I recently encountered Alan Abel in a recent Wikipedia pedestrianation (Alan Abel's Wikipedia entry). I've took about taking absurd hoaxes to their extreme conclusions, and so it's an almost immediate admiration. He took several politcally-motivated hoaxes (satiring some of the lowest elements of the political system) across several years of active work. Most defining is his 3 year "SINA" (Society for Indecency to Animals) campaign that had Buck Henry pretending to be the President of an organization attempting to clothe large 4-legged animals. People even tried to contribute to the fake organization.
I'm very interested to see the documentary on him, Abel Raises Cain.
On a side note, I'm tempted by the Get Smart Box DVD Set. (Something of the Wikipedia path I meandered the other day: Casino Royale -> Baccarrat (simple Blackjack-like casino game that offers the closest casino bet to 50:50, and the game in the book) -> James Bond -> Get Smart -> Buck Henry -> Alan Abel; somewhere in there was DuMont as well (The Lost American Television Network).)