As if the Maine gubernatorial field were not crowded enough, horror novelist Stephen King jumped into the race Sunday — as a joke.

On a new campaign website — “King 4 Maine 2018” — touted the opinionated Bangor resident and writer for the state’s top job.

“After years of criticizing Governor Paul LePage, Stephen is considering making a run for Governor in 2018,” the site says.

“Friends and fans alike have been telling him that he could do the job better. He has taken that encouragement to heart and decided to test the waters, but would like your input.”

Below the wording is a link to a video, with a picture of King.

But click on the video and instead of King, there is snippet of video from Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” an internet gag called “Rickrolling” that has been around for years. It is basically a bait-and-switch, where links are disguised as something interesting and then a reader winds up watching, in this case, Astley.

The site then pops up with the words: “Are you crazy?! Political office is one horror story that even Stephen King doesn’t want to do.”

It then wishes viewers a “Happy April Fools’ Day!”

King’s Twitter account is chock full of barbs, tossed mostly at Republicans.

Sunday evening, for instance, he sent out a message that read: “Good God, what a screwed up presidency this is. If Blabbermouth Don’s brains were black powder, he couldn’t blow his nose.”

Last weekend, King urged people to attend a March for Our Lives rally and to “vote against NRA sweethearts like Bruce Poliquin in November.”

Poliquin, a second-term Republican from Maine’s 2nd District, is King’s congressman.

scollins@sunjournal.com

For April Fool’s Day, author Stephen King jumped into the Maine gubernatorial race, as a joke.