Some Fans Are Confused Because They Thought Bob Barker Died Years Ago
After the news that he’d passed away at 99, pop culture fans were left confused on August 26, 2023, and wondering how many times has Bob Barker died because they thought he’d already gone years ago.
Barker, was the beloved host of The Price Is Right for 35 years from 1972 to 2007, making him one of the most recognizable and enduring figures in television history. Barker’s charismatic and engaging hosting style, along with his signature sign-off line “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered,” contributed to his iconic status.
Born on December 12, 1923, in Darrington, Washington, Barker began his career in radio before transitioning to television hosting. Apart from The Price Is Right, he also hosted other game shows like Truth or Consequences and various specials. Barker won numerous awards during his career, including 19 Daytime Emmy Awards, and turned to comedy for a cameo appearance in the 1996 Adam Sandler film, Happy Gilmore.
Barker was an animal rights advocate and used his fame and fortune to promote animal welfare causes. He often used his platform on The Price Is Right to encourage responsible pet ownership and raise awareness about animal issues. After he retired from the show, he continued his philanthropic efforts and activism, passing away at the ripe old age of 99, surprising some fans because they believed him to be dead already. Here’s what we know about Bob Barker dying twice.
How many times has Bob Barker died?
How many times has Bob Barker died? It sounds like a weird question to ask, but according to some fans, the answer is two. Let me explain.
In July 2017, Action News 3 reported incorrectly that the Washington native had passed away after sustaining a head injury. They reported: “Bob Barker was rushed to the emergency room after a fall that split his head open. Several hours later, he was pronounced dead. The 94-year-old former The Price Is Right host suffered a nearly two-inch laceration on the side of his forehead due to a fall that took place near the star’s Hollywood Hills home.”
While it’s true Barker had fallen and hit his head at home, People reported at the time, “A rep for the former Price is Right host confirms to PEOPLE that Barker, 93, sought medical treatment after he fell last week at his Hollywood Hills home,” the site said.
“According to the rep, his housekeeper drove him to the hospital where he underwent a series of tests in the emergency room. He was released a few hours later after doctors determined he had not suffered any serious injuries.”
Nonetheless, news of Barker’s supposed death spread through social media. Upon the news that Barker had truly passed away in August 2023, some fans were confused because they thought they’d mourned him years ago. Twitter user wrote: “Didn’t Bob Barker already die years ago? How many times does this guy have to die?” Another wrote: “Didn’t Bob Barker already die? Like a few years ago? I’m confused.”
It’s proof of just how quickly, and deeply, misinformation can penetrate the collective psyche. An MIT study conducted in 2018 found that false news spreads more rapidly on Twitter than real news does. “We found that falsehood diffuses significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth, in all categories of information, and many cases by an order of magnitude,” said Sinan Aral, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a new paper detailing the findings, at the time.
The scholars also found that humans, not bots, were responsible for people retweeting inaccurate news items: 70 percent more likely than true stories. It also takes true stories about six times as long to reach 1,500 people as it does for false stories to reach the same number of people. When it comes to Twitter’s “cascades,” or unbroken retweet chains, falsehoods reach a cascade depth of 10 about 20 times faster than facts. And falsehoods are retweeted by unique users more broadly than true statements at every depth of cascade.
“False news is more novel, and people are more likely to share novel information,” said Aral, who is the David Austin Professor of Management. On social networks, people can gain attention by being the first to share previously unknown (but possibly false) information. Therefore, as Aral put it, “people who share novel information are seen as being in the know.”
Barker died peacefully and of natural causes—he was 99, after all—in news announced by his friend and publicist Roger Neal, on behalf of Barker’s girlfriend Nancy Burnet.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us,” Neal said in a statement, per People. “I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker, and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally,” Burnet added in her own. “We were great friends over these 40 yrs. He will be missed.”
Barker had battled various health problems in the years leading up to his death, including a “non-emergency back problem” in 2018 after a fall at his home. A rep said Barker was “doing fine,” adding that the accident wasn’t as serious as his October 2015 fall, in which he suffered cuts to his head, according to People at the time.
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