The mass media in turn became an unwitting collaborator in his concepts , reporting his satire as news . Some of the rather insane stories he was able to get covered by major tv networks and newspapers include hoaxes such as Celebrity Sperm Bank , Cathouse for Dogs , Fat Squad , and Portofess . Skaggs quickly acquired an international reputation as a cultural satirist and media critic . His work incorporates guerrilla tactics and traditional advertising and public relations techniques to promote his staged performances . Media outlets from CNN to the New York Times have fallen for his hoaxes . In fact , few media outlets over the last four decades have not fallen for one or more of his pranks . New Jersey Stage spoke with Joey about his career and the documentary about his work called Art of the Prank .
When I first saw the film , the recent phenomenon of “ fake news ” instantly came to mind . Well , that ’ s funny because I wrote about it recently and , of course , I ’ ve been doing fake news for over 50 years so it ’ s not anything new to me .
Do you consider yourself one of the founders of fake news ? That ’ s pretty funny ! Yeah , you can blame me , go ahead ! The word with the most meaning is intent and my work is always about telling the truth . It ’ s getting you to go , “ Wait a minute , I believe that .” And that only happens when I do the expose and I tell it to you . Corporations and governments don ’ t want you to know the whole truth . Their intent is to fool you . My intent is to make you realize that you are being fooled . Of course , as you know , they always shoot the messenger . So I ’ ve been attacked ,