RIP Amitabh Bachchan? The internet’s most unhinged trend this week

If you've been scrolling Instagram lately, chances are you've seen a post dramatically announcing "Amitabh Bachchan passed away" — only to discover that the punchline is hiding in the fine print.

Welcome to one of the internet's strangest new meme trends.

Over the past few weeks, social media users have been flooding Instagram with fake Amitabh Bachchan death announcements that begin like shocking breaking news before swerving into absurd comedy.

One viral meme declared: "Amitabh Bachchan found dead..."...followed by tiny text revealing: a dead cockroach in his house.

Another claimed:"Amitabh Bachchan found hanging..."...only for the punchline to reveal: with family members in the lounge.

Perhaps the most popular format is the classic bait-and-switch: "Amitabh Bachchan passed" with microscopic text underneath reading: "12th grade in 1960."

The trend has become a full-blown genre of what internet users call "brainrot humour" — deliberately absurd jokes designed to catch viewers off guard before delivering a ridiculous twist.

What makes the memes work is that they mimic the style of celebrity death announcements, creating a split-second moment of panic before revealing an entirely harmless punchline.

The result? Millions of views, confused comments and countless reposts.

Not everyone finds the joke funny, however. Some fans have expressed discomfort over seeing the actor repeatedly used as the subject of fake death announcements. One comment that has gone viral alongside the trend reads: "Kisi din sach me nipat gya na to tum meme bnate rah jaoge."

Roughly translated, the user warned that one day the news might actually be true while people continue assuming it's just another meme.

For now, though, Amitabh Bachchan remains perfectly alive — despite apparently "dying" on Instagram several times a day.

And if the internet is anything to go by, the next fake obituary is probably already being posted.