We have good news for you – Jon Bon Jovi is alive and well, despite what TikTok says.
The Sayreville-born rocker was included in the morbid celebrity death prank trend on TikTok over the Christmas weekend. Videos of kids telling their parents that celebs had died went viral over the weekend, racking up millions of views.
Bon Jovi was a frequent casualty of the prank, popping up in numerous vids.
One mom fell to her knees when told he was dead, another went upstairs for solace and still another asked Alexa for confirmation.
“Are you OK,” asked a pranking kid.
“Noooo!” yelled mom.
All this despite Bon Jovi being active on social media over the last few days. He played a game of “Pink Pong,” which he won, with his son Jesse Bongiovi on their Hampton Water rose Instagram page on Monday, Dec. 26; Bon Jovi posted a Christmas themed pic on Dec. 25; and his brother, Matt Bongiovi, tweeted a response to the TikTok trend on Christmas Eve.
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“TikTok trend … Jon is alive and well. But the reactions … some kids aren’t getting presents,” Bongiovi said.
Bon Jovi wasn’t the only one to get TikTok killed. The deaths of celebs in all fields were subject of the prank, including Martha Stewart, John Travolta, Cher, Zac Efron, Oprah Winfrey and Sean Hannity.
The kids in the TikTok videos probably didn’t know it, but Bon Jovi is no stranger to the Christmastime death hoax. In 2011, a Philadelphia heavy metal musician posted a sloppy press release on a WordPress blogging site stating that Bon Jovi had died after he was found in a coma in an Asbury Park hotel. It went viral and was eventually refuted by Bon Jovi when he posted a pic of himself holding a sign that read “Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey.”
A request for comment from Bon Jovi’s rep on the latest death hoax was not replied to as of press time.
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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com.