Bodog Beat

Could Joaquin be pulling our legs? (WWTDD Images)

It finally happened kids: Joaquin Phoenix has woken up with a giant hangover and watched the footage of himself flailing around a Las Vegas stage rapping like a white man on drugs. And now he's saying it was all a big, convenient joke.

This is not the first time celebrities have tried to cover up their blunders with the "ha! Just kidding" defense. M. Knight Shyamalan used it when critics began panning The Happening. M. Knight suddenly attempted to lower audiences expectations by claiming the it was a "fun B-movie" (nice try, dude).

Sheryl Crow also tried this trick. After voicing her idea – to limit our toilet paper use – as a solution to combat global warming on her website, Crow was ridiculed by, well, pretty much everyone. Then suddenly, Crow told the media that she was just kidding and people shouldn't take her so seriously. Riiight.

Entertainment Weekly reports that Phoenix's shattacular rap career could be one giant "punk" on the media. "Either Phoenix is perpetrating an elaborate Andy Kaufman-style hoax (with an assist from his friend and brother-in-law Casey Affleck, who's ostensibly shooting a documentary about his career transition), or he's truly lost his marbles. The truth, it seems, is closer to the former. 'He said, 'It's a put-on. I'm going to pretend to have a meltdown and change careers, and Casey is going to film it,' says one source who recently worked with Phoenix."