If you spent any time at all on the internet yesterday you could probably tell that there wasn’t much happening out there as much of the web’s denizens seem to already have checked out for the holidays, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the internet tried to kill a celebrity last night, because that’s what the internet does when it gets bored. Just ask Matt Damon, Jeff Goldblum and countless others. It’s rarely not hilarious to me when it happens.
Here’s how it usually goes: A fake news website is set up to host the report of a star’s death. The text of the report is usually written with a wink and a nod for the savvy to be able to tell it’s fake, while remaining just real-sounding enough for the gullible to fall for it. The fake report is then spread virally on Facebook and Twitter by people. Such was the case last night in the fake death of Jon Bon Jovi.
Reports the Daily Dot:
Earlier today, the hard-rock heartthrob was reported dead at age 49 by the Daily New Blog International, a WordPress account that detailed Bon Jovi’s apparent “cardiac arrest” at the “Bamboozle Festival.”
Twitter failed to pick up on that last telling detail (perhaps a “freak, gasoline fire accident would’ve been too obvious). Obituary notices and tributes poured over the microblogging site like Aqua Net hair spray in a 1980s music video. In fact, Bon Jovi was mentioned more than 1500 times on Twitter, according to statistics from Topsy, a social media search engine.
To show that Jon Bon Jovi was indeed alive, the photo above was posted to Bon Jovi’s Facebook page. So that should prove once and for all that he’s alive since there’s no way such a photo could ever be manipulated. Yes, clearly, Jon Bon Jovi is alive.
OR IS HE?!?!
(Kim Jong Il photoshop via The Daily What)