Pitchfork Gets Punk’d

The past week and a half have been quite amusing. Last week I was tipped off about (what was then) an upcoming Pitchfork interview with Rosie Thomas and Denison Witmer. In the interview both jokingly mentioned that Rosie and Sufjan are expecting a baby together. Denison has been telling this story at his recent shows and said that he didn’t know how the published interview would turn out.

Earlier this week Pitchfork published a news article that reported the Rosie/Sufjan baby as true. Before the end of the day this news was quickly posted on every conceivable indie music site, forum and personal blog. The debates ensued. Was this true or a hoax? If it was true, was this good news or bad news?

Knowing all along that it was a prank, it still wasn’t clear to me whether or not the writers at Pitchfork were in on the joke. The article was so over-the-top it seemed as if they were. Then Denison finally came clean with a posting on his web site assuring everyone that “the whole BABY thing is an April Fool’s joke.”

This morning Pitchfork followed up on the news and revealed that not only were they fooled by Rosie & Denison but Sufjan was not even in on the joke. Says Sufjan, “I had nothing to do with the baby hoax. I was as shocked as everyone else about the baby. Matthew’s story was so convincing I almost believed it myself.”

For those of you that were fooled by this news you can get back at Rosie. Bring her some diapers when you go to a show on her current tour, but just “make sure that they are adult size.”

In the interest of full disclosure, and to prevent any further rumors from getting started, I must add that Ashton Kutcher was not involved in the execution of this prank nor in the writing of this article.

April 7th, 2006 admin

Entry Filed under: Humor, Related Artists, Rumors/Gossip