several mythologies worldwide feature the mischievous presence of trickster gods stories
and legends about these deities depict them as they sow chaos for the pleasure of justifying
conventional behavior well-known examples include loki from the norse pantheon or anasi
in the west african and caribbean law the function of these divine practical jokers is to propel
change to test the cohesion of the social order or to poke fun at the contradictions lurking
behind an apparently functioning society when you imagine these tricksters you more likely
picture them wreaking havoc in a distant past populated by fantastical creatures but what if
i told you that britain and ireland had their own tricks to god in the early 20th century born into
high society he mingled with poets writers and politicians but he made it his mission
to poke fun at everything and everybody his elaborate and sometimes cruel practical
jokes raised outcry scandal and even parliamentary inquiries this is the story
of horusevir cole king of pranksters patron saint of april fools day
horizon vehicle was born on the 5th of may 1881 in balincolleg county cork in today's
republic of ireland back then part of the united kingdom of great britain and ireland his father
was william cole a rich englishman who had made a fortune selling quinine a treatment for malaria
his mother was the anglo-irish aristocrat and poet mary devire throughout his early
years horace was fascinated by both sides of his familial heritage he idolized his father and his
down-to-earth practical approach to life but he was fascinated by the intellectual
milieu frequented by his mother steeped in celtic and irish mysticism horace's early
years were generally happy that is until a bout of diphtheria left him partially death
this disability contributed towards his social awkwardness and made him extremely sensitive to
the criticism of his peers the boy could still count on his father's love and support though
the true bedrock of his childhood unfortunately when he was just 11 he received the news that dad
william had died of cholera while on business in india when mary remarried two years later horus
felt betrayed and rejected to add insult to injury barely weeks after his mother's second wedding
horus was shipped off to eaton the pinnacle of the british public school system which is public only
in name being a private institution the boy hated this decision well aware that his deafness put him
at a disadvantage he later wrote why the devil with such a handicap was i sent to
eaton where no deaf boy could hear anything in form carla's cruelty i call it i should have been
taught a trade or profession his school career was largely lackluster horace enjoyed the lessons
and was rather popular with the other pupils but he didn't win any prizes didn't play any sports
and didn't hold any position of responsibility unsurprisingly he decided to call it quits shortly
before graduating in february of 1900 horrors left eaton and like many young men of his generation he
volunteered to fight in the anglo-bar war in may of that year he landed in cape town with
the distinction of being the youngest cavalryman in the entire british army heavy losses in the
officer corps propelled his career and by the 2nd of july he had been promoted to acting captain
on that day while riding back from a skirmish with the enemy horace failed to spot a boar sniper
hiding by the road the marksman took aim and fired landing a direct hit on the young officer's head
so i really hope you enjoyed today nah that's just a prank you see what we did there clever well it
appears that despite the marksmanship of the bar army surgeons saved horus life but the wound
was too severe and the young coal was discharged and sent back to britain his military career had
lasted barely three months leaving him with a campaign medal a standard army issue moustache
and a pension horace cashed in the entire pension in a lump sum 1 800 pounds and in
today's money that would be 236 000 pounds or 322 000 displaying remarkable generosity oris donated
the entire amount to the fund for war widows and orphans after fully recovering from his wound
horos set about getting a place at cambridge university with the help of a tutor he barely
secured entry and began his studies in october of 1902. the fun times were about to kick off
at cambridge horace hung around some promising students people like future economist john mayne
at keads later a friend of writer virginia woolf or leonard future husband of writer
virginia woolf and adrian stephen current brother virginia woolf obviously horace cross passed with
virginia herself she would later describe him as an irishman with beautiful blue eyes and a little
moustache and perfect figure but more importantly rather a dangerous friend for a young man to have
he was a wild young man it was a bit of escape grace horus proved her completely ripe by joining
clubs such as the magpie and stomp society and the cambridge alpine club the former was named
after a local brothel and its main pursuit was the consumption of alcohol the latter was dedicated
to climb in the college rooms at night and presumably after the consumption of alcohol the
hard partying student also entertained political debate having been raised in a conservative
household he quickly converted to socialism and became a proponent of the fabian society
