Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o was catfished by a 22-year-old man who masquaraded online as a cancer-stricken California woman of around the same age by the name of Lennay Kakua.
While the concept of the catfish -- someone who creates a Facebook or Twitter so they can sucker a man or woman into falling for them -- is relatively new, how the U.S. was catfished by the Tea Party isn't.
The Tea Party introduced itself to America about four years ago as an entity that loves its country and would fight tooth and nail to make its people prosperous again.
Millions of Americans were very enamored by the Tea Party's supposed platform of less or no taxes and personal freedom so much it reflected at the polls during the 2010 midterm elections.
But as time wore on, the Tea Party was shown not to be the defender and advocate of Main Street and its residents.
Instead, it was a mouthpiece of the corporate vampires who drained nearly all the blood out of once was a robust American economy.
Just like Te'o after he learned that "the love of his life" didn't exist, America found itself the butt of a cruel joke.
The Tea Party is no Eddie Murphy.