Samod Biobaku ponders over Jackie Chan's rumoured death

Jackie Chan confirms he’s not dead

By Samod Biobaku

Sixthsense34@yahoo.com

Internationally acclimaed martial art star, Jackie Chan has officially confirmed that he is not dead despite the recent buzz and reports that the action has died from a heart attack.

The Asian star probably woke up in bewilderment a few days ago upon learning that folks on Twitter had been eulogizing him all night after someone pulled a hoax and managed to get “RIP Jackie Chan” among the social network’s top trending topics, tricking several users into mistakenly believing that the action star had in fact died.

The good news: Jackie’s not dead. The bad news: someone over at Twitter quality control must have slept in this morning, because the hoax-based trending topic is still visible.

Twitter is often the first place in which (accurate) news of a celebrity’s demise comes to light, typically before the major news outlets are able to independently confirm it.

Seeing a trending topic along the lines of “RIP such-and-such” is common and usually accurate.

In fact, merely seeing the name of an elderly or ill celebrity in the trending topics in any capacity is often assumed to be a sign that the person has passed away.

It’s still not immediately clear who started the “RIP Jackie Chan” hoax even when it was still a few days away from April Fools Day when the hoax broke out.

For his part, Chan’s people used his official Twitter account to announce that he’s not actually dead: “Jackie is alive and well. He did not suffer a heart attack and die, as was reported on many social networking.”

We’re not sure who would pull such a stunt in the first place. But then again, Jackie Chan is famously known for doing all his own stunts and has starred in quite a number of popular flicks.