#RIP, The Celebrity Death Hoax Fad Phenomenon

Celebrities tend to live soap opera character lives full of intrigue and untimely deaths. Some celebrities, whether they like it or not,are forced to represent the soap opera persona that rises like the phoenix from death time and time again. We can thank Twitter for the increase in celebrity death hoaxes.

Twitter has become a cyberkiller. All it takes is one person trying to be funny, unleashing the hashtag #RIP followed by a very much alive celebrity’s name and sending it off into cyberspace for the rest of the world to retweet to their followers. This is the new way to murder an unsuspecting celebrity.

Why do these hoaxes and pranksters exist? Is it all in good fun? Celebrities usually catch news of their untimely and false demise quickly, issuing a denial statement to squash death rumors. So, no harm done right? Maybe. But people who create these hoaxes should really take a moment to consider the karma they are putting into the world and think about why they are compelled to spread false rumors.

Gayle Falkenthal of The Washington Times Communities, posted this quote from San Diego-based clinical psychologist Michael Mantellto attempt to explain the thought process of hoax creators:

“Twitter allows liars to creatively manipulate a sense of power over tens or hundreds of thousands of followers. The power they wield works because they play on our adoration of the stars they write about coupled with our emotions upon hearing of a “death” or tragedy occurring to them, blinding our rational thinking and normal skepticism,” explained Dr. Mantell. “They want us to feel emotion instead of use our critical thinking.

“It builds the sense of power in the perpetrator of the hoax, but only temporarily. He/she must do it again to keep up their otherwise failing and false sense of power. They do it to build up their own sense of poor self-esteem that borders on self-loathing.

“There is also the “I want to be first to spread the news–makes me feel important–I’ll tell my friends before anyone else does.” This helps cement the erroneous belief we hold onto. We believe things more when we spread them to others,” said Dr. Mantell.

Here are just a few celebrities who met their false deaths via freak accidents. But remember, if you find a #RIP message on your Twitter feed, check out a reliable, reputable news source before retweeting. Don’t be duped by pranksters!

Bill Cosby has died at least 5 times. We are thankful that these are simply rumors. Who else would be sad if Dr. Huxtable died?

Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, was reported dead from a fall off of  New Zealand mountain. How ironic, considering his name. His response to the rumors? ”I would love to meet the person who is starting rumors of my death – to show them how a dead foot feels up their ass,” he tweeted.

Britney Spears was one of Twitter’s first cyberkiller victims. However, she quickly squashed rumors with a to-the-point tweet that she was  ”fine and dandy.”

What do you think of celebrity death hoaxes? Do fall for them or does it take a little more convincing?