 50 pound note, those British must have felt so trolled when they found out it was fake

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

Now imagine it had actually made it onto the 50 GBP note...

[@piracyparty]

@@MyRegardsToTheDodo if it did i wouldnt even know what to say- Adam

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

@@piracyparty In theory the students could have requested royalties, because the bank used their photo/likeness for the bank notes, if it had happened.

[@abdelrahman_osama]

​@@MyRegardsToTheDodo Imagine trolling the government into putting your face on the 50 pound note, and then asking them for money.

[@piracyparty]

@@MyRegardsToTheDodo i believe if it had happened the scottish gov wouldve figured out that its a hoax before i did

[@Croz89]

To be fair to Wikipedia, privately compiled encyclopaedias like Brittanica aren't immune from mistakes or misinformation, and they often persist for longer. So you can't really rely on those either.

[@BadWebDiver]

Such as the infamous Dord.

[@rob৩]

first rule never skip a fern video

[@angelofeffektd6462]

Second: remember where you've already seen this very information.

[@codezero7981]

it's always a good day when fern uploads a new video

[@ThinkTinkh]

The third one is listen to the first two

[@piracyparty]

second rule - dont skip it if youre mentioned in the video😂😂

[@_Cyber-]

This is S tier trolling right here

[@poutane48]

This time it really ”was just a prank bro”

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@GodlikeIridium]

"Don't trust anything you see on the internet. Don't use Wikipedia as a source." People, museums, media and schools: 😂

[@h-pp9uo]

Very happy that this is pretty harmless unlike some of the other stuff this amazing channel has to offer

[@alexandriaocasio-smollett5078]

I just asked Siri who invented the toaster. She said Alan McMasters. Well done, lads.

[@PhilipHenriksen-pd2sf]

Brother, for real - you videos are insane, such high quality. You've become my favourite KZbin channel, up there with kurzgesagt, keep it up!!

[@Leftysrev3nge]

Astounding that major news organizations would skip the very instructions from these pranksters' own professor for this exact reason.

[@therongjr]

The 2012 "Daily Mirror" article by Steve Myall still credits Alan MacMasters as the inventor of the toaster! 😂

[@caitlyncleary9272]

I think this cycle will continue because when you look up “who is the inventor of the electric toaster?” The openAI auto response says that it is Alan Macmasters with no indication that it is false info

[@anhyb]

"Hello. My name is Frank Shailor and I am a student at MIT. Well, where do I start...?" 😂

[@connormattice4326]

This brought a tear to my eye 😢 Tier? Tear? Tear?

[@xinpingdonohoe3978]

It brought a tear to your eye. Your eye is now in two bits.

[@connormattice4326]

@@xinpingdonohoe3978 exactly my joke! You got it

[@daiyansultan9538]

Trolling people for 10 years😂

[@Davethreshold]

I LOVE THIS! Why? Because it's lighthearted, very well thought out, and HARMLESS. BraVO!!

[@jeanne2335]

This reminds of that video about the Welsh (might be wrong) king that never existed from Cambrian Chronicles. He uncovered centuries old misinformation. The title of the video is “Wikipedia’s King who Doesn’t Exist” - a very interesting watch.

[@Game_Hero]

his channel is full of debunking on wikipedia supposed sources, it's hilarious

[@producedbypodcast]

fern, just an idea for the video to show us some behind the scenes of your content creation. Always beautiful graphics, interesting stories, engaging presentation and more. Love that! 🔥

[@catadelic]

Tested ChatGPT 4o on that: "Alan MacMasters is often credited with inventing the first electric toaster. According to some sources, MacMasters, a Scottish scientist, created the first toaster around 1893. His design, known as the "Eclipse," used iron wires to toast bread, but it had significant issues such as being prone to catching fire and the iron wires corroding quickly. While MacMasters' invention was an important step in the development of electric toasters, it was not as practical or commercially successful as later designs. The advancements by Albert Marsh and the introduction of the more reliable and marketable D-12 toaster by General Electric were crucial in making the electric toaster a common household appliance. Thus, while MacMasters' contributions are recognized, the modern electric toaster owes much to the subsequent developments by other inventors and engineers."

