Kutcher returns with new ‘Punk’d’ episodes.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Curse you, Ashton Kutcher, for your lying, cheating, punk-ing ways!

On Thursday – which just so happened to be April Fools’ Day – MTV announced that Kutcher and his celebrity prank show “Punk’d” will return to the network with a new season. In December, Kutcher swore the program was finished.

“This is not an April Fools’ joke,” MTV spokeswoman Vanessa Reyes said.

But, but … what about a few months ago, when Kutcher promised the world he was all punk’d out? Was he just lying to everybody?

“Yes, he was,” Reyes said.

When Kutcher announced an end to the series after two seasons in December, The Associated Press pointed out the possibility that the announcement was a trick aimed at duping new celebrity prank victims into complacency.

At the time, a page on MTV’s Web site announced the end of season two with this message: “But don’t worry, the new season starts in March.”

Turns out it actually starts in April, but in this tangle of lies, who’s counting?

Here’s what Kutcher told The Associated Press in January:

“I’ve become the boy who cried wolf,” he acknowledged, offering some assurance that his decision to end the show after two seasons isn’t just another hoax.

“Let’s put it this way,” he said. “I’m getting ready to start shooting two movies, I’m still working on “That ’70s Show,’ I’m producing two other shows for MTV and creating a one-hour drama pilot for Fox … I don’t have the time.”

Liar.

Anyway, “Punk’d” returns to MTV on Sunday, April 25.

Unless Kutcher gets eaten by a wolf in the meantime.

“Punk’d” official site: http://www.mtv.com/onair/punkd/index.jhtml