After the excitement caused by the Nike Self-lacing sneakers, it’s only natural for a video like this to go viral. It shows a demonstration of a real, working hoverboard, just like the one used in Back to the Future II.
Unfortunately, it’s not real. It turns out to be a fake created by Funny or Die.
I’m kind of annoyed by this. It’s not like everyone was fooled. Geekosystem broke down why this video was a hoax long before the truth came out. I mean, the special effects aren’t much better than the ones used in the original movie. And technology like this would probably end up in a secret skunkworks lab for the US government to make military-grade hovertanks before it ended up in the hands of people like you and me. What the skeptics hoped was that this video would lead to some new cool BTTF2 product, and not just a bunch of douchebag Internet video morons giggling behind their fingers.
The really unpleasant part about this video is how hard they tried to convince people it was real. The video actually starts out with a disclaimer saying, “These following demonstrations are completely real.” Which is an inexcusable lie. They also enlisted a variety of real celebrities including Moby, Christopher Lloyd, and Terrell Owens to “try” the hoverboard.
It’s not even like Funny or Die came out when the video took off to admit the prank. It took a sleuth to discover one of the people in the video listed Funny or Die on her resume to expose it, and even then, the resume was updated to remove the reference. Tony Hawk came forward to apologize, but Funny or Die made a fake apology to promote a contest to win a signed fake hoverboard which will, of course, drive traffic to their Facebook account. I guess that’s the real point of all this. Which is why I won’t link to it.
They could’ve at least released it on April 1. Stuff like this makes the Internet an uglier place to live.
What do you think about the video? Was this just a harmless prank or mean-spirited fun?
Related Posts
The “Real” Back to the Future Hoverboard is Here And It Sucks
10 Interesting Facts About Marty Mcfly’s Shoes in BTTF2
11 Inventions From Back to the Future II We Wish We Had
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<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="35713 ">5 Comments
That is pretty lame. For shame!
they should have saved this for april 1st
This is my first time seeing this. Since I never saw this on the news, I would be skeptical if I saw this when it first came out.
I first saw this somewhere and didn't even bother to click on it, because I knew it was a fake. I couldn't believe it when I found out people bought into it. Suckers born every minute.
Who says it's fake? I have one in the trunk of my flying car, right next to the DVD box set of Star Wars 7,8 and 9.