1. Everybody loves a good fake picture.
2. Of course, picture hoaxes were popular long before the internet.
3. But the internet's taken them to a whole new level.
4. Pictures about shocking and frightening events get shared a lot.
5. And massive animals always go down well.
6. You can Photoshop pictures to make the world seem more dramatic.
7. Or to make a political point.
8. Or just because it looks cool.
9. Or possibly you wish to defame koalas.
10. Your Photoshopping doesn't even need to be that good. People will still buy it.
11. And the picture doesn't have to be especially plausible.
12. The golden rule: if somewhere has become flooded, you must add sharks.
13. Always sharks.
14. People love sharks.
15. If you can't be bothered Photoshopping something yourself, just take a picture from a TV show.
16. Or a film. A film that even used this as a promotional image.
The Statue of Liberty right now - | #sandy
Anonymous
@YourAnonNews
The Statue of Liberty right now - | #sandy
The Day After Tomorrow, not Hurricane Sandy.
17. In fact, you can normally just find a picture of anything vaguely similar and misattribute it.
Hurricane Sandy approaching New York.
Eamonn Fitzmaurice
@efitz6
Hurricane Sandy approaching New York.
Also not Sandy - just a thunderstorm from the year before.
These pictures always make good fake hurricanes. They get wheeled out pretty much any time there's a big one.
They're actually supercell thunderstorms, which look a lot more interesting than real hurricanes.
18. If there's a tear-jerking story that can go alongside the picture, so much the better.
A Boy Who Chained His Bike To A Tree In 1914 To Fight In A War And Never Returned.
Historical Picturesâ„¢
@Historicalpix
A Boy Who Chained His Bike To A Tree In 1914 To Fight In A War And Never Returned.
The bike is real, but was abandoned in the 1950s - the story of its owner going off to war is fictional.
19. Or an inspiring message always goes down well.
This is how #India looks like from outer space on Diwali Night. Happy Diwali to entire world. Wish you brightness. Pic
Mind Blowing Facts
@TheMindBlowing
This is how #India looks like from outer space on Diwali Night. Happy Diwali to entire world. Wish you brightness. Pic
Really a false-colour composite of images taken over the course of a decade, showing how the distribution of light in India changed over time. Which is actually much cooler than the fake caption.
20. Or a jaw-dropping concept - like the idea that this is the Earth, Jupiter and Venus seen by a rover on the surface of Mars.
21. Failing that, nobody ever went wrong with a fabulous owl.
22. And if you're still stuck for ideas, just claim today's the day Marty McFly travels to in Back To The Future II. That works every time. Every. Single. Time.
