That Viral Photo of Justin Bieber Eating a Burrito Sideways Is Totally Fake

In the world of internet content creators, only one thing beats going viral: going viral with something that's fake. Beyond the obvious "gotcha" factor of having pulled one over on the whole world, these kinds of online pranksters are also almost guaranteed to get a second round of virility with the whole "here's how we did it" video.

So give it up to the YouTube channel Yes Theory. Last week, they went viral with a photo allegedly showing "Justin Bieber" eating a burrito sideways. The photo was so absurd, it almost seemed like Bieber must have been in on the joke. Except he wasn't in on the joke—because it wasn't him in the photo. It was a lookalike… staged by Yes Theory. And now, we can watch their "here's how we did it" victory lap.

The YouTube channel posted its 12-minute explainer on just how they perpetrated the entire stunt yesterday, and that video, too, has already racked up over a million views. Opening with a montage of different news outlets covering their fake photo, the video quickly gives way to one of the creators simply stating, "Gotcha!"

Twelve minutes might seem like a long time to watch a video describing something that isn't real to begin with, but it's actually an extremely interesting look at the nature of virility. "We wanted to prove a point," the narration goes, "that staging a story as goofy as it was can be done much more easily than most people can imagine." Ironically enough though, they then lay out their plan: which was flying a Justin Bieber lookalike all the way from Canada to Los Angeles… then brainstorming the perfect idea for a viral photo… then watching hours of paparazzi video of the actual Bieber to get his look down exactly right… and then dedicating an entire day to making the lookalike look like the real Bieber…. And so on and so forth. So yeah, it wasn't that simple.

But hey, it worked. And now they get to bask in the glory. Oh, and if any of your friends ever say something like "Dude, did you know Justin Bieber doesn't know how to eat a burrito?" you have a legitimate excuse to say, "That was fake news."