"Fifth Edition" was published in 1995 by West End Games. It was the third edition of the game released; two editions were skipped as a joke, and possibly also as a reference to the two major revisions to the game released during the lifetime of the Second Edition with the Crash Course Manual and the Paranoia Sourcebook.
It has since been declared an "un-product" by the writers of the current edition, due to its extremely poor commercial and critical reception. Almost none of the original production staff were involved, and the books in this line focused less on the dark humor and oppressive nature of Alpha, and more on cheap pop culture spoofs, such as a Vampire: The Masquerade parody. It had a lighter and sillier atmosphere and fans and more cartoonish illustrations.