Celebrity death hoaxes are weirdly a pretty common occurrence in Hollywood. However, they often impact people who are a little bit older. For example, I’ve been on the Internet myriad times when Chuck Norris has allegedly died, and the rumors have eventually been proven to be false, but he’s 84, so it’s easy to see how people sometimes get duped by these claims. On the other hand, American Pickers star Danielle Colby was recently on the brunt end of one of these death hoaxes at only 48 years of age, and she had a pretty sassy response.
Despite the fact new episodes of Pickers are expected to hit the 2024 TV schedule in October, apparently, one of the viral trends on social media right now is people thinking the longtime reality TV organizer and famous burlesque dancer has kicked the bucket. It’s because of several misleading posts claiming “huge tragedy” and “heavy heart” announcements--if you click.
Colby replied to several of these posts, confirming she is not, in fact, dead. She also had a pretty sassy take on the whole thing.
While the first bit is a pretty famous Mark Twain quote, I totally get where she’s coming from with hoping when she does die that people find winning and charming photos of her rather than screenshots of her mid-conversation on American Pickers. Is it too much to ask for a "better f*cking photo?"
Having said that, a lot of the available shots of Danielle Colby that are around happen to be from footage of her talking on the phone on the History Channel series. I’m certainly not defending making up a death hoax, as that’s poor form, but the footage available is the footage available. Still a hilarious response from the TV personality.
In the realm of all of the stuff being a reality star entails, I’d assume having to deal with death hoaxes is one of the more annoying things that happens on the Internet. At least she’s in reasonably good company. Henry Cavill also had a funny take when he learned of his death hoax. Tim Allen was “dying” to know how he died, in his own good-natured response to a similar situation. And famously, Ryan Reynolds took Twain's “greatly exaggerated” quote and flipped it on its head when he dealt with his own alleged demise.
At the end of the day, the Internet is a place of smoke and mirrors, and it’s not just death hoaxes the cast has dealt with. There have been rumors floating around about American Pickers ending and more as well. And that’s not getting into any of the reported BTS drama between Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz. A rumor about one's exit from this earth, I suppose, is just the icing on the cake, but at least Ms. Colby addressed the situation with a little humor.