which advocated gradual reforms what really made him stand out however was his love of pranks some
of his stunts were harmless for example if a friend was sent down or temporarily expelled he
would stage large fake funerals on the university grounds on other occasions he would dress up as
a bishop showing up at schools and churches to perform confirmations and baptisms other
jokes were particularly cruel once he entered a friend's room at 3am and woke him up in terror by
shoving a dagger into the pillow events such as this indicated that horace had a darker side
biographer martin downer speculates that cole's passion for practical jokes was a coping mechanism
developed to cope with his deafness with the death of his father and with his mother's rejection
the injury suffered in the war and the subsequent discharge had been the final trigger this was the
last straw which would set cole in a revenge path against a world which had left him fatherless
death and crippled by injury so there was a darker side to the joker cole was known for sudden bouts
of violence and reckless behavior interspersed with melancholic spells down or even conjectured
the coal may have suffered from bipolar disorder according to contemporaries and especially
friend adrian stephen horace's pranking was rooted in a disdain of established authority in adrian's
own words the two agreed that anyone who took up an attitude of authority over anyone else was
necessarily also someone who offered everyone else a leg to pull and during their second year
at cambridge horus and adrian started looking for some serious legs to pull
they were looking for the perfect joke to humiliate the establishment the tricksters
came up with an exciting plan dress up as german soldiers travel to old sass lorraine and then
cross the border into france at the time the two european powers were at loggerheads over control
of morocco such a stunt may have caused an international incident even a war the pranksters
would have likely even been shot horus objected to the plan not for the reasons that i just mentioned
but simply because it was too expensive the next best idea was concocted by adrian steven a
sublime prank which went down in history as the sultan of zanzibar hoax or the cambridge hoax
the plan was set in motion when adrian found out that the sultan of zanzibar was in london
on an official visit the pranksters set out a plan to humiliate the mayor of cambridge a
natural target due to the ongoing rivalry between the university and city authorities on the 2nd of
march horus and adrian sent a telegram to the mayor stating that the sultan will arrive today
at cambridge 4 27 pm for a short visit could you arrange to show him the buildings of interest
and send a carriage signed henry lucas colonial official horus adrian and their friends bowen
culthurst and leland buxton disguised themselves in durban's flowing robes fake beards and black
makeup a fifth cohort known as drummer howard impersonated their english interpreter whilst
on the train from london to cambridge the party learned that the sultan himself was due to visit
buckingham palace that afternoon thinking quickly on his feet horace decided he would impersonate
the sultan's fictitious uncle prince mccarcerali instead pranksters were lavishly welcomed by the
mayor and his entourage who gifted the mcguide book to cambridge and a bottle of champagne
horus reciprocated by donating the dorsal fin from the sacred ark of zanzibar the party then
proceeded to visit a local market where disaster almost struck an elderly lady who had been a
missionary to zanzibar accosted prince macasa and asked if she could converse in the local language
drummer the interpreter quickly stepped in claiming that the prince would talk
to a woman only if she joined his harem after an official tour of the guild hall in king's college
zanzibari and dignitaries politely declined to stay for dinner and hastily returned to the train
station the mayor had been utterly duped and his humiliation was complete when adrian and
horace leaked the story to their papers on the 4th of march the daily mail described the stunt
as one of the most audacious and carefully planned practical jokes ever perpetrated by undergraduates
when cole emerged from cambridge and into the real world he did not feel the inclination to take up
any serious profession well any profession for that matter and in truth he didn't really need it
in 1906 his paternal grandmother died bequeathing him a vast estate in her inheritance as virginia
woolf wrote and so instead of going to the bar or becoming a man of business he made it his business
simply to make people laugh and make them laugh he did cole launched a series of stunts designed
to baffle and humiliate the staples of respectable british society for example he would attend high
society gatherings with a cow's udder hanging from his trousers when guests took notice of what
looked like a protruding male appendage and gasped in horror he would produce a pair of scissors and
cleanly cut it off speaking of members on another occasion he challenged conservative mp oliver
locker samson to a race in a busy london street he graciously gave him a head start but before the
mp had started running cole had slipped a golden watch into his pockets as soon as locker sampson
