Video: The Lemony Snicket ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ trailer that fooled the Internet

Fans of Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books have been waiting patiently for details about the upcoming Netflix adaptation ever since the project was announced last November. So they couldn’t contain their excitement when a trailer for the show was posted on YouTube on Sunday.

Unfortunately, the video is less of an event than Snicket’s fans had hoped for -- Variety reports that the trailer is a fake, quoting a Netflix representative as saying, “This was not released from Netflix and not anything official.”

In just one day, the video has garnered more than 750,000 views on YouTube and commenters were initially ecstatic. “I CAN’T BREATHE,” wrote one fan, only to follow his comment up hours later with “WELL APPARENTLY THIS IS FANMADE SO ... KILL ME NOW I GUESS.”

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The 35-second video was uploaded to YouTube by a user named Eleanora Poe, which is a character in the book series by Lemony Snicket (who also writes books under his real name, Daniel Handler). Variety reports that the video “appears to be from the 2004 movie adaptation starring Jim Carrey.” That film, directed by Brad Silberling, won an Academy Award for makeup.

The video features the creepy song “Missed Me” by Boston band the Dresden Dolls. The full song features profanity and troubling lyrics that probably wouldn’t be appropriate for a show based on a series of children’s books: “Missed me, missed me, now you’ve gone and done it / Hope you’re happy in the county penitentiary / It serves you right for kissing little girls, but I will visit if you miss me.”

Netflix has released few details about the adaptation, and there’s no word on a possible cast or release date for the shows. The book series comprises 13 volumes following the three Baudelaire siblings, who are tormented by an evil relative after their parents are killed in a fire. The books have been translated into more than 40 languages and have sold more than 60 million copies across the world.