On February 17, 1995, Baba Wa Simba arrived in London in a black limousine, set to meet with his “London Pride” for “Roaring” therapy sessions. Born in Kenya to American missionaries, Baba Wa Simba—Swahili for “Lion King”—had lived with the Masai and later traveled to America, where he developed a unique therapy approach for troubled youth, which he claimed mimicked lion behavior. In reality, Baba Wa Simba was a hoax created by Joey Skaggs.

The UK’s Channel 4 show, “The Word,” had invited him to London to see if he could hoax the media. They set up several fake therapy sessions where television news personalities, including Brazil’s Pedro Bial, could visit his lion “roaring” rituals. They all joined the therapy sessions and reported their news stories while roaring, many on their hands and knees. Channel 4 exposed the hoax a week later, but none of the duped media outlets retracted their reports.