Sam Hyde Is The Shooter Hoaxes

2015hoax / image macroresurgent

Sam Hyde Is The Shooter is a long-running 4chan hoax that falsely names comedian Sam Hyde as the gunman after mass shootings, using a photo of him holding an AK-style rifle. It started with the 2015 Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood attack and has been recycled after nearly every major U.S. shooting since, including the 2024 Trump rally attempt.

hoax memes4chan memestrolling memesmisinformation memesunwilling celebrity memes

Overview

Sam Hyde Is The Shooter is a running hoax in which 4chan users, trolls, and Sam Hyde antifans falsely identify the American comedian as the gunman behind high-profile mass shootings1. The bait usually pairs a photo of Hyde with blonde hair, glasses, a black shirt and an AK-style rifle with fake breaking-news copy, though Photoshopped variants swap in different faces or aliases3.

Since November 2015, the joke has been recycled after almost every major U.S. shooting, from Colorado to California to Texas, and internationally, sometimes fooling working reporters and even a sitting congressman1. Hyde himself has said the FBI questioned him more than once because of it2.

How It Spread

Days later, after the December 2015 San Bernardino attack, fake accounts, including a spoof Bill O'Reilly handle, pushed Hyde as a suspect before the real killers, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, were named by police1. On June 1, 2016, X user @removerofkebabs posted Hyde's photo with the caption "BREAKING: AP confirms UCLA shooter is Sam Hyde," collecting more than 110 likes and 210 retweets before the post was deleted; the actual UCLA gunman was Mainak Sarkar4.

The hoax reached cable news on November 8, 2017, when Rep. Vicente González repeated Hyde's name during a CNN interview about the Sutherland Springs church shooting in Texas5. BuzzFeed reporter Ishmael Daro traced part of the campaign to Daily Stormer readers who were instructed to "mention Sam Hyde and act like everyone is supposed to know who he is" in article comment sections, which Hyde himself described to BuzzFeed as an anti-Semitic bullying effort against him1. On August 4, 2019, Hyde posted a video on his YouTube channel talking about the meme and the FBI visits it triggered, which pulled more than 404,000 views and 11,000 likes2.

The template came roaring back on July 13, 2024, after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally. X user @liberaldestro posted Hyde's picture next to shooting footage captioned "39-year-old Sam Hyde has been identified as the man responsible for shooting at Trump," gathering more than 500 likes and 62 reposts within four days6.

How to Use This Meme

The typical format is a fake breaking-news post that names Sam Hyde as the suspect within minutes of a real shooting or violent event, usually attached to the AK-style rifle photo or a Photoshopped edit that swaps his face onto a police lineup or news chyron3. Posters often mimic wire-service phrasing like "AP confirms" or "suspect identified as" to try to slip past casual readers, and the joke is only funny to people already in on it4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sam Hyde Is The Shooter Hoaxes

2015hoax / image macroresurgent

Sam Hyde Is The Shooter is a long-running 4chan hoax that falsely names comedian Sam Hyde as the gunman after mass shootings, using a photo of him holding an AK-style rifle. It started with the 2015 Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood attack and has been recycled after nearly every major U.S. shooting since, including the 2024 Trump rally attempt.

hoax memes 4chan memes trolling memes misinformation memes unwilling celebrity memes

Overview

Sam Hyde Is The Shooter is a running hoax in which 4chan users, trolls, and Sam Hyde antifans falsely identify the American comedian as the gunman behind high-profile mass shootings1. The bait usually pairs a photo of Hyde with blonde hair, glasses, a black shirt and an AK-style rifle with fake breaking-news copy, though Photoshopped variants swap in different faces or aliases3.

Since November 2015, the joke has been recycled after almost every major U.S. shooting, from Colorado to California to Texas, and internationally, sometimes fooling working reporters and even a sitting congressman1. Hyde himself has said the FBI questioned him more than once because of it2.

How It Spread

Days later, after the December 2015 San Bernardino attack, fake accounts, including a spoof Bill O'Reilly handle, pushed Hyde as a suspect before the real killers, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, were named by police1. On June 1, 2016, X user @removerofkebabs posted Hyde's photo with the caption "BREAKING: AP confirms UCLA shooter is Sam Hyde," collecting more than 110 likes and 210 retweets before the post was deleted; the actual UCLA gunman was Mainak Sarkar4.

The hoax reached cable news on November 8, 2017, when Rep. Vicente González repeated Hyde's name during a CNN interview about the Sutherland Springs church shooting in Texas5. BuzzFeed reporter Ishmael Daro traced part of the campaign to Daily Stormer readers who were instructed to "mention Sam Hyde and act like everyone is supposed to know who he is" in article comment sections, which Hyde himself described to BuzzFeed as an anti-Semitic bullying effort against him1. On August 4, 2019, Hyde posted a video on his YouTube channel talking about the meme and the FBI visits it triggered, which pulled more than 404,000 views and 11,000 likes2.

The template came roaring back on July 13, 2024, after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally. X user @liberaldestro posted Hyde's picture next to shooting footage captioned "39-year-old Sam Hyde has been identified as the man responsible for shooting at Trump," gathering more than 500 likes and 62 reposts within four days6.

How to Use This Meme

The typical format is a fake breaking-news post that names Sam Hyde as the suspect within minutes of a real shooting or violent event, usually attached to the AK-style rifle photo or a Photoshopped edit that swaps his face onto a police lineup or news chyron3. Posters often mimic wire-service phrasing like "AP confirms" or "suspect identified as" to try to slip past casual readers, and the joke is only funny to people already in on it4.

Frequently Asked Questions