You may have been following this little passion play.

A few weeks ago, a Sony PSP "fansite" showed up on the web named AllIWantForChristmasIsAPSP.com. Supposedly it was created by two kids who really loved PSPs and, as the site's URL implied -- all they wanted for under their tree this year was a PSP.

They even included a video of one of the curiously mature-looking "kids" rapping about how much he wanted the handheld gaming device and included lots of oddly enthusiastic comments.

How Joystiq describes it:

...The site only uses lower case letters, always references "two" as "2," embraces hip phrases like "here's the deal," publishes fake user-generated comments like "this is the best site ever" under the alias of True Gamer, and posts homemade rap videos full of stage props and trite "izzies."

The site was so weird, so not right, that gamers who stumbled on it or saw the YouTube video (since removed) started doing some snooping.

It didn't take long until someone figured out that the site's domain was registered to a marketing firm. And that marketing firm (surprise, surprise) works for Sony.

It seemed pretty clear that Sony had hired this firm to create a fake "fan" site and then lie about it being developed by kids rather than adults in suits sitting in a corporate board room.

That's the old news.

The new news is that after being bombarded with blog entry after blog entry of commenters who had nothing nice to say about Sony shameless -- and sloppy -- efforts at deception, the site owners posted the following:

Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn't a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.

Sony Computer Entertainment America

Busted? Nailed? Snagged? And, the coup de gras: "funky fresh"?

Actually the words that come to mind are more like "f*cking stupid."

Nice one Sony. And decidedly not clever. Next time you try to dupe consumers into thinking your product is cool, try to put a little effort into it? Try your best not to insult our intelligence.

Because otherwise we're liable to think that you think we're stupid. And of course, you'd never think that, would you?