started running the trickster held a policeman and shouted stop thief the politician suffered
the humiliation of being arrested and searched cole frequently targeted police officers to
expose their haplessness while riding on a cab he frequently brought along the dummy of a nude woman
when the taxi passed near a bobby horace flung opened the doors slammed the dummy's head onto
the road and shouted an ungrateful hussy before driving off at high speed he further disturbed
public order when he and a group of friends dressed as road workers and dug a trench in
piccadilly traffic was disrupted for hours while policemen struggled to curb the ensuing chaos
other endeavors were exquisitely surreal with a whiff of performance art for example once cole
organized a lavish dinner party for several guests who didn't know each other as they were waiting
for the host introductions were made this is when they all realized that they had the word bottom in
their surnames on another occasion he sabotaged a pretentious play in vogue in london he bought
several numbered tickets and handed them out the bald men thus strategically placed their pates
seen from the theater balconies spelled a popular expletive a four-letter word starting with s and
ending in t cole even took care of dotting the eye that's amazing according to another version of the
prank there were only eight bald men and they all sat in the same row but each had a letter
painted on the back of their heads so that the audience could clearly read b-o-l-l-o-c-k-s
not all his practical jokes were so well planned sometimes called like to improvise
as a dead ringer for labor leader ramsay mcdonald cole was frequently mistaken for him once spotting
a group of railroad workers he introduced himself to them as the politician to their dismay he then
launched into a terrain against the labor movement and the dangers of socialism none
of these pranks however impressed public opinion as much as his masterpiece the dreadnought hoax
in early 1910 cole was accosted by a junior naval officer who was engaged in a duel of pranks
against the officers the hms dreadnought pride of the royal navy could he devise the ultimate
trick to humiliate his rivals cole happily accepted enlisting the help of adrian stephen
adrian happened to have a rivalry with his cousin william fisher also an officer on the dreadnought
so of course he was gay the two devised a plan similar to the zanzibar hoax and assembled a
team which included adrian's sister virginia the parts were thus cast horus would play the role
of herbert chalmanderlay from the foreign office adrian i was the interpreter another four friends
decked themselves again in turban's blackface and beards including virginia to portray a retinue of
obsidian dignitaries they would be led by assal mccarlen the supposed cousin of emperor menelik
on the 10th of february 1910 a telegram was dispatched admiral may commander-in-chief of
the home fleet prince macklin of absinia and sweet arrive at 4 20 pm today weymouth he wishes to see
dreadnought kindly arrange meet them on arrival in repeat of the cambridge adventure may and his
other high-ranking officers bent over backwards to welcome the foreign dignitaries giving them an
extensive tour of the state-of-the-art military facility the absentian aristocrats admired the
resplendent uniforms and the mighty guns of the dreadnought shouting in praise bunga bunga and
other assorted gibberish when adrian was asked to translate the admiral speech during the tour he
mangled some words in swahili which were completely inappropriate mixing them with
latin and ancient greek the admiral invited the epsinians to dinner below deck but horus
refused on their behalf knowing that consuming food would expose the fake beards as an excuse
he claimed that the princes could not eat food that was not halal and even asked if they could
perform their muslim prayers at sunset at a small detail absinia now ethiopia is a
largely christian country and the hoaxes even wore crucifixes the whole affair exposed how
ruling classes at the time had little knowledge and consideration of non-european cultures after
the hoax horus and adrian once again revealed all the details of the press causing an outcry public
opinion sided with the pranksters ridiculing the royal navy for their gullibility and carelessness
admiral may was even subjected to a parliamentary inquiry this was a time when britain was competing
for supremacy of the seas against the german fleet and the oaks had proven that it took
only a telegram and some costumes to expose military secrets moreover it emerged that
may had squandered military funds for a large purchase of white kids gloves for the occasion
the year after the dreadnought's success horace's sister anne married a well-known
public figure future prime minister neville chamberlain cole's antics were a source of
embarrassment for jane berlin and eventually also alienated his sister this may be why cole
took to spending less time in london leading a debauched life in continental europe and later
in dublin during one of his trips to ireland cole fell in love with a young heiress denise
anne-marie joss lynch the two married on september 30th 1918. he was 37 she was barely 19. he later
organized a honeymoon which suitably took them to venice on april fool's day 1919.
