Jára Cimrman - a national hoax genius invented on Czech radio

DEC 23 1966

Jára Cimrman, a fictional Czech polymath presented as a forgotten universal genius, first appeared on the radio programme 'Nealkoholická vinárna U Pavouka' on 23 December 1966, created by Zdeněk Svěrák and Jiří Šebánek. The mystification worked: some listeners believed it, and some demanded the deceivers be punished. Setting him in the Austro-Hungarian era let the creators slip indirect satire of the communist regime past the censors. In 2005 he won a public vote for 'The Greatest Czech' and was disqualified for being fictional.