Why shouldn't it be true?
This is Spinal Tap was a classic. Not only did it document a totally believable rock group, it ultimately created it. Thus it's possible that a rock group that doesn't exist has released more than a handful of albums, and even has numerous fan web sites that document the group today as well as tell its history.
Spinal Tap is, without a doubt, a classic. But my favorite along these lines is a short mockumentary entitled Forgotten Silver which tells the story of Colin McKenzie, a pioneer filmaker from New Zealand. Of course it helps if you don't know what you've gotten into (if you know it's a hoax, you'll watch the film differently). I was lucky. I caught the film on Israeli television while channel surfing. I'd never heard of Colin McKenzie until I got sucked into the film and was fully taken in. Here was a fascinating piece of history which I'd never heard about. When it was over, I realized that I didn't even know the name of the film (the newspaper listed it in Hebrew). The next day I searched the web for information on McKenzie, adding in a few details from the film that I remembered. In that way I easily came across a number of reviews of the film (like this one, for example). These not only praised it, as I did, but also let me know that I'd been sucked in by an exquisite joke. I wasn't offended.
In the aftermath of a hoax such as this some choose to probe the psyche of the hoaxster, usually reaching the conclusion that he or she suffers from a special sort of neurosis. In the case of Kaycee Swenson, there are some who see the culprit as a Munchausen syndrome. Others question how the exposure of a hoax such as this will effect the amount of openness and intimacy that people are willing to express online. My personal take is somewhat different. After all, rather than asking why people choose to play hoaxes of this sort, I'm more inclined to ask why they don't seem to occur more often.
Go to: A life (sort of) lived.