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SALT LAKE CITY -- A tweet from hip hop artist Joe Budden sent Twitter ablaze Friday afternoon, claiming that legendary American comedian Eddie Murphy had passed away.
The response was swift and fierce, with over 1,200 users retweeting the message and creating a national trending topic on the website within an hour.
Then, at 12:45 p.m. MST, a follow-up tweet showed up on Budden's feed.
"My apologies....," Budden's tweet read. "My mom who's close to family of Eddie's, called me w that... Apparently Eddie Murphy is alive & well. Again, my apologies.."
With the knowledge that Donkey from "Shrek" wasn't dead after all, the Twitterverse blasted back with a new trending topic: RIP Joe Budden.
"Twitter deaths" have become an increasingly common trend in the social media universe. Oddly enough, this isn't the first time that Twitter has tried to kill Eddie Murphy.
Reports surfaced on the social media giant's website back in 2011 that Murphy had died in a skiing accident. When these and other celebrity death rumors are proven to be false, the response is often hilarious, coinciding with the relief of a star having not died after all.
A tweet from faux-handle "ShooterMcGavin_" attempted to summarize the day's events: "Why is RIP Eddie Murphy just now trending?" the tweet read. "That guy died after he starred in 'Norbit.'"
Murphy's most recent repertoire of film appearances may not exactly hold up the torch to his best work, but don't tell that to his fans. Clearly, the overwhelming response the actor drew amidst rumors of his death shows that his legacy overwrites any box-office failures -- outside of "Tower Heist," which did fairly well despite being near- ignored publicly -- that he might associate his name(s) with.
Many celebrities with ties to Murphy piped in on the unconfirmed rumor, including the actor's well-known brother, Charlie Murphy.
"My brother is fine," Charlie tweeted on Friday. "People who start these type of rumors are sick people."
"The RIP Eddie Murphy reports are false!" actor Gilbert Gottfried tweeted. "The cops found a dead black guy and just assumed it was either Eddie Murphy or Morgan Freeman."
Murphy is slated to play Jack McCall in the upcoming comedy-drama "A Thousand Words," set to be released on April 20 of this year. Rumor has it that Murphy plans on being alive to see the release.
But don't take my word for it.
