An exotic dancer was busted by the IRS for failing to pay income tax on 1 million dollars in income she received in exchange for sex, from a single man.
The first American woman to go to medical school was admitted as a joke. Geneva Medical School thought it was joke when Elizabeth Blackwell applied to attend 1847. She graduated in 1849, started her own practice, and opened an infirmary for the poor.
Following the release of Rocky IV, a joke was making rounds in Hollywood. Since Rocky had run out of opponents, he would have to fight an alien if a fifth movie was made. Jim and John Thomas took the joke seriously and wrote a screenplay based on it, which later became the movie "Predator".