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Subway Dieter Jared Fogle's Death a Hoax

Posted by Hannah Howard, July 1, 2008 at 5:45 PM

Oh, the perils of fame. Sometimes, the world is awash in love for you; other times, people are abuzz with news of your fictional death.

Jared Fogle became a sort-of-celebrity after losing 245 pounds on a sub-based diet and becoming Subway weight-loss poster child. Jaredremembered.com, a website solely dedicated to commemorating his death and the inspirational life he led, declared in an obit-appropriate solemn tone: “Jared S. Fogel, best known as the spokesman for Subway sandwich shop 'The Subway Guy' Born December 1st, 1977 – Died yesterday at 4:43pm EST.”

But the content is all off. The Subway Guy's name is Jared Fogle, not Fogel. The site has been up since March, casting doubt on the significance of the word “yesterday.” Oh, and there's another small detail: Jared is alive and well, and about to kick off his 10th annual Tour de Pants to raise awareness about childhood obesity.

But that small detail hasn't gotten in the way of mass dead-Jared uproar. The Los Angeles Times reports that news of Jared's fake death has been “spreading like light mayonnaise across the digital by-ways” for some time now. Turns out it's trendy to pronounce Jared dead.

Snopes.com debunked the myth last August. “Because he lost so much weight so quickly and became a minor celebrity” they wrote, “this young man became the focus of a spurious rumor that places him six feet under.” Snopes muses that envy or disbelief of Jared's success might be the catalyst for the morbid claims, but I'm skeptical.

"To go viral, it can't be an A-lister," an anonymous Jaredremembered.com site admin told the Los Angeles Times. "It has to be someone people recognize and know ... yet at the same time think they might have missed it in the news, or believe it's possible to have missed it in the news. It wasn't anything personal against Jared.”

I'm sure Jared will take it in stride.

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Tags: hoax, Jared Fogel, Subway