New Zealand newspaper mixes up Spike Lee, Stan Lee in obituary headline

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

While celebrities, fans, and publications were paying tribute and saying farewell to the late legend Stan Lee this week, one New Zealand newspaper dropped the ball with the typo to end all typos by mixing up the creator of Spider-Man with the director of MALCOLM X and BLACKKKLANSMAN, Spike Lee. The Gisborne Herald has been making headlines and going viral for the fudge-up, which listed, on the front page, that Spike Lee was indeed dead at age 95, not Stan Lee.

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"Characters first; superheroes next: Spike Lee dies at 95,” read the teaser at the top of the Herald, leading to the story inside the paper. Now, most people understand typos are a natural occurrence in this line of work, but this one was instantly jumped on across the web, with people reposting the image of the gaffe on social media. Some fans were outraged, others were using it to poke fun at the paper and their mistake, and even the man himself Spike Lee – risen from the dead – took to his Instagram to respond to the error.

“God Bless Stan Lee,” the director wrote on Instagram. “Me? Not Yet. And Dat’s Da ‘I’m Still A Live, And Strivin’ Truth, Ruth. YA-DIG? SHO-NUFF.”

Even the publication issued a response to their now infamous fumble, and in lieu of saying the word “sorry” or apologizing in any way, they wrote (via THR), “one of the many who commented on Spike’s post mentioned that Stan Lee would be laughing about this”.

The icon Stan Lee passed away on Monday at the age of 95, leaving behind an amazing, spectacular, magnificent, all-around fantastic line of work that solidified him as a true legend. Under his belt are the creations of characters like the X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and, my personal favorite, Spider-Man. Fans of all stripes and backgrounds took to social media to share their respects for the comic book titan, who will be missed dearly. 

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Spike Lee, on the other hand, has not created any comics that I know of, but he did direct one of this year’s best movies in BLACKKKLANSMAN, which is now out on Blu-ray, Digital and DVD. You can look at Spike’s post below: