The Internet is ablaze with viral videos purporting to show real life hover boards – similar to the ones seen in Hollywood movie Back to the Future II – being tested by an array of celebrities.
The videos – that feature actor Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown from the Back to the Future movies) and pro-skater Tony Hawks, as well as other well-known faces including singer Moby and actor Billy Zane – appeared on Facebook at the start of March 2014 and have circulated virally since.
The alleged company, HUVr Tech even comes equipped with a Facebook and Twitter account as well as a webpage.
As soon as the videos garnered substantial attention, there have been plenty of sceptics who claimed that the videos must have been false since the technology to create such a board that is featured in the viral ads is simply not currently available.
And as it turns out, those sceptics were correct.
After the video was heavily scrutinised by eagle-eyed debunkers, several CGI-related flaws, including the one outlined below, became apparent.
Also, many viewers reported seeing the clothes of the skaters being moved by stealthy wires, and even our own viewing revealed what appear to be signs of harnesses underneath the clothing of the celebrities, which would be used to rise them into the air via connected wires and a crane.
Also, a WHOIS search reveals the website www.huvrtech.com was only created very recently, in November 2013, and only leased for 1 year. Something which would be considered unusual behaviour for a technology company with a product almost ready-for-market.
Not only that but online magazine website Mashable.com uncovered who was really behind the viral hoax – popular humour website FunnyorDie.com – after a costume designer inadvertently included working on the hoax campaign on her online CV, outing FunnyorDie as the company in charge. D’oh.
So no, hover boards, or HUVr boards, are not real. Sorry to burst that bubble – the video is merely a digitally manipulated hoax campaign orchestrated by FunnyorDie.com.
Check out the popular viral video below.
