Notorious party boy Corey Worthington appeared to have met his match after more than 60,000 Facebook users invited themselves to fellow Australian Kate Miller's birthday party.

But the joke may in fact be on the gatecrashers as the entire meme - and Miller herself - has now been revealed to be the brainchild of Adelaide-based serial online prankster David Thorne.

A screen grab from the original Kate's Party Facebook event.

The web kicked into gear after learning of the Facebook event "Kate's Birthday Party", which was billed as a small gathering of friends in an apartment but, crucially, the event was not closed, so anyone could invite new attendees.

The Facebook page for the May 1 event was created on Saturday and garnered 5000 attendees in 10 minutes, growing to 60,000 overnight. By the time the group was shut down by Facebook there were a further 180,000 people who had been invited but not yet confirmed.