When i was in Junior High in the mid-80’s, a new fad was sweeping Queens NY:  pretending to shake another boy’s hand abs at the last second pulling our hand back and yelling “PSYCH!” as in “I psyched you out,  made you believe one thing then fooled you. ”

Eddie Murphy even used it in his famous Ice Cream bit in his defining stand up comedy special “Delirious”

Oh did we enjoy that?  You bet your ass we did,  good reader.  Oh the power in fooling other people.   Playing with their thoughts, so giddily, yet-mostly-still-innocently vicious.

We would devise detailed stories,  see how long we could lead someone on just to pull the carpet out from under them. “Say Vinny, I heard Angela likes you?”

“Really?”

“PSYCHE!”

We’d try to play it off “oh you got me,  that was a good one” then whispered “cocksucker. ”

Ok maybe that’s not so detailed a story.   Whattaya want from me,  it’s been a long time since Junior High.

My point is that there’s a devious pleasure in fooling people.

And the 2014 version of “PSYCH!”?:
Fake celebrity deaths.

Recently I read about the death of Macauley Culkin. We all know the guy did not find fame like he did in his youth.

Of course there was the much beloved Betty White, whom we all wish is the first immortal to exist.

And Wayne Knight.   Come on,  you’re really going to fake NEWMAN’S death?

Has 2014 gotten so bleak that jokes are about death?  I thought goth went out a decade ago.

Just proves… don’t underestimate people’s ability for cruel mischief when they have IT skills and anonymity.