David Archuleta, Zara Larsson and how satirical jokes about celebrities can go awry on TikTok

When a fan on TikTok recently asked singer David Archuleta about his coffee order, the “American Idol” alum appeared perplexed.

The fan was referencing an Aug. 9 TikTok video in which comedian Noel B. Doherty alluded to Archuleta (without naming him) when discussing his “worst first date.”

Doherty described his date as a singer who won second place on a singing competition show when he was 16 after losing to another person with the same name. (In 2008, Archuleta lost to David Cook on “Idol.”) His date, he said, ordered “eight pumps of caramel in one cold brew with two packs of sugar” and brought his guitar to play a song for him.

For Doherty, it was “painfully obvious” that the story was fake.

“I decided to create a comedically horrendous first date story, referring to David Archuleta very heavily throughout the whole thing, so as to make it painfully obvious that it was fake, or like laughably untrue,” he told NBC News.

Instead, some people online believed it to be fact — even though Doherty didn’t actually mention Archuleta, and has never met him.

While Doherty’s fib was relatively benign, the video demonstrated how some satirical videos that go viral online have the ability to quickly spread rumors.

Also this week, pop singer Zara Larsson took to her TikTok page to clear up a “satirical” video from TikToker Ryan Crouse claiming that she called him a homophobic slur during a concert in 2018.

These jokes didn’t land with some viewers unfamiliar with Doherty or Crouse, creating an instance of “context collapse,” or the convergence of different audiences in the same online space.

Online, algorithms often serve users content that is not intended for them or that is removed from its original context. In the best cases, it can end in a humorous exchange, like in the case of Doherty and Archuleta. Other times, it can lead to disastrous miscommunications.

“So the thing about satire is that if most people can’t tell it’s satire, it’s just lying,” one user wrote in the comment of Doherty’s video.

In January, a similar issue arose on TikTok after actress Julia Fox accidentally dismissed a creator’s experience with sexual assault because she was unaware of the euphemism that he had used. The creator and Fox were on “different sides of TikTok,” meaning they had different expectations for what a video meant because of what they were previously served by the algorithm.

“The problem is that, with TikTok, even somebody that’s really really [online] might not get it because their FYP [For You Page] looks different,” Nicole Holliday, an assistant professor of linguistics at Pomona College in Claremont, California, told NBC News at the time.

Similarly, the video of Doherty, which has over 300,000 views, was received by people outside of its intended audience — a common issue on TikTok — creating confusion and misunderstanding.

“The original video I felt was very silly, very funny,” Doherty said. “I think most of the original audience understood that in the comments. Some people took it seriously, some people didn’t.”

The users that took it seriously came to Archuleta with questions, prompting him to post a video earlier this week explaining that he had never gone on a date with Doherty and debunking each of Doherty’s claims.

“I just hope that people don’t think I’m that kind of first date,” he said in his response, which was viewed over 6 million times. “So I hope y’all knew it was satire because I didn’t know that guy, never been on a date with him.”

A representative for Archuleta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Doherty said he understands why some Archuleta fans were confused by his video because he and Archuleta are “in different worlds” online.

“My audience has always expected comedy out of me,” he said. “So when my content is met with a different audience, it can be taken the wrong way.”

However, Doherty said the singer has been a “great sport.” Archuleta later played along with the joke and pretended to confirm the “date” in Instagram comments.

With Larsson, this week’s incident was not the first time she’d been the subject of a fake joke gone wrong online. A similar incident unfolded online last December when a TikTok user posted a fake screenshot of the singer calling him a homophobic slur in a comment. At the time, she explained that the comment was fake but said that she had received a lot of misguided hate messages because of it. She previously said that experience “kind of ruined” TikTok for her.

This week, Crouse, who is known for his videos documenting his life in Japan, stitched a video of Larsson responding to another one of his travel videos. In Crouse’s video, which received over 5 million views, he claimed he was a fan of Larsson’s until she brought him onstage, pushed him and called him a slur.

On Tuesday, Larsson responded to Crouse, criticizing him for trying to “Millie Bobby Brown” her, referring to viral claims from 2018 that assert Brown is homophobic based on Twitter lies and doctored photos.

While some avid social media users understand that the memes are untrue, those who aren’t exposed to the same jokes or humor can misinterpret these posts as real. This can result in dogpiling or hate comments.

“I had this happen to me just a few months ago when someone basically did the exact same thing, but it got way more spread and people were way more upset because they really thought it was real, strangely enough,” Larsson said. “And it just makes me sad, like it just hurts me because that is so far from my character and what I would do.”

Crouse posted another TikTok saying he “caused a bigger stir than he meant to.”

“I was like wait, I thought literally everybody knew that this was going to be satire. What I was hoping was that she was going to stitch it, and then continue the bit and make some s--- up about me. And it would just be a funny internet exchange.”

Crouse continued saying he understood that if a post is not clearly satire to some audiences, “it’s going to come off differently.” He clarified that he never went to a Larsson concert and has never met the singer.

Commenters on Crouse’s video had varied responses to his original claims — some understood the joke and others took it at face value. Several emphasized the dangers of jokes landing on the For You pages of unsuspecting users without context.

“I think she understood u were joking but a lot of people didnt so she needed to clarify,” one person wrote.

“i think she also took at so serious bc she is an artist and some people could take it the wrong way and damage her reputation,” another wrote.

Neither Larsson nor Crouse responded to requests for comment. Crouse shared in a TikTok comment that he has since spoken to Larsson, and “it’s good.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com