Catfishing 101

So this woman above, she's your catfish.

Yep. Spoiler alert. Oh, sorry, too late.

If you were two years late on the "hot" indie documentary of 2010, well I just ruined it for you. You see, this mental case, is the type of woman who can run around sucker males on the internet by stealing photos and creating a robust fake digital social media profile.

Angela Wesselman, whose real identity is not revealed until the end of the movie, was a troubled housewife who spent the bulk of her days caring for two severely handicapped stepsons and building an elaborate web of online deception until it all spun out of control. 

As an aspiring artist who had started posted her paintings online in hope of earning praise. However, when she received criticism, she came up with a new plan and started posting them under her young daughter's name, pretending to be a painting prodigy. By doing this, she went from being a decent painter to an exceptional one, but her ruse would go much further than anyone could imagine. 

Wessleman fessed up to creating 21 different Facebook characters to support the character of Megan, knowing that having a Facebook family and friends would make her look less suspicious. She doesn't say that she has multiple personality disorder, although she does admit to being a diagnosed schizophrenic. 

So in other words, "yeah this stuff is certainly doable."

But many have said the entire movie "Catfish" is a hoax ITSELF (we're really in a house of mirrors now, eh?) and that while artfully presented, it's about as "real" as the "Blair Witch Project."

Whatever.

The movie producers have made the jump to a full blown career off of it, and I suppose good for them. The MTV show of the same name, does have some pretty amazing clips of dummies who will fall for just about anything on Facebook.

Like a fat chick in Redneckana, USA who can convince other women that she's really an Orlando Bloom lookalike. PLEASE, watch this clip below in it's entirety and try not to bust a gut when you see the sucker in question say her "boyfriend" is studying to be an anesthesiologist - BY TAKING ONLINE CLASSES!

Finally, you might wonder: "Why the term 'catfish'?" Well.... here's what they say...

At the turn of the century cod fish were in much demand on the east coast. News of this tasty fish spread across the country all the way to the west coast. There was however a problem. How could they get the fish across the country and still keep it fresh. They tried to freeze the fish and send it by rail, the fastest means at the time. When it was prepared it turn out to be very mushy and lacked flavor. Then someone decided to ship the fish live turning railroad cars into huge saltwater aquariums. When the cod fish arrived they were still alive but when they were prepared they were still mushy and tasteless. After studying the cod fish someone discovered that their natural enemy was the catfish. This time when the cod fish were but in the tanks they place a few catfish in with them. Those catfish chased the cod fish all the way across the country to the west coast. This time when they were prepared they were flaky and had the same flavor as they did when they were caught fresh and prepared on the east coast. You see the catfish kept the cod from becoming stale. The catfish kept them fresh.

So back to Mantei T'eo. What does all this mean? What's my current theory? Well, before I go any farther, remember my "theory" on the Erin Andrews video was dead wrong. I thought it was an intentionally filmed peephole video that Andrews had sent to a boyfriend, who betrayed her and let it get out and go viral. I just could not believe a hotel would be stupid and reckless enough to allow a perv to cherry pick a room right next to a semi-famous registered guest.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. They did. Wow.

So on T'eo, my hunch right now is this. The fake girlfriend was a beard. Either a beard because he's gay, or a beard because he was a poontang-slayin', field-playin', BMOC at Notre Dame. And BOTH of those realities, did not jibe with being a humble, earnest, Mormon kid at a prominentl Catholic school.

So what may have begun as a catfishy prank, T'eo climbed on board with, and milked it for all it's worth.

I mean, it's pretty clear he was lying at some point. Certainly he lied by omission for 3 weeks after he told coaches about the "hoax" on December 26th. To not come forward right away is certainly his/their right in order to keep the focus on the game.

But a lie is a lie. That was a huge lie.

And I think T'eo lied about sending her white roses. Otherwise, I'd like to see a credit card slip and an address of the "fake" funeral home he sent them to.

But hey, it'll all end up washing out in the end. The story is too convoluted for it ALL to check out as legit.