The accounts of Jack Black’s death have been greatly exaggerated. For a third time.
After false death rumors in 2011 and 2014, “Kung Fu Panda” star Black has been victimized again. The Twitter feed for Tenacious D, the band fronted by Black and Kyle Gass, quickly dispelled a hoax begun Sunday, telling fans, “WE had our Twitter account hacked. We can assure you that Jack is ALIVE and WELL and that this was a sick ‘prank’.”
In screengrabs posted by the website Diffuser.fm, two since-deleted tweets, purportedly by Tenacious D, read, “RipJackBlack” and “I’m sad to officially annouce [sic] the death of Jack Black at the age of 46, rest in peace brother.” Another screengrab, by HuffingtonPost.com and timestamped 6:30 a.m., said, “It is with a heavy heart I am to announce that Jack Black passed away last night at 3:37am. The cause of death is yet unknown.”
Tenacious D guitarist John Konesky separately tweeted his own denial, writing “@RealTenaciousD’s Twitter feed was hacked,” adding that the death claim “ain’t true! They’re working on fixing it!”
Sometime afterward, someone calling himself Ruthless took responsibility for the hoax, bragging, “RT if I fooled you all!! . . . While you are all on Twitter, you should all follow me,” he added, giving an account name Twitter has since suspended. “Just a meme bro. The Legend is still alive, it is ok guys,” he continued. He additionally tweeted a photo of a miniature camera, writing cryptically, “Calm down guys! It’s just a prank bro, look there’s the camera. . . . ”
Black, 46, was first the subject of a death hoax in December 2011, when a website that specializes in starting celebrity rumors claimed that according to New Zealand police, the actor “fell more than 60 feet to his death on the Kauri Cliffs while on-set” for an unspecified film, adding, “The accident occurred at approximately 4:30 a.m.” For reasons unknown, that rumor then resurfaced online in February 2012.
On Dec. 2, 2014, a fake news items described how Black had died that evening after a stroke.
Tenacious D performed Friday at the Rock am Ring music festival in Mendig, Germany.
