Jaunted

So his wasn't the funniest of jokes, but who was I to spoil it for him? I wrote the entry as if Matt's confession was sincere, taking care to embed the video so that Matt could provide the big reveal for himself. But a strange thing happened. People started believing that his pseudo-hoax was a real hoax. A few left comments as to how let down they felt by a guy who had seemingly shown that a smile and the ability to dance as if nobody was watching could bridge cultural gaps.

The Internet being what it is, one link led to another, and before long whole message boards had arisen to discuss Matt's alleged hoax. Some of those comments were nasty, others simply naive, but most seemed to get it for what it was: a joke.

This was enough to get Matt mad at us for, well, apparently for not spoiling his joke, so he sent Jaunted a note requesting that the story be "retracted or removed, as it is super-duper inaccurate."

As the author of the super-duper inaccurate post that supposedly lent credence to Matt's own claims of being a fraud, I'd like to look at this as "teachable moment." Several lessons are clear in the wake of wherethehellismatt-gate:

1. Most people don't watch the videos embedded in blog posts. I'm guilty of this myself. If I read the synopsis of a post and don't find the idea that compelling, I'll give the video a miss, figuring I've got the gist of it already. In this case, all it would have taken was clicking on the video to ascertain the truth of the situation.

2. People are cynical. The idea of Matt faking his travels is far-fetched to say the least - wouldn't it be cheaper to send Matt around the world than to fake it? - but people were ready to believe it. I guess we've all been hurt before, but let's not allow the scar tissue to obscure our judgement.

3. Matt Harding believes that the only person allowed to make jokes about Matt Harding is Matt Harding. Honestly, I don't want to start a thing here, because I actually like the guy. His original dancing videos are great, and I am one of the many people who forwarded them to my email friends. But seriously, Matt, I did you a favor by making your lame joke believable, and this is the thanks I get? Sheesh, man, this was a case where sunlight would have revealed everything over time, and you would have done well to let it unfold organically instead of getting your underpants in a bunch.

I don't think there's anything wrong with what I wrote, but I will honor Matt's request. Allow me to state for the record that, to the best of my knowledge, Matt Harding did indeed dance at various exotic locations around the world. And when he said that he didn't, that was a joke. Because he actually did. Okay?

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go outside and play in the snow. And I might just do the Matt dance, because it looks like fun.

[Photo: isohunt.com]

Related Stories:
· Where The Hell is Matt? [Official Site]
· Matt Comes Clean: He Was Faking It All Along [Jaunted]