A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.
The English philologist Robert Nares (1753–1829) says that the word hoax was coined in the late 18th century as a contraction of the verb hocus, which means "to cheat", "to impose upon" or "to befuddle often with drugged liquor".Hocus is a shortening of the magic incantation hocus pocus, whose origin is disputed.
Robert Nares defined the word hoax as meaning "to cheat", dating from Thomas Ady's 1656 book A candle in the dark, or a treatise on the nature of witches and witchcraft.
The term hoax is occasionally used in reference to urban legends and rumors, but the folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand argues that most of them lack evidence of deliberate creations of falsehood and are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes, so the term should be used for only those with a probable conscious attempt to deceive. As for the closely related terms practical joke and prank, Brunvand states that although there are instances where they overlap, hoax tends to indicate "relatively complex and large-scale fabrications" and includes deceptions that go beyond the merely playful and "cause material loss or harm to the victim".
The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or otherwise transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012. This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, and as such, festivities to commemorate the date took place on 21 December 2012 in the countries that were part of the Mayan civilization (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador), with main events at Chichén Itzá in Mexico, and Tikal in Guatemala.
Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae were proposed as pertaining to this date. A New Age interpretation held that the date marked the start of a period during which Earth and its inhabitants would undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 21 December 2012 would mark the beginning of a new era. Others suggested that the date marked the end of the world or a similar catastrophe. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world included the arrival of the next solar maximum, an interaction between Earth and the black hole at the center of the galaxy, or Earth's collision with a planet called Nibiru.
In July of '69
We blasted off to space,
to beat the Russians to the moon
And win the great space race!
But did we ever really go?
Or was it all a lie?
I posit that it's just a hoax
And now I'll tell you why!
Tell me, tell me why...
Tell me, tell me why!
It was a hoax that summer's eve
They showed it on TV,
But they control the media
And everything we see!
They filmed on a sound stage
In Area 51,
They thought that you would never know,
They think the public's dumb!
They think the public's dumb...
They think the public's dumb!
A hoax, a hoax,
This man's a joke!
A liar, a lout and a loon!
His argument's hollow,
Eleventh Apollo landed on the moon!
A hoax, a hoax?
It wasn't a joke,
History says that it's so,
I think that you'll find
That you can't change our mind,
All we'll say is no!
Al we'll say is no!
All we'll say is no!
They got some lights and rigged them up
To replicate the sun,
A big mistake two shadows make,
Of suns, there's only one!
Their footprints were formed perfectly,
Old Glory waved with grace,
That's quite a feat upon the moon,
Low gravity in space!
Low gravity in space...
Low gravity in space!
A hoax, a hoax,
This man's a joke!
The facts are black and white!
You cannot proclaim that they falsely exclaimed
'One small step!' That night!
A hoax, a hoax?
It wasn't a joke,
NASA says that it's true,
You must believe us,
They wouldn't deceive us,
We won't agree with you!
We won't agree with you!
Now here's the biggest fact my friends,
The one you can't refuse,
In forty years we've not been back,
Since 1972!
So why is that? Why not return?
What is there to hide?
It's that we never landed there!
It's all a big fat lie!
It's all a big fat lie...
It's all a big fat lie!
A hoax, a hoax,
This man's no joke!
The facts are terribly grey!
You stand at your altar and never did falter!
Opinions start to sway!
A hoax, a hoax,
The biggest of jokes!
Conspiracy runs deep!
We thought you we're lying but now we're denying
Mankind's giant leap!
Mankind's giant leap!
All aboard the truth express!
Next stop, the moon!
What can we believe is true?
Forget my car, I'm never driving again! Only listening
to people I hear on the train! God, I love the CTA!
The moon... The moon...it's all a lie...
I've given you a gift my friends,
A truth I ask you share! (I'll share!)
Enlighten all the people who
Believe without a care! (Right on!)
And as for me I take my leave
Across the nation wide! (Don't go!)
To tell all of the common folk,
The landing was a lie!
The landing was a lie!
The landing was a lie!
Apologies to Neil and Buzz,
I say the landing never was!