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I just watched Tony Robbins on TedTalks... Applying his basics to this question of hoaxer motivations might be enlightening. The six basic motivations for people: Certainty: Perhaps by doing a hoax, a person can be more certain that other events are also hoaxes and they were right to be skeptical. Making money is another form of certainty and security. Uncertainty: The thrill of not knowing if it will be accepted, or if they will get caught. (too much certainty is boring) Significance: The feeling of having influence over other people and swaying their beliefs may make a person feel more relevant. Also a need for attention. Connection and Love: I guess this would be attention from supporters. At the price of disdain from strangers, the support of a handful of people can be profoundly valuable. Ivan Marx might fall onto this one or significance. Growth: I don't see it for hoaxing, but if approached as an art or craft with social implications, a person may feel they are growing and learning. Contribution to others: Helping others see the folly of believing (assuming convinced skeptics here). In my case I might try replicating a hoax to see how hard or easy it would be, but I would be transparent about it... so that we could all be aware of what we might screen out as strong evidence. I don't call it hoaxing... More like Bobo doing a recreation. Trying to help. We can apply these basics to just about everything we do. The questions: Why am I doing this? Why are they doing that? don't get asked openly enough. We jump up to certainty and grab the answer that makes us feel best about ourselves. Posting on a forum, I ask myself this all the time, and the reasons jump around. Growth and understanding are the big ones for me, and also trying to contribute, if I think a point or viewpoint is missing from the record. When I feel myself drifting into attention seeking, I try to delete those. I catch myself sometimes. Sometimes too late and I feel embarassed. I think the jokers are going for a contribution. Humor is a contribution and attention grab at the same time, combined with the suspense of not knowing if people will laugh and then being loved for the joke and bringing smiles. I highly recommend the "Head Games" segment of TedTalks... I'm half way through and finding it profoundly enlightening. Now, please satisfy my needs for attention by not ignoring me and love by saying nice things and giving me plusses, the suspense is tremendous and I want to know I'm right. It will help me grow and validate my contribution! LOL!