Unless you have been living under a rock, chances are, you’ve seen the “Worst Twerk Ever” YouTube sensation. For those that haven’t, the action is simple; a girl tries, and succeeds for a few seconds to twerk while doing a handstand in front of a door, her oblivious roommate walks in, sending her to the ground, crashing onto their table and setting her yoga pants on fire. What follows is a lot of screaming and not much success in saving her yoga pants. In the midst of the twerking craze, viewers have been laughing, gasping, and laughing again over this girl who obviously didn’t learn to stop, drop and roll when she was in elementary school.

Last week, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel brought the video’s star onto his show. Before the interview began, he showed the directors cut of it, in which Kimmel makes a guest appearance to save the day with his matching outfit and fire extinguisher. Yes, the “YouTube sensation” that was featured on Good Morning America, Yahoo’s home page and countless other media outlets was a hoax executed by Kimmel. A very good one indeed.

Well done, Jimmy. Kudos for it. The video has been on the internet for around two months now, and somehow your secret didn’t get out. It is nothing short of brilliant actually. Also, thanks for showing the millions of worried viewers that the poor girl is alive. On the other hand, isn’t it a bit disappointing, or at least disillusioning, to know that this testament to the stupidity of twerking was all an act? While a hoax is nothing new in the entertainment industry it is still a betrayal of trust to the many trusting online viewers.

The way that the video ended, with the twerking girl going up in flames, it didn’t look like she or her yoga pants would come out of the incident unscathed. It served  as a ridiculous, somewhat scary PSA on the dangers of the dance. Regardless of its illegitimate creation, Jimmy Kimmel has shown the world how successfully a well scripted viral video can trick countless people. Bravo!