Think you can pull a death hoax prank on Tyler Perry? Yeah…you need to rethink your “humor choices” because Mr. Tyler doesn’t consider them funny. And honestly, they’re not!
The Madea creator hopped on Instagram Monday (Feb 20) to address a rumor that the actress best known as Ella Payne on his hit series “House of Payne” has passed away from lung cancer.
In a social media post, Tyler Perry shared a screenshot of an article that read, “American actress Cassi Davis died of lung cancer at the age of 58.” In bold red text, the world-renowned film producer wrote, “This is a lie.”
After requesting his followers to turn the “sound on” for the post, Tyler noted that he’d received numerous phone calls and messages from fans upset that Davis died, which compelled him to confirm if the rumors were true.
“I just talked to her on the phone, and she wasn’t dead, but let me call her back,” the filmmaker said in the audio. Tyler Perry also noted that after he got hold of Davis, he asked her, “Cassi, you sure you not dead?”
Davis casually and jokingly replied that the food she was eating was so good that she might have been in heaven. The actress popularly known as beloved “Aunt Bam” in Madea’s Big Happy Family (2011) informed Tyler that she’d heard the rumor a few times before.
Alongside the audio, the billionaire film creator further expressed his outrage in the caption:
“After I’ve gotten several calls from people giving me their condolences, and I didn’t know what they were talking about, I was sent this article that’s going around. I don’t know how she could have died, and nobody told me or her,” he wrote.
“So I called her and asked her was she dead, and she said, ‘Hell no!’ Can whoever is responsible for this please stop? You better be careful when you speak death over a child of God. This woman is loved by millions, and you’re hurting a lot of people.”
“Cassi is fine living her best life with no worries, no cares, no social media, and no drama. She’s waiting to shoot the next season of ‘House of Payne,’” Tyler added.
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Palmer Williams J, who starred in Tyler’s “House of Payne,” also refuted Davis’ death rumors.
“Cassie Davis is NOT DEAD!!!!” he captioned on a post on his IG page.
“I’ve just finished going back and forth with her on text messages, talked to her last week, talked to her the week before that because I was joking with her and saying that I’d have been upset if she’d passed away and I didn’t at least get a text message from heaven or something to let me know that she’d gone on…” he said in the video.
“Whoever is responsible for this terrible hoax, if there’s something that you don’t play with is somebody’s life…if you know the person responsible for spreading that rumor, tell them to stop.”
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Last month, Angela Bassett’s son Slater Vance landed in hot soup after filming himself playing a death hoax prank on the Primetime Emmy Awards winner. In the clip, the teen told his mom that her Black Panther co-star Michael B. Jordan had died.
Bassett and her husband, Courtney B. Vance, were visibly shaken up by the news before Slater revealed it was just a joke. The 16-year-old participated in a TikTok challenge where users would inform their friends and family that someone they cared for (or a celebrity they loved) had died and film their reactions for a gag.
After Slater’s video went viral, he made a tearful post condemning his actions.
“Taking part in a trend like this is completely disrespectful. I don’t wish any bad ramifications…of my actions upon his family nor my parents as they deserve none of the backlash,” he said.
“I own this was a mistake. I hope this can be a teaching lesson to anyone who uses social media as a tool and a source of entertainment to truly understand that your actions can have consequences that extend beyond you.”
