Unfortunately, that story about the gay adult film star who beat up “35 Neo-Nazis” is totally bogus

We really hate to be the burster of bubbles. But, sometimes, when a story seems “too good to be true,” that’s because it is. This is unfortunately the case with a piece that caught Twitter’s attention this week.

With a headline like that, how could we not get excited?

Over the past few days, screenshots of the article have been circulating on social media, and many couldn’t resist the temptation to joke about its unbelievable story, hailing this Brandon Cummings a modern-day folk hero.

“Not all heroes wear clothes,” cracked the political podcast @MuellerSheWrote, to the tune of nearly 6,000 retweets and 69k likes. But while @MuellerSheWrote was clearly in on the joke, others were not, taking its sensational headline at face value.

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And that’s where Newsweek decided to step in.

Related: Neo-Nazi who called for “extermination” of queers gets outed in court

In a “Fact Check” post, the reputable publication performed their journalistic duty and found that, not only is this story fully fabricated by a new satire website, but so is the so-called “famous ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ series” of gay adult films and Brandon Cummings.

(By the way, we are absolutely giggling over the thought the Newsweek writer having to type “gay adult film star Brandon Cummings” into Google—for research!)

The source is a “bizarre and strangely written news parody” (Newsweek‘s words) from the site Daily News Reported, which publishes with the motto “Not quite daily. Not quite news.” Okay, then! The page identifies itself as “a fabricated satirical newspaper and comedy website” that “uses invented names in all its stories.”

Per the “Fact Check” report, every detail of the post was made up, to a confusing degree. For example, Daily News Reported claims that “Let’s Go Brandon”—the Joe Biden-mocking taunt wielded by MAGA Trumpers—in fact has nothing to do with President Biden, and is instead only the name of a series of hardcore male-on-male adult films. We guess that counts as satire now?

Related: Retired priest reinvents himself as gay adult film star at age 83, says he’s “having a party!”

However, one detail we’ll concede is pretty clever is the name “Brandon Cummings”—how is there not a working gay adult film star with this name already?

As Newsweek reports, a Brandon Cummings does not exist in the adult film industry, nor has the person in the photo been identified, despite the fact that the mugshot used in the post “has been circulated online for several years in articles about attractive criminals and in online forums since at least 2014.” So, apologies if you were excited to dive into Cummings’ past filmography!

With the post thoroughly debunked, that leaves two lingering questions: Why did the fake story become so popular online? And why now, considering Daily News Reported originally published it back in April?

Well, one need only look at the current charged political atmosphere. “The ghost of Nazism has haunted American politics in the past few years,” writes Newsweek—not to mention the recent spat of anti-semitic remarks from public figures like Kanye West, which have only emboldened certain Neo-Nazi hate groups to act out in public.

As Newsweek puts it, the viral post “appeared to tap into raw anxiety about the modern face and influence of fascism.”

In these dark times, we’re so desperate for heroes—people who will stand up to hate speech and fascism—that we were willing to believe maybe a feisty fictional twunk like Brandon Cummings could save us.

Related: These gay performers make getting out the vote especially sexy