I commented something that I later found out was false. No one corrected me until after I googled what I had written to find out it had a logical fallacy. Not only did it get almost 100 replies, but it is growing in the thousands of upvotes. It’s also a comment that got the most attention in a while, for me.

I understand concepts like The Cunningham Effect/Law where to get the right answer propose something false instead of just asking a question. That states that people behaviorally are more likely to correct you giving you the answer you want. However, this was more of an idea/conclusion that had a false premise. Over the course of a day, it grew in popularity. I thought it would get downvoted but as people criticized, belittled and corrected me, they also upvoted it greatly. No one agreed my idea was good, nor that it was funny.

Despite the controversy, the comments and upvotes make me feel like the idea was “successful” in a way as it was light hearted and a kidding tone.

What causes this to be a success on many social media platforms when other examples of this type just get down voted and buried? Is there an applicable name for this type of phenomenon? Has anyone had a similar experience?