Based on the 2010 documentary of the same name, MTV’sCatfish: The TV Showhas been making waves for an entire decade. In the series, Nev, star of the original documentary, and his co-host, formerly Max Joseph but now Kamie Crawford, help people who are deep in online relationships with someone they believe may be lying about who they are. After conducting an investigation, the team usually is able to meet the catfish face-to-face (or over Zoom in COVID times) and all the truths come out.
The people featured in the series and their stories range from relatively tame to absolutely bonkers. With there beingso many episodes out there, it’s safe to say some really stand out above the rest as especially weird. People were catfished by their closest friends, parents, and other family members. Some, even thought they were dating celebrities. While these stories were usually begun with a very healthy dose of skepticism, a few of those people wholeheartedly believed they were involved with the real deal.
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There were a number of folks who calledCatfishto work out their celebrity love stories or friendships, but no one stands out quite like season 5’s Spencer. Spencer from Knoxville was a seemingly nice and normal guy, who was in an anything but normal relationship. For six years, he thought he was in a full-blown serious relationshipwith a global celebrityand fans couldn’t believe his conviction. While he wasn’t the first person to think he was dating a famous person over the internet, his story went viral because of how fully he believed it until the very end.
Spencer believed that he was in a long-term, serious relationship with international pop star Katy Perry. Immediately, Nev and Max were fairly certain that this person was not who they said they were. That didn’t seem to faze Spencer whatsoever. He claimed he had proof and confidence in the form of links to unreleased songs and other personal information, that fully confirmed his case. He was so certain in fact, that he’dpurchased an engagement ringto give to her once they finally met in person. It was even made with a family stone, his grandmother’s emerald.
While this sounds really strange to a lot of people, and it’s certainly unconventional, keep in mind that Spencer had been talking to “Katy” for over half of a decade. Sadly though, as the team began to investigate, it became overwhelmingly clear that it was in fact not Katy Perry he was speaking with. The links to unreleased songs that he claimed were proof ended up just being YouTube links to lyric videos that anyone could look at. No evidence he gave Nev and Max added up at all when there were attempts to verify her identity. Perry was even already publicly romantically linked to actor Orlando Bloom, and they’ve since gone on to have a child together and get engaged.
Towards the end of the episode, the team went on a journeyall the way to Englandto meet the Katy Perry imposter. And it turned out to be an eighteen-year-old girl named Harriet. After speaking with Harriet’s ex-girlfriend, they found out that she was not only not Katy Perry, but she wasn’t even attracted to men. She agreed to meet up with the crew and Spencer for him to finally get closure and explained that all of this was largely a joke. But still, even after meeting the person behind the account, Spencer wasn’t convinced.
While this awkward meeting probably should have meant the end of the road for Spencer and his love story with Katy Perry, it sadly did not. And this element is whyfans are so fascinatedby this episode. Spencer wasn’t fully on board with Harriet being the person he was talking to, even when they first met. He lamented that it felt like a prank done by Katy and that it seemed her sense of humor to pull something like this on. Before they left, it seemed like he had finally accepted what happened to him. Except, he didn’t.
At the end of eachCatfishepisode, the hosts call the subjects of the show and follow up with how they are doing some months later. Harriet told the hosts that she continued to getweird messages and emailsfrom Spencer, acting like she was the real Katy Perry and that the whole show was a prank. When he was confronted about this, he admitted it! This specifically brought a lot of online attention to Spencer, with people saying he was the most gullibleCatfishvictim ever.
It’s easy to feel this way because the whole story is objectively very far-fetched. However, it’s important to remember that Spencer didn’t actually do anything wrong. Gullible or not, all he did was believe the things that were told to him, when he was lied to for six years. But while the internet was making him a laughingstock, there was solace for Spencer in one thing. The real Katy Perry saw the show and made a public statement saying that she felt for him.
In the multiple seasons ofCatfishsince there have been a few other celebrity stories featured, but none have made an impact quite like Spencer and Katy/Harriet. Due to how wild the episode was, it’s unlikely that anything really will ever match up– but one can never be certain.
