Kimmel’s ‘Lie Witness News’ Is Fake, Everything On The Internet Is A Lie

“Faaaaaaaake!” is a fairly common cry on the internet, and it’s one that’s been levelled at Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Lie Witness News’ on more than one occasion. The recurring skit — which regularly racks up a million views per installment, like this past week’s SXSW-skewering bit — has tapped into our innate human desire to laugh at the mind-numbing dimness of brain-dead dummies, who pretend to speak knowledgably about bands that don’t exist or fashion trends that aren’t real or news that hasn’t even happened yet.

Unfortunately, a cunning investigation by those brainiacs at Mashable has well and truly ruined it for everyone: despite protestations from Kimmel’s people, the evidence is mounting that the videos are indeed, as the internet would say, “Faaaaaaaake!”

I’d imagine most people were sceptics anyway — didn’t you often find yourself asking, “Surely no one’s THAT stupid?” — but, as the investigation found, in recent weeks more and more participants from the viral skits have stepped forward indicating that they were in on the joke or that the interviews are just the effects of sneaky editing.

For example, Mashable’s reporters tracked down Colleen McEachern, who featured in last year’s Super Bowl edition of the segment. “It is fake, but it’s all in good fun!”, she told them. “The people being interviewed know that the camera person is kidding.”

Another person who was featured in the famous Coachella video — the most shared installment yet, with over 14 million YouTube views — claimed that the show’s producers “altered her answers”. “It was fake. They replaced some of the band names in post and also used my description of other groups/bands as answers to other questions,” she said.

When contacted by Mashable’s reporters, representatives from Kimmel’s show denied the claims. “Jimmy Kimmel Live ‘Lie Witness News’ segments are 100% real. There is absolutely no redubbing. Regardless of what these two people claim, we possess all of the original audio and responses,” they said, also dismissing the possibility that participants could be in on the joke. “Producers do not prompt people in any way. What ends up on air is their genuine response to the questions asked.”

@jimmykimmel @katierawluk LMAO Jimmy c’mon. I was in the most recent Lie Witness News!! People are srsly asking me if I knew when the SB was

— Colz✋ (@what_itissbaby) February 1, 2013

 

In their article, Mashable also point to threads on Reddit, where previous participants and other familiar sources have called shenanigans on the skits.

Well, there goes the illusion. Thanks Mashable – the truth might be good news for humanity, but it’s terrible news for internet humour. Who are we supposed to laugh at now that the women who thought George Costanza was a famous Italian designer don’t even exist? This is a bad day.