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05th Feb 2018

Poor Peter Reid falls for internet hoax and announces Peter Kay has died (he hasn’t)

Thankfully comedian Peter Kay is still with us.

JOE

Poor Peter. Reid that is.

A great many people are fully aware that Wikipedia, although a very helpful and powerful resource, is also consumed with a pinch of salt. The self-curated repository may be impressively accurate and comprehensive considering its editable nature, but there is definitely room for short-term shenanigans before they are identified and corrected.

On Sunday, former Everton and England star Peter Reid, now a popular pundit, took a rogue update as fact, and announced to his 140,000 Twitter followers that comedian and (some would say) natural treasure Peter Kay had passed away – because he saw it on Twitter. An easy mistake to make to the uninitiated.

Poor Reidy was understandably gutted, using a screenshot and adding: ‘Oh no can’t believe this. RIP’

https://twitter.com/reid6peter/status/960263728070578176

In fact, it was namesake Sporting Chance rehab clinic co-founder Peter Kay who sadly died in 2013. Thankfully a throng of followers corrected him and explained that it was trolls up to no good and conflating the two…

https://twitter.com/JerIsher/status/960291281711845376

Reid went on to correct his tweet (sort of), by posting:

It’s not Peter.