There’s a certain false news story going around claiming that a woman named “Monica Alvis” had sex with a walrus at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, and was fired as a result. The only problem is that Googling the name Alvis and walrus phrases didn’t turn up any legitimate news reports about the alleged event in Google News prior to this article, and a deeper look at the website that created the story gives deeper clues about its falsity — still, that hasn’t stopped folks from sharing the story across Facebook, as witnessed by plenty of Google results showing them doing so.

The closest thing to an “about” page for the site gives hints at its satire, which folks are assuming is real.

“Shocking news and stories, celebrity news and gossip. Whether currently occurring, interesting, controversial, abnormal, thought provoking or satirical, we only wish to inform and entertain with the content we publish.”

However, right-clicking on the images in the fake news story prove that the article writer used real people for the story. Instead of a woman named Monica with a walrus, a Google Image search proves that the image was pulled from the environmental site call Mongabay — and isn’t some imaginary woman named Alvis with a walrus, but a gray seal named Spook with the seal’s — not walrus’ — trainer, Joanne.

A search for the so-called “public relations manager Audrey Delfoy,” turns up Google Image searches that point to a person named Jon Anderson instead.

As reported by the Atlantic, satirical websites like the Onion aren’t only a laughing matter, with the website making the most out of media trends to try and get laughs and big paydays. When the jokes fall flat — or when audiences don’t get the jokes and assume the satire is an actual headline — and they begin sharing it aplenty (as in the case of the supposed sex-with-a-walrus article that the unnamed site claims was shared 20,000 times on Facebook) is where confusion can enter the picture.

In fact, the popular Empire TV show endured rumors of its second season being cancelled that grew so popular after the fake news story emerged that stars of the Fox show had to disclaim the falsities on Twitter to assure their fans that they would indeed return for Season 2, as reported by the Inquisitr.

Why the hell are the people on the radio talking about a woman having sex with a walrus — Ashley (@smileybriley) April 29, 2015

In this day and age of satirical stories, it helps to perform deeper research to reach the truth — and separate it from fake stories about sex with a walrus.

[Image via Getty]