I’ve been on a bit of Twitter kick lately, but it’s the social medium du jour so I guess it’s understandable. I’ve noticed a lot of celebrities Twittering away the hours which leads me to believe that social media usage is either really high among Hollywood types (and they have lots of time on their hands) or many of these tweeting stars are fakes. Both are sort of correct.

The Twitter Fan Wiki has compiled a whole list of phony celeb twitterati, which span the big screen, small screen, stage, radio, books, politics and even fictional characters (I guess you had to assume the latter were fakes.) Here’s a compendium of just a few imposters, some of whom have attracted hoards of followers who were duped into thinking they were receiving tweets from the real thing:

Sarah Palin (Former GOP VP Candidate, Governor of Alaska) – “Palin 2013!”

Osama Bin Laden (elusive terrorist mastermind) – “Still pissed about Saddam”

Pee Wee Herman (comedian, cultural icon) – “Aaaaaahh!”

Chuck Norris (lethal weapon) – (Though he may welcome all comers in real life, Norris is rather guarded on Twitter and has opted to protect his updates from those not pre-approved by him.)

David Hasselhoff (TV star, “The Hoff”) – “Deciding which leather jacket to wear”

Santa Claus (the nice one) – “Words cannot express just how much the elves LOVE reading your twitter posts.”

Santa Claus (the not-so-nice one) – “elves are driving me fucking nuts”

The USA (global superpower) -”Got $787 Billion in my pocket and it’s almost the weekend. Who wants to party?”

Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (fictional character, the only real reason to watch Full Metal Jacket) – “I AM A FICTIONAL CHARACTER, I EXIST FOR ENTERTAINMENT, MAGGOT.”

Eric Cartman (cartoon character, the only real reason to watch South Park) – “A hippie and a terrorist is the same thing.”

Uranus (celestial body) – “So you think my name is funny? You suck.”

Stewie Griffin (cartoon character, Family Guy star) – “Lois is washing my hair”

The LOST island (island…on LOST) – “I will be confusing the fuck out of you all soon.”

Darth Vader (Jedi hater, Lord of the dark side, Luke’s dad) -”Note to @Alyssa_Milano – Tony Danza is not the boss. I am.”

Satan (CEO of Hell) -”all my stocks are rising”

Global Warming (environmental phenomenon, the only thing keeping Al Gore relevant) -”Sadly, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite launch failed. The OCO would have measured CO2 in the atmosphere. http://tr.im/gJce”

Okay, so they’re not all funny or even entertaining (there’s a lot of wasted comic potential with global warming), but you get the idea. A lot of real celebrities have taken to calling out the fakes, but it doesn’t seem to have slowed the growth of the faux star twitters… at least until the long arm of  the law (or Chuck Norris) shuts them down.