TikTok's Fake Celebrity Death Announcements Trend Sparks Intense Discussion

A TikTok trend which emerged over the holiday period where people lie to their families about a celebrity death has divided the internet.

Some people labelled the trend "weird and pathetic" while others warned that joking about death was not funny.

The hashtag "celebrity death prank" has almost 89 billion views on TikTok and sees people pretending to react to a news story about a celebrity around their family.

They usually name someone unexpected or beloved by the family member within earshot, to cause that person to react in shock and grief.

Some of the celebrities which garnered big reactions included, Jon Bon Jovi, Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Cher, and Oscar winner Allison Janney. All these stars are alive and well.

"George Clooney, dead at 61," the prankster would say out loud as though they were reading the news on their phone or laptop.

"No, don't tell me like that," screamed one woman wrapping Christmas presents as she burst into tears.

"Oh my god, why would you do that," cried another woman about the fake news that singer Erykah Badu passed.

There have been a number of celebrity deaths on Christmas Day over the years, so it's not a stretch for people to be easily duped by the prank. Some celebrities who died on Christmas Day include Dean Martin, Charlie Chaplin, Eartha Kitt and George Michael.

Despite the intention for it to be a humorous prank, some internet users slammed the trend as "horrible."

"I believe in karma and this trend is gonna go south very quickly," tweeted one person.

Another added: "This is unsettling, weird, and pathetic. Idgaf y'all ugly w****s don't know what grief is and y'all don't know the power of words. Anyone who knows about manifestation knows why playing with death is DANGEROUS."

And a third wrote: "This is so sick."

But others found the prank funny, with one person tweeting: "this is hilarious im sorry lmaoooo."

"I LOVE THESE," wrote a second person.

Some people found it unusual that everyday people would react so strongly to a celebrity's death, especially if they'd never met them.

"I can't believe people are this invested in famous people," one Twitter user said.

But mourning for celebrities is normal and very common, according to clinical psychotherapist Julia Breur.

"Feeling grief after a celebrity death is not unusual at all because when we like or admire a celebrity, we form personal attachments to them," Breur told Psychology Today, adding, "A celebrity may have played an important role in our life at some point."

The one-sided nature of the relationship with a celebrity means that people can immortalize them and because of the role they play in milestone moments of people's lives.

"Our relationships with celebrities are different than our everyday relationships," therapist Aniesa Hanson told Psychology Today.

"Our emotional bond with an influential person is based on our projection of what we need that person to be for us during influential moments of our lives. It's the idea of that person we bond to, not necessarily the person themselves—since we didn't come to know them in real life."

Hanson added that people feel that a celebrity's work will remain with them forever, "because we bond to celebrities at a distance, we have a tendency to immortalize them through nostalgic life experiences," and that makes it "difficult for us to see them as the mortals they are."