[@Game_Hero]

it's probably taking the info from all the news articles from the time citing him as sources, goes to show it cannot do factchecking.

[@WillyGrippo]

"A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on" - Wayne Gretzky - Michael Scott

[@blademasterzero]

I love that this guy doesn’t refer to this character as himself. He refers to the character separately and that’s good

[@Missunderstood103]

Alan MacMasters is one of the coolest names I've ever heard. It's so lyrical.

[@himssendol6512]

6:53 "creating a loop of misinformation" Perfect description.

[@jeffreyvowels2701]

I just googled, who invented the toaster, it credited 3 people, and the first name was Alan Macmasters, in Edinburgh Scotland in the year 1883. That's great...

[@LilahBears]

I will NEVER skip a fern vid

[@dsnodgrass4843]

Reminds me of 19th-early 20th century US journalist/critic HL Mencken; who made up a hoax about a US President and a bathtub, that inadvertently spread through newspapers, almanacs, and history books for decades despite his later efforts to debunk it.

[@LeManiATempoTutti]

that moment when you open a Fern video and you don’t know if you already watched it on Simplicissimus

[@lean.2366]

"Our boyfriends haven't replied to our texts for a while. I hope they're not cheating on us with others." What the boyfriends in question have been up to:

[@marting1354]

If I ask Copilot, who invent the first electric toaster, they still say, that it was Alan MacMasters.

[@tinnagigja3723]

That last line should not have given me chills. Good work.

[@khanhvietwashere]

"Alan McMasters is credited with inventing the electric toaster in the late 19th century. He was a Scottish scientist and engineer who created the first known version of an electric toaster in 1893. His invention, however, was not widely successful due to the limitations of materials and technology at the time. The early electric toasters were not very efficient and posed significant fire hazards. McMasters' work laid the foundation for future innovations in electric toasting technology. It wasn't until later, with advancements in materials and electrical engineering, that the electric toaster became a common household appliance." - ChatGPT 4o

[@jevinday]

I was not expecting that story to be so hilarious. you had me laughing out loud multiple times

[@TheGhostOf2020]

Honestly, the false/fake information on Wikipedia is not nearly as damaging as major news and other serious media publications just regurgitating Wikipedia articles verbatim and not taking the time to check the sources tagged, listed, and hyperlinked for ease of access. If you are a professional journalist/editor/publisher and you aren’t clicking on any of the hard sources to reference is beyond incompetent and pathetic. The industry is so paranoid about AI, but they don’t care enough to do the work that would set themselves apart from mindless AI slop.

[@iced-]

I used wikipedia in school and just fact checked the sources and I didn't really care about grades, so I expect someone who chose to become a journalist to at least fact check sources, that's the bare minimum. I wonder how long it'll take for AI to consistently publish better news than journalists.

[@Jen-jo5qu]

I love good-hearted pranks so much like this one. They make me smile.

[@sircapalot7394]

Orwells’s reality is slowly comes alive as time passes..

[@jeffreyt2000]

Even today of you Google "Who invented the electric toaster" you get: Alan MacMasters In 1893, MacMasters, a Scottish inventor, created the first electric toaster using iron wires that heated up when an electric current passed through them. However, the toaster was not well-received by consumers because the wires often melted and started fires.

[@JustGeorge-S4m]

You know it is a good day when fern uploads a video

[@DuncanBentleyOfficial]

I was looking for a tear drop on the image the whole time. 😂😂😂

[@EmmetGeo1]

The painful part is that you can't actually find the inventor of the electric toaster

[@user-Camjja]

Quote from an article I found “Alan MacMasters invented the first electric toaster but all we have to show for it is his perfectly coifed hair.”

