You’ve surely seen the video of a woman twerking backwards up against a door, falling into a glass table, and getting caught on fire. The clip had all the hallmarks of an amateur production, including a realistic-looking background and a woman genuinely freaking out. Still, many people were skeptical that it was genuine. It turns out that the whole thing was staged by Jimmy Kimmel’s show using a Hollywood stunt woman.

Last night, Kimmel aired a interview with the video’s star, conducting it straight at first and then revealing that it was all a prank. The video was so good, and the reveal so well orchestrated, that at first I thought it was some kind of meta-prank, like Kimmel was inserting himself into video and taking credit for it after the fact. That wasn’t the case, it was a planned hoax. Kimmel explained that his people just posted the video on YouTube and were careful not to promote it at all. In a week the clip has had 9 million views.

Kimmel interviewed the woman, who in actuality is a stuntwoman named Daphne Avalon. “We didn’t send it to any TV station, we didn’t tweet it,” Kimmel said. “We just put it on YouTube and let the magic happen.”

Some speculated that the video was fake, but was not until now that Kimmel, notorious for his large and small scale pranks, admitted that he was behind it.

Avalon was unable to tell anyone the truth about the video, having been sworn to secrecy after they shot a video a few months ago, well before Miley Cyrus’ scandalous VMA performance…

What’s to be learned from all this? “Hopefully,” Kimmel said, this will “end twerking forever.” Let’s hope America can accept that challenge.

[From The Huffington Post]

Props to Kimmel and his team for knowing how to stage a viral video and releasing it at just the right time. This beats getting Matt Damon angry or having parents give their kids lousy Christmas presents, both of which were brilliant in their own right.

Now someone needs to take that animated gif and replace the stunt woman with Miley Cyrus. Even a photo will do. Come on Internet, this needs to happen.