The past week in hoaxes looked a lot like any other week: Strangers aren't doling out their lottery winnings online, alive celebrities aren't dead, photos that look fake probably are, and imminent doom is not so imminent after all.
How many of these irritating pranks ended up shared to your Facebook feed? Antiviral is here to remind you that there's bullshit everywhere all the time.
Who really believes an entire country has the same haircut? Or that you're going to suddenly be able to float for five minutes next week? Because it doesn't and you're not. Mix up a fresh wineshake. Let's look at the bullshit on the internet this week.
Is it just me, or did the internet seem extra hoaxy this week? It's not just me: Wayne Knight is not dead, this woman was not rescued from a desert island by Google Maps, and the world's most exclusive restaurant isn't really. Let's get right to it.
Spring is in the air! But hybrid parrot-pigeons like those featured on Gothamist this week are not. Neither are these horrible bikinis, or a machine that turns water into wine. What is in the air—and on the internet—is bullshit.
The internet was weird this week. Mostly in a good way. But also in a bullshitty way.
Oh internet! Oh glorious fountain of lies and truth, oh tangled network of trolls and heroes, oh noxious abyss of Photoshopped Harry Styles photos. You are so wonderful yet so full of shit.
Here's a fun fact: 60 percent of all stories on the internet are created in a Hollywood studio by Jimmy Kimmel. Sorry, no, that's a lie—just like the little boy crossing the desert, the the sad Putin hockey photo, and the wolf in the Sochi hotel room. All of these stories took over the internet this week, and all of…
Obscure—that is, bad—satire is duping a lot of people this week. It's supposed to be funny. A lot of it's not. And it's really painful. But this is the internet.
Hey, look. The internet still has lies in it.
Antiviral is an occasional column in which we run down the worst hoaxes, pranks, Photoshops and straight-out lies blowing up on the internet.
Welcome to Antiviral, an occasional column in which we run down the worst hoaxes, pranks, Photoshops and straight-out lies blowing up on the internet.