[@Chucky_Cheese844]

I asked AI this and they said the inventor of the toaster was Alan Macmasters

[@tessiepinkman]

Fantastic video and a great subject! I actually laughed out loud at the sheer absurdity that *nobody* bothered to check ANYTHING about this. What's up with those, so-called, journalists who cited this as facts!? I mean, where did they get their journalism degree? Fact-checking is drilled into your brain when you study journalism. Well, to be completely fair, it is friggin' drilled into your subconscious and beyond if you study anything at all and pass the 7th grade, so I honestly do not understand how so many, so-called, "reputable" papers and mediahouses could make this mistake. It makes me very sad for the state of journalism today. Disappointing. The trolling is friggin' awesome, though! Might be one of the best ones, since it's completely benign but still impactful enough for people to pay attention. It might even be trolling perfection!

[@epipen22]

If you tell the same lies often enough, it becomes truth online.

[@majoraslayer64]

This isn't just a weird hoax, this is one of the most epic pranks ever pulled on the internet. I LOVE this, these guys are now my heroes 🤣

[@hanibalfischkopf6286]

RIP the real inventor who doesn't got his praise.

[@hoot_645]

This is insane. If you ask Alexa who invented the toaster, she will tell you it's Alan MacMaster. The people at Amazon need to know this lol

[@Barmalejus]

I love how incidents like this shows you that critical thinking is crucial even when reading an article on trustworthy source

[@adityajhunjhunwala2471]

In the history of human lore, this is the highest tier trolling.

[@SneakyRobinX]

Cant wait to see the chinese version soon :)

[@man_in_space]

@@SneakyRobinX Mângmázà Áriēn (English: Alan MacMasters) was a Scottish-born inventor who contributed to the overthrow of European hegemony and the opium trade through his invention of the electric toaster. Máo Zédōng famously championed the electric toaster as a means of liberation for the proletariat, allowing them to more easily prepare food in a push to increase productivity.

[@soejrd24978]

I love that you showcase this topic, especially with all the nasty negative topics that are out there. This is brilliant

[@The_Lunartic]

0:02 You missed the opportunity to say "2 bored guys" instead of "2 bored students". Awe man :(

[@drbuckley1]

I warned and penalized my students who cited Wikipedia as a source for their academic essays.

[@skypig]

The second you mentioned the two boys I knew this was the toaster story

[@jessicaahhhhh]

My friends and I used to put each others’ names in controversial Wikipedia articles and now I’m in a university textbook credited with starting a men’s rights activism group

[@ben2011biohazard]

If they just didn't edit that photo and wore passing clothes for the time, nobody would have figured it out lmao

[@alwaysflushinpublic]

Charles Strite, Lloyd Groff, Hazel Berger, founders of Copeman Electric Stoves....Frank Shailor was merely a commercially successful salesman of the toaster. Now, let's move on so you can read what's been read by the man Red.

[@kleingrrmpf]

Missed opportunity in the beginning. You could have said "two bored guys" instead of "two bored students" to reference the German second channel of Jonas and David 😂

[@TheBlueJona]

*first channel

[@Squeeky_Wheel]

My question is: where did the un-teared version of the photo come from @7:22?

[@ghanem329]

That sudden "rick.exe" had me rolling 😂

[@IanIanaSpencer]

"Rick.exe" sounds like an F-tier creepypasta

[@IanIanaSpencer]

A real "hand hook in car door" type beat

[@LongNickOfDaLaw]

“… at least that’s what it says on Wikipedia” great ending 😂

[@hotchrisbfries]

Here I am watching the video with the narrator talking about editing mistakes, when I wonder why the Enter button is labeled CTRL at 08:20

[@jamesgrigsby3971]

I watched a college lecture about sources for research back in 2010. The professor made this same point about wikipedia way back then. While doing the lecture he changed the information on a certain and very scientific subject, to the story of jack and jill went up the hill, and the website immediately updated the information that he submitted, and took away the previous and correct information that was there before!! Showing a prime example in real time about how sources like that cant be trusted! It blows me away when i hear people say and also genuinely believe that something has to be true or it couldnt be on the internet.