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Citation Needed

Jasper Maskelyne

Citation Needed

Citation Needed Media

Society & Culture, Comedy

4.82.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jasper Maskelyne (29 September 1902 – 15 March 1973) was a British stage magician in the 1930s and 1940s. He was one of an established family of stage magicians, the son of Nevil Maskelyne and a grandson of John Nevil Maskelyne. He is most remembered for his accounts of his work for the British military during the Second World War, in which he claimed to have created large-scale ruses, deception, and camouflage in an effort to defeat the Nazis.[1]

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to citation needed the podcast where we choose a subject, read a single article about on Wikipedia and pretend we're experts because this is the internet and that's how it works now.

0:29.5

I'm no illusions and I'm going to be baffling your eyes and dazzling your brains with the ancient arts of podcasting.

0:37.4

But to keep you distracted, while I bend the spoons, I'm going to need some lovely assistants, Tom, Cecil, and Eli. Yeah, I don't care if the spoon is bent as long as I still get the ice cream. There you go. The gravity of my body actually bends the spoons when I hang them on my chest. Oh, interesting. There you go. And before we get going, I want to thank our listeners for the most important thing they offer us. A shred of validation when we tell our wives and kids that some people find our stories very interesting, actually. Also giving us money is nice. If you'd like to learn how to do that last bit, be sure to stick around to the end of the show. And with that out of the way, tell us Cecil, what person plays, thing, concept phenomenon or event are we going to be talking about today? A guy named Jasper. Maskely. Maskely. That's right. Oh my God. Is it masculine? Okay, Jasper Maskeland. Maskely. There you go. Maskely? Maskely, that's really. Oh my God. Is it masculine?

1:28.8

Okay, Jasper Maskelyne.

1:30.3

But it's spelled very, very weird.

1:33.3

Yep, yep.

1:34.1

So, Eli, you read the article about this guy.

1:37.4

Are you ready to, are you ready to assert?

1:39.7

Indeed I am, Noah.

1:40.8

Indeed I am.

1:42.3

So tell us, Eli.

1:43.3

Who was Jasper Maskely? As Tom conducts the final stages of

1:48.1

his experiment about whether one can get paid for a podcast they never appear on, we've had,

1:53.0

as a special guest, skeptical activist Michael Marshall. And at least so far, Marsh's essays have

2:00.1

followed a bit of a pattern. He introduces a heartwarming,

2:03.9

inspiring, or otherwise intriguing tale, only to shit all over it with facts and truth.

2:09.8

Yeah. Well, today, my friends, we are in no such danger. Today, we're going to learn the

2:15.8

incredibly true story of Jasper Maskely, the magician

2:20.6

who defeated Hitler. Incredibly true. I just want to say, as one fifth of the cast, I think I am

2:27.5

entitled to skip one third of the episodes. As long as you guys pick up my slack, I don't see

2:32.6

the problem. It's fine. I don't know if anybody's keeping score at home, but Tom, you write like 11 essays for

2:37.7

everyone at Eli's.

...

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