Fake Twitter accounts have been in the news a lot lately. Last week, the Dalai Lama started tweeting, and then we found out "His Holiness" was actually a fake.

Kanye West dissed Stephen Colbert last year on Twitter. Then we found out it wasn’t Kanye after all. A White House Twitter account, which had been updated during the Bush years and then switched to Obama right after the inauguration, also turned out to be bogus.

And who can forget last month's infamous Twitter hacks when pranksters took over the accounts of Barack Obama, Bill O’Reilly, and CNN’s Rick Sanchez, among others.

The 15 fake Twitter accounts that follow were not hijacked. Rather, this list of fake Twitter accounts we've assembled pays homage to or parodies the famous -- no security breaches here.

Phony tweets are a terrific way to get across a laugh, but to be really great, a Phweeter (phony tweeter) has to stick with it. Unfortunately many Phweeters don’t. Some fakers who started hot but then drifted away include @osamabinladen, @hasselhoff, and @davidletterman.

After sifting through piles of bad, mediocre, and just plain unfunny impostors, we’ve come up with the best and most current phweeters worthy of pushing that "follow" button for.