Here’s That Avril Lavigne Conspiracy Theory That Got Everyone Talking

It's been 15 years since the Canadian rocker and songwriter Avril Lavigne released her hit single 'Complicated' and what better way to commemorate it than to revive an old conspiracy theory that the singer has been actually dead all these years.

Crazy, right? But what's even crazier than the theory itself is that the online community completely turned it into a big deal over the past few days and even made memes and various Twitter parodies of it.

It all started when one fan posted on Twitter. She started a long-winding, elaborate thread of tweets explaining that the real Avril Lavigne died in 2003 and was replaced by a lookalike named Melissa Vendella - the 'Avril' that the public knows today. Her conspiracy theory suggests that the original Avril committed suicide after the death of her grandfather but because she was at the peak of her career at the time, her record label decided to cover it up and replaced her with a lookalike to continue her success.

In the thread, pictures were provided of the 'old Avril' and 'Melissa' to compare the stark differences and inconsistencies in facial features, fashion styles, and handwriting. There was even a photo of Avril from a photoshoot with the name Melissa written on her hand. Melissa was supposedly hired by Avril herself beforehand to stand as her body double in an attempt to avoid paparazzi. Melissa was then hired by Avril's record label to become an Avril replacement after her death.

Though this hoax only became viral recently, this has actually been going on for more than a few years. In 2015, there was a Brazilian blog dedicated to the singer's supposed death called 'Avril Is Dead', but was only set up to prove how fast conspiracy theories are eaten up. When this was initially reported by Buzzfeed, the internet completely ate it up, proving that the blog's intent was successful.

As of writing, the conspiracy theory thread on Twitter now has over 124,000 retweets and almost 200,000 likes. Avril Lavigne is active on Twitter and the internet crowd helped themselves with this opportunity. With every tweet the singer makes now, netizens reply with jokes like "We know it's you, Melissa" or "It's ok Melissa, we're here for you". Another example is when Avril tweeted to promote a healthy snack, to which a jokester replied with "Avril Lavigne would never promote a slim secret bar. The jig is up Melissa" which garnered more than 15,000 retweets. We don't know exactly how long this crazy theory and rumor will run before it's put to rest, but one thing's for sure - the memes and jokes are still here to stay.