Entertainment

Did Tesla remotely deactivate rapper Big Huey's Cybertruck in August 2025? No, that's not true: The company denies it. The screen message, reading "return to dealer", is clear evidence of a hoax, since Teslas are not sold through dealerships. The "cease and desist letter" accompanying the purported deactivation showed an incorrect current title for Tesla's legal counsel. The claim appeared…

Is that viral video of an adult gorilla beating up a crocodile authentic footage of the adult protecting a juvenile gorilla? No, that's not true: Sseveral visual artifacts that are evidence of common shortcomings of video concocted by generative AI. Among them, a white halo around the gorilla's outline, unnatural stiffness of the crocodile, and a fight in mud that…

Does a video marked "Real Footage" show a bloody attack by a dolphin on a marine park trainer named Jessica Radcliffe? No, that's not true: The video caption and title both say the footage is real, but the account that published it describes its content as "Realistic AI visuals | Viral edits". Several glitches in the scene, such as people…

Did a viral clip show a real sheriff's deputy asking a purple-haired woman "Does the carpet match the curtains?" No, that's not true: The man in the video was a YouTuber who hires paid actors to produce law-enforcement-themed videos. An organization representing real law enforcement officers has declared the YouTube channel fake. The claim originated from a video (archived here)…

Does a viral video authentically capture a teen girl punching holes in the tailgate of her father's pickup truck because he took away her phone? No, that's not true: The clip of the young woman is a re-titled excerpt of a video that was posted four days earlier as part of a TikTok user's campaign to build audience. It's one…

Did a viral TikTok video show the actor Sydney Sweeney responding to backlash over her role in a controversial American Eagle ad campaign? No, that's not true: Sweeney posted the video in question more than four years earlier. At the time, she was responding to trending Twitter posts critical of her appearance. The American Eagle campaign was not launched until…

Did The Simpsons predict that U.S. President Donald Trump would suffer a heart attack in the first week of August, 2025? No, that's not true: The Simpsons never aired an episode with this storyline. Several videos on social media show fake, AI-generated scenes resembling the style of the animated show, but this fictional prediction was never broadcast as part of…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump post on Truth Social about "fat, ugly losers" criticizing the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad campaign? No, that's not true: The entry in question didn't appear on his profile or an archived version of it. A search of news archives yielded no entries that corroborated the purported remarks. The claim appeared in a post (archived…

Does an authentic video capture actress Sydney Sweeney breaking her silence about the controversy over her American Eagle "good jeans" ad? No, that's not true: The video contains a last-frame disclaimer that it is "Unreal." The video was first posted to an X account that routinely releases deepfake/AI-generated videos that show prominent people commenting on current events in shocking or…

Is the viral video of "Titan" the giant dog authentic? No, that's not true: The creator of the original TikTok video clip labeled it "AI-generated" when posting it on July 27, 2025. Subsequent re-posts and lower-resolution copies did not keep the label and attempted to pass it off as real video of a real dog. The video of the gargantuan…

Did American Eagle apologize for the "combined impact" of Sydney Sweeney's "blue eyes, blonde hair, and general hotness" in the July 2025 ad campaign? No, that's not true: The company's official pages did not show such a statement. No credible media organization cited it as an authentic response to the social media debate about the campaign. The claim appeared in…

Does an authentic courtroom video show the trial of a wheelchair-using man who is startled by a bailiff in a monster mask, causing him to leap to his feet after claiming he can't walk? No, that's not true: The video is a re-post of a 2021 video by Jibrizy Taylor, a street illusionist who produced "Life Lessons" skits for social…

Does a viral image really show Hulk Hogan posing in front of caged migrants at "Alligator Alcatraz"? No, that's not true: The image is composed of two different pictures. One showed a Border Patrol facility in Texas in 2019 and the other showed a promotional picture of Hulk Hogan from 2014. The image originally appeared in an Instagram post (archived…

Is the viral video of Ozzy Osbourne saying "This was my final performance" an authentic recording of the late rocker? No, that's not true: It's an AI concoction. AI detection software found evidence that faces were manufactured for the video. The voice-over does not match statements issued by Osbourne, nor any fact-based reporting of his comments about his final concert…

Does the viral picture of Jeffrey Epstein, Melania Trump and Donald Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller document a real-life scene and come from a "newly leaked" "Epstein file"? No, that's not true: It displays a barely visible satire label. The image is not a real photo: A missing finger on the hand of the supposed Melania Trump suggests…

Was ABC's talk show The View permanently cancelled, as of July 25, 2025? No, that's not true: There was no such public announcement. As of this writing, the show was going on its annual summer hiatus in advance of a new season, said two of the co-hosts. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on July 25,…

Did Mel Gibson post a message on his X account vowing to expose pedophiles and human traffickers in Hollywood, including "Epstein's network and the Diddy connections"? No, that's not true: Gibson does not have an X.com account, or any social media accounts, his publicist told Lead Stories. The account that posted the message was created in 2024 and only has…

Did episode 12 of season 6 of The Simpsons predict the death of Hulk Hogan, as a viral TikTok video claimed? No, that's not true: That episode is titled "Homer The Great" and Hulk Hogan did not appear in it. The video contained several artifacts that point towards the use of artificial intelligence as well as a tiny caption that…

Was a viral video clip a real prediction from a 1998 episode of The Simpsons that predicted Ozzy Osbourne's death? No, that's not true: The video only appeared online after Osbourne passed away and appears to be AI generated. Osbourne did make a cameo on the show in 2020. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) uploaded to TikTok…

Did Andrew Yang post on x that British musician Ozzy Osborne was "a true American original"? Yes, that's true: Yang, an entrepreneur who unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States in 2020 and the New York City mayorship a year later, did write that on X. The edit history of the post shows he later edited the post to…