Brett Cohen: the New Yorker who pretended to be famous and is now a little famous because of it

Brett Cohen, who is apparently now famous. (Via YouTube)

Here in Celebritology, we often discuss what it means to be famous.

In a video that has rapidly gone viral, an average New Yorker has demonstrated exactly what is required: an entourage, crazed photo snappers and confidence.

A guy named Brett Cohen — who has since identified himself to the New York Daily News as a 21-year-old student of the State University of New York at St. Paltz — and a friend recently decided to shoot video of Cohen walking around New York’s Times Square with all of the aforementioned elements. Their mission: to find out whether he would be treated like celebrity.

Not only was he, but many “fans” clamored to have their photos taken with him and became convinced, for reasons that remain mysterious, that he was in one of the “Spider-Man” movies. (Another gentleman says he’s heard his first single and that “it’s good.”) Basically, the whole thing is both a riot and a semi-disturbing display of how easy it is to become famous in America in 2012.

Meanwhile, Cohen’s efforts have been celebrated everywhere from Mashable to Reddit to The Daily What. Which of course creates yet another irony: His stunt to achieve fake fame has brought him a tiny bit of actual fame.