'He Was Really in His Amazon Prime': The Story Behind the Trending Hashtag on Jeff Bezos' Death

Falling to the trend after Ellen Degeneres yesterday, the world's richest man has been rumored to have passed away; as the hashtag #ripjeffbezos became the US #1 trend on Wednesday morning, but is it true?

While it's not clear whether this trend is planned and is intentionally targeting some of the most famous American faces or a merely spontaneous social media phenomena, social media users took the hashtag mocking news of 56-years-old Jeff Bezos passing away, using photos of celebrities who look like him such as Evan Handler and Vin Diesel. 

Despite the news being mostly perceived as a hoax, some users took the chance and claimed that the $171.6 billion worth businessman lost his life "drowning in the Amazon river" after which his giant business has been named.

Others got creative; suggesting reasons for his alleged death, saying that his ex-wife must have killed him. Bezos had split up from his wife MacKenzie Bezos in 2019 after his private messages were leaked to the public revealing an extramarital affair the owner of the Washington Post had. 

Additionally, some commentators revealed that they feel bad for briefly feeling happy about the fake news of Bezos's death.

While one Twitter user wished that Bezos' unprecedented wealth will be distributed to everyone in the world after his death, another posted several pictures of bald celebrities suggesting them as potential leaders for Amazon.

The previous hashtag #ripallen was initially launched in reference to weeks-long unverified news that the popular Ellen show might be taken off-air in the upcoming weeks before users turned it into an online trending campaign posting photos of Ellen's lookalikes.