Fact Check

Butt of the Joke

Published July 15, 2015

Claim:

FACT CHECK:   Did a woman's butt implants explode while she was doing squats for a workout video?

Claim:   A woman's butt implants exploded while she was doing squats for a workout video.

  FALSE

Origins:    On 9 July 2015 the web site Newswatch33 published an article titled "Woman's Butt Implants Explodes While Doing Squats for an Instagram Workout Video," which reported that:

Serena Beuford, 27, of Boston is in a coma after her butt implants exploded while doing squats for an Instagram Video at Planet Fitness.

Doctors say Serena Beuford is in serious condition after her butt implants exploded. Beuford was working out with a friend at Planet Fitness in downtown Boston. After Beuford’s friend finished working out, she attempted to record Beuford doing squats to post the video on Instagram. As Beuford was squatting, she heard a loud “pop” which prompted her to immediately stop. Soon after the popping sound, Beuford fell to the floor screaming in agony from the pain. Other gym members rushed to her rescue until medical services arrived.

"I heard a loud popping noise followed by the woman falling to the floor. She was screaming 'my a** is gone!!!' I had no idea what she was talking about until I saw her cushion like butt missing when EMS took her out the gym."

Although this far-fetched tale about exploding butt implants was picked up and run as straight news by non-vigilant media outlets such San Antonio television station WOIA, popular women's magazine Cosmopolitan, and the Uproxx web site, it was nothing more than yet another bit of fake news from NewsWatch33, a web site that emerged in mid-2015 just after the very similar NewsWatch28 fake news site was shuttered.

Before publishing the above-linked article, NewsWatch33 pranked readers by fabricating tales about a white supremacist group that supposedly raised $4 million for the defense of Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof, about a girl who was reportedly electrocuted by iPhone ear buds, and about Jay-Z's alleged attempt to buy up the rights to the Confederate flag.

Last updated:      8 July 2015

Originally published:    8 July 2015

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.