he just couldn't help himself instead of enjoying the night with his young wife horace spent hours
dropping horse manure all over saint mark's square again a rather surreal stunt carried out only to
enjoy the look of confusion on the venetians faces in a city notoriously devoid of horses
where did it all come from once back in ireland the trickster had some close brushes with the
ongoing independence struggle with which cole agreed in principle nonetheless he was still
perceived as a member of the english oppressing aristocracy by the ira the kohl's estate rafford
was raided by the republicans who stole cole's best clothes and denise's jewels subsequently
the kohl's took residence in dublin's shelbourne hotel where horus spent the night's drinking with
novelists and painters while there cole claimed to have identified and apprehended an english
spy who tried to mingle with the republicans he declared to have him arrested for his own good
otherwise he would have been shot cole sent the alleged spy back to london with a message claiming
that the agent had been caught by legendary most wanted revolutionary michael collins word
spread that the trickster was somehow linked to collins or possibly that he was michael collins
a dangerous rumor in fact two days later cole was confronted by two black and tans british members
of the local constabulary with a reputation for brutality the two officers were eager to cash the
5 000 pound reward for the capture of collins cole displayed a remarkable coolness when facing the
blackened hands unleashing a secret weapon in his own words i produced some whiskey and succeeded by
lavish hospitality and reducing the men to a helpless state they staggered away saying i was
a jolly good fellow even if i was michael collins and anyway what was five thousand pounds to them
in the late 1920s cole's bouts of low malicious moods took over his playful side
this aspect may have alienated his wife although biographer martin downer points out that
they were ill-matched from the start he also became more direct and vulgar in his jokes
when the almanac who's who asked him to submit his entry coal filled in his recreation as fornicating
but with less letters he was dutifully excluded things deteriorated further in 1928 when cole
lost all his money in a bad investment in canada denise took the occasion to ask for a dissolution
of their marriage alone and almost penniless cole went on voluntary exile in france while there
on the 31st of january 1931 he remarried with mabel wright a scullery maid and former model to
painter augustus john on the 16th of march 1935 cole and mabel welcomed a baby boy
tristan later a tv director who also worked on doctor who by the way at cole had access
to the tardis he would have turned back time to prevent mabel from ever meeting augustus john
it turned out that mabel and the painter had been having a long-standing affair and augustus john
well he was actually the biological father of tristan this apparently was the ultimate prank
that life had played on the greatest trickster of his age heartbroken impoverished and forgotten
horus veer cole succumbed to a heart attack on february 26 1936 in hon fleur northwestern france
and thus ends the story of the greatest pranksters he may have left a wake of laughter behind him but
darkness always lurked close waiting to pounce on him when the end approached the destiny
he had in common with many are tricks to god like loki condemned to imprisonment misery and
torture but i want to leave you on such a serious note horus would not agree i will instead ask you
to post in the comments what is the greatest prank you ever witnessed or even better performed and as
always thank you for watching now just before you leave today's video let me tell you about another
channel that i run called decoding the unknown it's a show where i take a deep dive in some of
the world's biggest mysteries from what happened to the roanoke colonists the regular guy who found
a listening device in one of his power strips it's always a bit of a wild ride you can find a link to
decoding the unknown below or just search decoding the unknown in youtube and you will find it