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How Does Justin Bieber's Twitter Prank Stack Up to 3 Other Celebrity Social Media Jokes?
By Adam Wenger on October 12, 2012

Justin Bieber pulled a fast one on his 29 million Twitter followers this week, pretending nude photos of himself had been taken from his stolen camera. The prank worked wonders, as countless websites — us included — ran with the story.

Still, despite Bieber's well crafted prank, veteran publicist Michael Levine thinks the whole story will be forgotten by next week. "I think it's irrelevant. 72 hours from now I don't think it matters an ounce," he said. And perhaps he's right. But for the moment, anyway, we're happy to crown the singer the king of Twitter pranks. That said, he's not the first star to punk the Internet, but he's a good place to start.

Bieber and His Stolen Goods
On October 10, the singer went online to lament the loss of his personal property. He tweeted: "yesterday during the show me and my tour manager josh had some stuff stolen. really sucks. people should respect other's property." At the time, we speculated that "if there was anything remotely juicy or noteworthy on the devices, you can bet it will be plastered all over the Internet in no time." And what do you know, within hours a shot of a nude young man purported to be Bieber had circulated online.

Only, the shots were fake. And the man responsible for the ruse? Bieber himself, who tweeted this explanation: "since i was 14 i have had a lot of things said about me, from dying, to taking hormones, to dying again, to stuff about my family... to saying i had a baby with a woman i never even met. nude pics, drugs, my family, my character...but today...today i get to be in on it..."