Richard Benjamin Harrison, aka the “the Old Man” on “Pawn Stars,” isn’t just dead. He’s being killed over and over on a hoax Facebook page that refuses to die.
Six hours after Snopes.com (and others) noted that the gruff, wise-cracking patriarch of the Las Vegas pawn shop is still very much alive, the Facebook page RIP, Old Man Harrison doubled down on the passing.
As Snopes reported Tuesday: “In June 2016, a rumor began to make the rounds on social media that Richard Harrison, known as ‘The Old Man’ on the History Channel show Pawn Stars, had passed away. The rumor appears to have originated with a Facebook page called RIP ‘Old Man’ Harrison which was created on 26 June 2016.”
Snopes writer Dan Evon suggests the hoax page is a “like” farm.
“These pages are set up with the intent of using salacious or shocking information (which has only the faintest likelihood of being real) in order to gain likes and shares.” Evon wrote.
But the memes kept surfacing:
