"It is the fool who thinks he cannot be fooled"
About this Quote
The line lands like a trap you volunteer to step into, which is fitting for Joey Skaggs: a professional hoaxer whose whole career treats gullibility as a social system, not a personal flaw. "It is the fool who thinks he cannot be fooled" flips the insult away from the credulous and onto the self-assured. Skaggs isn't praising skepticism so much as mocking the smug version of it: the person who believes their intelligence, education, or cynicism makes them immune to manipulation. That confidence is the real weakness.
The intent is preventative and prosecutorial at once. It's a warning to the audience and a dare to institutions - media, cops, charities, the public - that think they're too savvy to bite. Skaggs' best-known pranks didn't just expose individual marks; they exposed how authority and routine manufacture belief. People "know" what's true because a press release looks official, because a camera is present, because everyone else is nodding. The quote points at that social proof engine and says: you're not above it.
Its subtext is a critique of modern status. Admitting you can be fooled feels like confessing you're not competent, not plugged in, not in control. So we protect our ego by insisting we're immune. Skaggs punctures that defense with a simple paradox: immunity claims are themselves the symptom. The cultural context is a media ecosystem that rewards certainty and speed. The more confidently you say "I'd never fall for that", the more likely you already have - just with a story that flatters you.
The intent is preventative and prosecutorial at once. It's a warning to the audience and a dare to institutions - media, cops, charities, the public - that think they're too savvy to bite. Skaggs' best-known pranks didn't just expose individual marks; they exposed how authority and routine manufacture belief. People "know" what's true because a press release looks official, because a camera is present, because everyone else is nodding. The quote points at that social proof engine and says: you're not above it.
Its subtext is a critique of modern status. Admitting you can be fooled feels like confessing you're not competent, not plugged in, not in control. So we protect our ego by insisting we're immune. Skaggs punctures that defense with a simple paradox: immunity claims are themselves the symptom. The cultural context is a media ecosystem that rewards certainty and speed. The more confidently you say "I'd never fall for that", the more likely you already have - just with a story that flatters you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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