Steve Burns was dead. Or at least, that is what the internet believed.
In 2002, the longtime presenter of children’s television series Blue's Clues left the show, sparking years of rumours and scuttlebut about what happened afterwards.
A quarter-century later, Mr Burns, now 52, is taking his reflections on death-by-internet and the complicated parasocial relationships which precede it to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Ahead of his show Steve Burns: Alive at Underbelly Cowgate, the ex-children’s presenter tells The Herald about what it feels like to be labelled dead while still very much alive.
His Fringe show discusses the impact of parasocial online relationships on mental health. (Image: Rebecca J Michelson)
“It's an absurd thing,” he says. “It's difficult to think of something more absurd than being rumoured dead and slowly beginning to believe it.
“The rumour started when I was on the show. I was actively in the show and recording new episodes, and yet people were invested in this narrative that was not alive.”
Mr Burns’ role was played by Kevin Duala in the UK version of the show, but the Boyertown, Pennsylvania-native may be recognisable as an internet meme with this green striped shirt and bowl haircut.
“On the scale of the global internet, that sort of mass agreement starts to feel like evidence and it doesn't matter how absurd it is, it starts to become psychologically real,” Mr Burns remarks, adding he was dealing with undiagnosed clinical depression at the time of his exit from the show.
“While I knew I was alive, I kind of began to doubt my own premise, if that makes sense. And I kind of assumed: ‘Well something must have died. I just don't know what it was.’.
This is a big aspect of Mr Burns’ show in Edinburgh, a place he once visited as an opener for rock band The Flaming Lips long ago.
“It was the most mysterious, misty, and intense place, I just loved walking around,” he notes.
“I was only here for nine hours, so I can't wait to be here for weeks.”
Mr Burns talks about his career and the price of being well-known. (Image: Rebecca J Michelson)
There is another reason Mr Burns is excited to take his show global.