[Udik]

Of course I meant it as a joke. But I think the problem- or at least the point of the joke- isn't much in the fact that you haven't seen these people before. The point is rather that "gossip" is a sparse amount of information about some reality you don't have direct access to, but that exists and is consistent. So with normal gossips, it makes sense for the brain to gather all this info and try to infer a picture of the person behind it. However, if there is no real person behind the gossip the entire exercise is perfectly illusory.