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Wait, fake drone shows are a thing?

So, we’ve seen some amazing light shows, but this one really takes la tarta. The giant skull wearing a sombrero during the Day of the Dead celebrations is really spectacular. If only this drone light show was real…

Anyone spotting this giant skull floating above Mexico city early this month would not only be fortunate, they’d have to have eaten the right type of mushrooms. The image has been circulating around the internet for at least a year. But it’s had new traction since the November 1 celebrations. The picture has been retweeted more than 38,000 times.

However, it’s not a light show. They’re not drones. It’s not even Mexico.

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Snopes spotted it as a work of digital art, as physical as the page you’re reading. Yes, the drone lights aren’t quite distinct. (You can tell by the pixels.) And it does appear a little too gargantuan, even for a Mexican sky. And yes, that’s Mount Fuji in the background.

If only this drone light show was real

Japan’s sacred mountain does tend to give the game away.

Snopes actually tracked down the source of the mountain picture. It’s from a photograph taken by Flickr user Koshi Chiba in 2014.

The source of the city picture and the skull are still a mystery. Perhaps it didn’t start out as a hoax, but was just some Photoshop artist’s wish fulfilment. But it’s out there wild on the internet now, fooling people who don’t visit the Snopes debunking site often enough.

Still, it’s not like it’s an impossible effort of drone choreography. Perhaps some light show company will be inspired and actually send it skyward.

Let’s hope they can straighten out the sombrero.

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Avatar for David MacQuarrie David MacQuarrie

David MacQuarrie is a 35 year+ veteran of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He worked in St. John’s, Ottawa, Toronto, and Beijing where he worked as a news writer, reporter, producer for the national and local television and radio networks. His stories on science and technology won ACTRA and Columbus awards.

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