For anyone mourning the untimely demise of hottie singer and actor Will Smith, please take note: He’s not dead. In fact, the news of his death came from a simple, silly site called FakeAWish, where users can plug in random celebrity names and generate false news stories about them. According to the site, it’s one of the greatest hoax generators on the Internet—and given the crazy Facebook posts about Will Smith’s not-death, it looks like it’s pretty successful.
I’m not sure what I think about this site. It’s definitely another terrible waste of time, for sure; and I haven’t played around with it to see if it could actually be any fun. But couldn’t it be used as a form of libel or something? It’s not exactly fanfiction, after all; it presents itself as a fake news source.
But then again, so does The Onion, and they’re still well and thriving. In fact, today’s top story is that Prince William has already divorced Kate Middleton, which is also completely fake yet believable (sort of). And we all know about how many people believe that The Onion is a source of real news—some people are so taken in by the stories that it’s a combination of terrifying and hilarious.
Seriously, if you think The Onion is a real news site—and I know people who previously did before I posted that it wasn’t on my own Facebook page—could you at least stop voting?
So as much as I dig satire—and I really, really do, though I won’t profess to always understand deeply satirical works by authors who are much more talented than I am—I’m still wary about faux-news sites that only serve to further confuse our already mind-boggled population who thinks that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs, evolution is a fairytale, and Jesus is coming so we should all look busy. Isn’t Fox News enough?
Honestly, we don’t need a bunch of fake news generators to further muddle our minds and spread false gossip; just head to the supermarket checkout line or a junior prom and you’ll get plenty of that stuff.
Anyway, we can all at least celebrate that Will Smith is still alive. I am completely unafraid to admit that I love his music, I love his movies, and I certainly love those eyes. Here’s a bit of good Williness to brighten your day.
Feel free to turn it up.