Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Public Readings - Bill Cosby Death: Comedian Latest Celebrity Death Hoax, Previously Targeted Justin Bieber, Cher and Lindsay Lohan


Public Readings - Bill Cosby Death: Comedian Latest Celebrity Death Hoax, Previously Targeted Justin Bieber, Cher and Lindsay Lohan. Bill Cosby and Bill Nye the Science Guy dead? That is what social media buzzed with today as another celebrity death hoax went viral on Twitter and Facebook. 


In yet another elaborate celebrity death hoax - which fellow celebrities Cher, Jon Bon Jovi and Lindsay Lohan have all fallen victim to, now comedian Bill Cosby and Bill Nye the Science guy have to. Good news, both Bill's are alive and well.

A nasty rumor began making its rounds on Facebook and Twitter that the comedian had died. It quickly became a trend, but that was largely due to the fact that interested fans started searching for that online to find out whether it was true or not.

"Bill Cosby Death" is apparently not a new online trend. Back in 2010, the long-time comedian was pronounced dead on Twitter and Facebook of a number of times.

Bill Cosby even called in to "Larry King Live" to chat about his death -- the death that happened only in the context of an Internet hoax propagated on Twitter.

The 75-year old comedian said that "I don't want to do this anymore, because this is my fourth time being reported [dead]".

"Emotional friends have called about this misinformation," he said on his own Twitter account. "To the people behind the foolishness, I'm not sure you see how upsetting this is."

Meanwhile, another Bill has fallen victim. Bill Nye the Science Guy is also doing just fine and these reports on social media are nothing but rumors.

Another famous celebrity is Justin Bieber who has also had his name uncomfortably plastered next to the word death all across social media. The teen sensation has been the subject of numerous false reports of his untimely death. Reports came out earlier this year that Bieber had been shot in a New York nightclub and overdosing on drugs are two popular ones that seem to spread rapidly among fans and media outlets.

There was even a false article, supposedly published by Fox News online, that the star was dead. Fox denied ever creating the story, and the hoax website has since been taken down, but it was enough to cause Snopes.com to investigate.

All this begs the question, how do celebrity death hoaxes begin? What's your take on them? Let us know your thoughts?