The Author of 100,000 Bad Jokes Debunks His Own Death: An AI Is to Blame

Han Wu, author of the manga 100,000 Bad Jokes (Shi Wan Ge Leng Xiaohua), has had to debunk his own death. Several AI-powered search tools claimed the artist had died in 2023. He denied it himself on social media. The manga continues to be published weekly on Bilibili.

The misunderstanding stems from the automatic summaries generated by some search engines. When queried about the author, these systems returned a false piece of information as fact: that Han Wu had been dead for three years. The fake news began to spread rapidly, fueled by the number of real obituaries that have dominated trends in China in recent weeks.

The author himself reacted with sarcasm. Instead of simply denying the hoax, he played along with the joke in his posts. The ambiguity of his messages triggered a second wave of confusion: some search engines once again treated the artist's death as fact even after media outlets reported his denial.

Social media post mentioning the author of 100,000 Bad Jokes and his alleged death.news.17173.com

A Manga That Outlived Its Original Platform

Han Wu rose to prominence on Youyaoqi, the comics portal that for years was the main showcase for Chinese manga. There, 100,000 Bad Jokes became one of the most-read series. The work parodied all kinds of genres and pop culture references, with an absurd sense of humor that quickly resonated with young audiences.

The manga's success led to an anime adaptation. The series received an animated adaptation and also a movie. Youyaoqi eventually shut down, but Han Wu kept the series alive: it is now published on Bilibili, the Chinese video and comics platform, at a pace of one chapter per week.

"The AI hallucination is too severe," posted the outlet that uncovered the error.

The episode once again highlights a growing problem: AI-generated summaries present fabricated data with astonishing confidence. In this case, the error was easy to verify. Simply visiting the author's profile or the manga's page on Bilibili showed that he was still publishing. Even so, the hoax spread for hours.

Chinese text mentioning the death of the author of 100,000 Bad Jokes.news.17173.com

The AI Corrects Itself, the Author Doesn't Help

After the fake news went viral, search systems corrected their summaries. Weibo's search engine began indicating that it was a hoax and that the author had denied it. Other AI tools, when queried afterward, also acknowledged that Han Wu was still alive.

The problem is that Han Wu himself has continued to fuel the confusion. His sarcastic tone on social media, far from settling the matter, has caused some search engines to make the same mistake again. According to information gathered by the outlet 17173, the AI continued to doubt whether the author was alive or dead even after the initial correction.

Meanwhile, the manga continues its course. The series is still updated every week on Bilibili, and its author maintains some activity on Weibo. The episode leaves an uncomfortable conclusion: automatic summaries fail more often than it seems, and a single joke from the person involved is enough for the error to repeat itself.