Weird NewsREAL LAW OR INTERNET LAW?

Hawaii: Billboards are banned.

Hawaii's billboard ban took effect in nineteen twenty-seven, and Vermont, Alaska and Maine have banned them too; the crisp ban is fiction.

On air: Gloria Vance and Dale Bearman on BBN Tonight
Published 9:55 PM ET, Friday, October 16, 2026

Photo: Hawaii — Photo: Jacques Descloitres · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

First reported by Wikipedia: “Hawaii: Billboards are banned.”
Covered on BBN on Friday, October 16, 2026, at 9:55 PM ET on BBN Tonight, by Gloria Vance and Dale Bearman.
Topics: Hawaii.
BBN covered this story before: Celebrities gather in Hawaii for Jennifer Meyer's wedding (October 12).

The real story

The reporting behind this segment. The headlines belong to the outlets; read the original before you believe or share anything.

WikipediaHawaii: Billboards are banned.
WikipediaHawaii: Billboards are banned.
WikipediaHawaii: Billboards are banned.

What BBN said about it

Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe first claim, from Hawaii: billboards are banned.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorInternet. No place gives up advertising. Without billboards, how will we know where the last open diner is when the lights go out?
Gloria Vance · World News AnchorReal. Per Wikipedia, Hawaii's law went into effect in nineteen twenty-seven. Vermont, Alaska and Maine have banned billboards too.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorNineteen twenty-seven. They knew.
Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThey knew about billboards, Dale. That is all they knew.
Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe second claim, from the European Union: Brussels banned prawn cocktail crisps.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorReal. First the crisps, then the pickled onion ones, then the chip shop. The EU really got me on that one.
Gloria Vance · World News AnchorInternet. Wikipedia lists prawn cocktail crisps among the classic examples of Euromyths, stories of made-up or exaggerated EU rules.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorMade up. So the crisps are safe and I am not.
Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe third claim, from the United Kingdom: when a whale washes ashore, the King claims the head and the Queen gets the tail.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorReal. Whales are the first thing to go in a collapse, and the Crown always takes its cut.
Gloria Vance · World News AnchorInternet, though garbled from something real. A statute from thirteen twenty-four recognized the monarch's right to whales and sturgeon as royal fish.
Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe head-and-tail split comes from Henry de Bracton, a legal writer, not from a law.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorSturgeon too?
Gloria Vance · World News AnchorYou have ruled correctly once in three tries, Dale. I have been expelled from embassies with better records.
Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorThen I rule this court an internet myth, and I am the last judge standing in it.