Kanye West is Dead, Long Live Kanye West: Is 2009 the Year of the Celebrity Death Hoax?

Rumors of Kanye West’s death by car crash began spreading online just hours after he, followed by label Island/Def Jam, took down a public stream of We Were Once A Fairytale, a Spike Jonze short film starring the rapper himself.

The bogus report, now attributed as the source of these rumors, reads much like a near-fatal accident that West actually suffered years ago. Even stranger, both are chart-breaking: While the real-life accident resulted in “Through the Wire,” West’s first College Dropout single and solo Billboard debut, the fake accident quickly became Google’s most searched query and remained a top Twitter topic throughout most of yesterday.

But West is hardly the first to fall victim to such rumors, at least in recent months. In fact, news sources have blamed the Internet for the rising number of fake-outs seen throughout this year, while one source even cites the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett as another potential cause. Could 2009 be the year of the celebrity death hoax? Judge for yourself:

Name: Jeff Goldblum
Date of Death Hoax: Oct. 21, though “reported” on June 21
Cause of Fake Death: Falling off a cliff
Origin: Global Associated News was the first to report that Goldblum died while on set in New Zealand. According to that same website, that cliff caused the deaths of Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, and Natalie Portman, though unlike the sources of other celebrity-death hoaxes, these stories were published with a disclaimer: “This story was dynamically generated using a generic ‘template’ and is not factual. Any reference to specific individuals has been 100 [percent] fabricated by website visitors who have created fake stories by entering a name into a blank ‘non-specific’ template for the purpose of entertainment.”

Name: Zach Braff
Date of Death Hoax Oct. 12
Cause of Fake Death: Pill overdose
Origin: In 2007, Twitter user Chris Laganella created and uploaded a webpage where he copied the format from CNN’s website, then changed its text and pictures to resemble an obituary. He was forced to apologize once the webpage surfaced and Braff deemed him his first-ever “douche of the day.”

Name: Jaclyn Smith
Date of Death Hoax: Sept. 22
Cause of Fake Death: Gunshot
Origin: A Honduran newspaper reported that Smith’s stunt double was hospitalized in the Carribean after a botched suicide attempt. Other websites “misread” the news, forcing the Charlie’s Angels actress to contest these rumors via Twitter.

Name: Matt Damon
Date of Death Hoax: Sept. 10
Cause of Fake Death: Falling off a mountain
Origin: With TMZ as its source, Bollywood91.com published a rather detailed account about the actor going missing on a camping trip before police found his body by California’s Palo Verde mountain.

Name: Miley Cyrus
Date of Death Hoax: Sept. 5
Cause of Fake Death: Car crash
Origin: According to various stories on Digg and Wikipedia, the pop star’s car collided with a truck during the wee hours of the morning, before she passed away during surgery.

Name: Lil Wayne
Date of Death Hoax: Aug. 1
Cause of Fake Death: Gunshot
Origin: Their source is unknown, though the rumors that followed said the rapper got caught in the middle of a gang dispute and was shot six times with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.

Name: Justin Bieber
Date of Death Hoax: July 31
Cause of Fake Death: Suicide
Origin: A story by iReport, CNN’s user-generated community, blames TMZ.com for reporting that the YouTube sensation died at just age 15.

Name: Emma Watson
Date of Death Hoax: July 24
Cause of Fake Death: Drunk driving
Origin: A number of bogus reports popped up to tell more about the Harry Potter star’s car crash, according to computer security blog Sophos.com. Watson’s official website dispelled them all that same day.

Name: Rick Astley
Date of Death Hoax: June 30
Cause of Fake Death: Not specified
Origin: Stories by Associated Press and iReport helped fuel speculation that the “Never Gonna Give You Up” singer/walking internet meme had been found dead in a Berlin hotel room.

Name: George Clooney
Date of Death Hoax: June 29
Cause of Fake Death: Falling off a cliff (sound familiar?)
Origin: Fake celebrity news generator FakeAWish.com published a story identical to what Global Associated News would later report of Goldblum, Portman and others.

Name: Britney Spears
Date of Death Hoax: June 28
Cause of Fake Death: Not specified
Origin: Digital jokesters hacked into Spears’ Twitter and posted the following: “Britney has passed today. It is a sad day for everyone. More news to come.” Soon thereafter, The Huffington Post reported that she and Ellen DeGeneres’ Twitpic accounts also fell victim.

Name: Harrison Ford
Date of Death Hoax: June 25
Cause of Fake Death: Disappearance
Origin: FakeAWish.com reported that Harrison supposedly disappeared from a boat in the French Riviera.