Scrubs Star Zach Braff: 'I'm Not Dead'

Contrary to what you may have heard, Zach Braff is not dead.

But that was the rumor on Monday, after a guy by the name of Chris Laganella posted a web page which reported that Braff—an actor who plays the role of John Dorian the hit NBC comedy Scrubs—had committed suicide by overdosing on pain pills. The post was apparently discovered by someone on the internet who sent it around, and it took off—thanks to the magic of the internet.

It's what comes next, though, that may be more surprising than the rumor. Braff himself chose to respond with a YouTube video of himself dispelling the rumor , and in turn, he generated quite a buzz. Braff even went as far as to explain how he'd choose to kill himself, saying, "I would do it the way that everyone else would do it—by hitting myself with pots and pans."

Braff tells his internet audience that he's alive and at Scrubs shooting the new Scrubs title sequence, which he jokes "is a little bit like dying, so I guess that was semi-accurate." He goes on to explain that at his actual funeral, he would like an R&B rendition of "Wind Beneath My Wings" to be sung. Moments later, Braff's Scrubs co-star Donald Faison comes on screen and delivers on that wish.

In addition to his role on Scrubs, Braff is also known for writing and starring in the films Garden State and Last Kiss.

So just how does such a nasty rumor get started? In this case, according to Laganella's website , he says he wrote a post back in 2007 as a joke to fool his friends, who are apparently huge Scrubs fans. He writes on his site that he forgot about it, and forgot to take the page down, but realized something was wrong when there was a huge spike in traffic to his website.

Lagnella posted a lengthy explanation titled "Zach Braff is not dead (duh)" about what happened on his site on Tuesday. In it, he said, "I did not make this page to intentionally fool everyone on the internet. I didn't expect it to even be made public. Ever. I'm sorry if I scared everyone out there."

He went on to apologize to Braff, and added, "Thanks for (apparently) taking it lightly, since I haven't gotten a letter about a lawsuit yet. Just so you know, I'm a huge fan; that's the only reason I made this page, believe it or not. Also, sorry for upsetting your mother."

To watch Braff's video response to the rumor, click on the YouTube video posted below (WARNING-- CONTAINS LANGUAGE SOME MAY FIND OFFENSIVE):