The best Canadian prank ever: bunga, bunga! 

This happened in 1910 - on 7th February 

A group of bohemians blackened their faces, borrowed turbans and clothes, and reported to the flagship of the British Navy as the royal family of Ethiopia. They welcomed them on the red carpet. When the pranksters wanted to express admiration, they said "bunga, bunga".

It was not first prank of the group... As always, they relied on speed, surprise moment, audacity, courage…

Their acquaintance, a theatrical makeup artist, sent his staff to the "General Staff," the Virginia Woolfs' house. He blackened the faces of the four "princes", fastened an artificial beard, and lent turbans and suitable clothes. The night before the event, they learned a few words in Swahili to make their communication with the translator sound believable. But on the ship, they also used fictional words derived from Latin or complete nonsense.

When they were ready, they sent a telegram to the commander of the Dreadnought that the Ethiopian royal family wanted to see the ship, accompanied by a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Horace Cole) and a translator (Adrian Stephen, Woolf's brother). Then they headed to Paddington Station. There they demanded a special train to Weymouth, where the ship was moored.

They got a special train. And a welcome on the red carpet awaited them in the harbor.
Cole couldn't have fun more. In a tall hat, like a respected minister in the ministry, he introduced the prince to the prince with fancy, utterly meaningless names. He jovially discussed with the sailors and respectfully echoed the praise "bunga, bunga" of esteemed guests.

Four of them pretended to be Abyssinians and two claimed to be their Foreign Office guides. Even Woolf's cousin, one of the naval officers on board the ship, failed to recognise the author in her fake beard !

"The sailors were so polite and kind that I almost regretted abusing their hospitality," Cole wrote.

HMS Dreadnought

The hoaxers were all part of the "Bloomsbury Group", a group of artists, theorists, literary critics, intellectuals and bohemians, which still provokes passionate controversy in Britain.

They could not be overlooked, they were not some secondary bohemians living in the suburbs. Economist John Maynard Keynes was one of them. Their influence in many areas of culture could not be denied.
For the conservative British society of the first half of the 20th century, they were as unbearable as Horace Cole. Although they were from esteemed and mostly wealthy families, they studied Cambridge, but they were leftists, Freudists, pacifists, feminists, some of them homosexuals, they did not mind romantic triangles, love and friendship meant more to them than a traditional family…

From Wikipedia

William Horace de Vere Cole (5 May 1881 – 25 February 1936) was an eccentric prankster 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax
HMS Dreadnought, the first of Britain's "dreadnought" class of battleship, entered into Royal Navy service in 1906. Dreadnought was the most technologically advanced ship that had been built; it was better armed, faster and stronger than any other vessel afloat.
 
"It was a nine days wonder; it was noticed and embroidered in the press, it resulted in questions in Parliament, it is said to have led to a revision of the security regulations of the Royal Navy. It was a source of endless merriment and some indignation. … The only merit of the plan, in so far as there was a plan, lay in its pure lunatic audacity." writes Quentin Bell, official biographer of Virginia Wolf.

 Virginia Wolf

Today we can ask how many Canadian jokes are circulating on the globe, what to believe and what to laugh about. Also what is  the psychologist's view of this event ? How many hoaxes are circling around us and whether they are as harmless as the entertainment of crazy intellectuals 112 years ago.

P.S. Some comments from Czech web on it:

Great fun.Today, because of hypercorrectness they would not escape and the subsequent penalties would be high...
So the Canadians are making a bunga bunga to their Prime Minister Trudeau, and he can't be found, it works!

             Thanks for reading                    Margaret