False Rumours of Name Change
Rumours spread through international news media in April 2012 that the townspeople were thinking about changing the name of the town, or had actually voted to change it. The satirical website The Spoof! published a story on 18 April saying that the townspeople were fed up and wanted to change the name. This minor satire was expanded upon and appeared on the same day in the Daily Mirror newspaper and elsewhere during the following week as a genuine news item, and was repeated by The Guardian and The Huffington Post, who reported that a vote had taken place to change the name to Fugging, but it was discovered that a village with that name already existed just west of Herzogenburg. The irritated mayor of Fucking denied these false stories when contacted.
Read more about this topic: Fucking, Austria, Name and Notoriety
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