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Don't Panic, It Wasn't Lil' Kim

Just the headline of this Buzz Feed post made us laugh.

"25 People Who Thought Lil Kim Died."

It's funny either way:

-- If some folks were confused by the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

-- Or if they were just making mischief.

The latter appears more likely — or at least it's the reason the whole thread got started. According to The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog:

"Shortly after Kim's death, cultural critic N'Gai Croal was one of the first to jump-start the meme, 'RIP, Lil' Kim,' he tweeted. Thousands more followed."

When he did that, N'Gai Croal also linked to a Bloomberg News story about the Korean leader's death.

(H/T to NPR's Stephanie Federico.)

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.