He Said He Was on a Private Jet, Now He's the Internet's Favorite New Meme

Instructions on how to become an instant meme. 

1. Try to make yourself seem like a super cool dude with a fib that's easy to spot.
2. Sit back and watch the internet go to work. 

At least, that's how it's gone for Bow Wow, aka Shad Moss. The 30-year-old rapper posted a photo of a private jet to Instagram on Monday with the caption, "Travel day. NYC press run for Growing Up Hip Hop. Lets gooo. I promise to bring yall the hottest show EVER."

However, a fan alleges they were on a commercial flight with Bow Wow the same day as the Instagram post and shared the picture on social media. Ruh-roh.

Another enterprising Tweeter found the photo of Bow Wow's "private jet" online. It was a stock photo found on the website of a VIP transportation service in Fort Lauderdale. The Huffington Post confirms that the stock photo was indeed at that site. Though, the page where it appeared is now unavailable.

Bow Wow hasn't offered an alternate explanation about what internet sleuths believe they have uncovered. Even if he did, the #BowWowChallenge is Twitter's favorite new meme. People are using stock photos and other clever methods of photo manipulation to pretend they're places they're not and it's fantastic.

To be fair, the entire Fyre Festival was basically the #BowWowChallenge.

Update 5/11: Bow Wow responded to the #BowWowChallenge social media attention he got for this in an interview he gave to the Hot 97 show Ebro in the Morning. In the video above, he claimed that, "People don't understand the scientific method to my madness," before talking up his new WE TV show Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta.

"Everything is for the show," he said, refusing to admit one way or another as to whether or not the incident was a troll, and encouraging listeners to watch the WE show when it premieres May 25th.

On the subject of social media embarrassment, Bow Wow claimed: "It doesn’t affect me. It doesn’t affect the women. It doesn’t affect the bank. It doesn’t affect anything,” he said. “Me and my homies play around all day, so you have got to have thick skin. Period. We play all day. So when the joke is around on me, I don’t really care. Our group chat it's relentless. It don't stop.”

Asked to name who else is in his group chat, Bow Wow ticked off the names of Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, and Big Percy. "We give each other the blues."

h/t Huffington Post

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email, and get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.