Flaming Twerk Fail Revealed As A Jimmy Kimmel Hoax

Viral videos may never be the same. Remember this video of a girl twerking and setting herself on fire?

Many of us suspected it was fake (the Internet is full of them, and many of them pretty convincing). But who would have guessed that Jimmy Kimmel, of all people, was behind it? He revealed all on his show last night:

Kimmel is no stranger to harnessing the viral power of the Internet, whether by bringing in his celebrity friends or tricking hipsters into making fools of themselves in front of cameras. But this might be his most convoluted experiment yet, as he explains in the clip that he and his team posted the video several months ago in hopes of it getting picked up and going viral. It's unclear exactly how the video suddenly exploded, but I suppose it's proof that if you find a new way to get people talking about twerking, they will immediately take the bait and run with it.

For some very real twerking, we turn to none other than Miley Cyrus, who posted this video online last spring, before she and the VMAs and her foam finger, made us never, ever want to hear the work "twerk" again. As Kimmel says at the end of his clip, "Thank you for helping us deceive the word and hopefully put an end to twerking forever."