We’re less than a week into the new year but we already have a contender for the funniest political spoof of 2018 — and the best part is, scores of anti-Trumpers fell for the gag, including an MSNBC contributor and a self-described “strategic intelligence analyst.”
The jokester @pixelatedboat tweeted a passage from Fire and Ice, Michael Wolff’s seedy and unreliable tell-all book, on Thursday, featuring President Trump insisting on having a “gorilla channel” in the White House and watching it for up to 17 hours a day.
It’s a hoot:
Wow, this extract from Wolff’s book is a shocking insight into Trump’s mind: pic.twitter.com/1ZecclggSa
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) January 5, 2018
The fake vignette hit Twitter just as frenzied MSM journalists were deliriously tweeting embarrassing excerpts from Fire and Fury in hopes of damaging the president. Unsurprisingly, a number of them bit.
@pixelatedboat eventually had to change his Twitter handle to “the gorilla channel thing was a joke” because so many Trump-haters were taking his preposterous story seriously.
Scott Dworkin, an MSNBC contributor and co-founder of the Democratic Coalition against Trump, circulated the anecdote mocking Trump but deleted it when he realized it was a joke. According to his Twitter bio, Dworkin helps lead “the Resistance,” is an “Obama alum,” and is a Democrat strategist. He also claims to have helped uncover the #TrumpRussia scandal.
Another thing he’s helped uncover? #GorillaGate!
Oh, Scott pic.twitter.com/EwkSdtCfLq
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 5, 2018
To save face, he claimed he knew it was a joke all along.
https://twitter.com/frum_reaganite/status/949297556672131072
Next up is “Strategic Intelligence Analyst” Eric Garland, who likes to peddle conspiracy theories about Trump colluding with Russia, but in fact can’t analyze his way out of a paper bag.
I can't believe people are actually falling for the gorilla channel thing pic.twitter.com/XuBeSXMmBC
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) January 5, 2018
At least Garland was a stand-up guy and admitted he was punked.
Dammit guys, I got totally punked on the Gorilla Channel thing – but when you've already gotten to "eating KFC in bed," I mean, we're through the looking glass.
Thanks to all who called me out. We keep it clean and Deza-free at Game Theory HQ. 😀
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) January 5, 2018
How bad must your Trump-Derangement Syndrome be for you to believe that the president kneels in front of the TV — four inches from the screen — for up to 17 hours a day to watch fighting gorillas?
https://twitter.com/cdelbrocco/status/949106248506634240
That's some scary sh^t there.He's living in another state of mind.
— christi b athans (@AthansChristi) January 5, 2018
I'm officially I'm the Twilight Zone…. i mean seriously WTF!!!
— MartinB323 #ImpeachTrump (@MartinB323) January 5, 2018
Lots of other Twitter users suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome fell for the gag, many of whom deleted their tweets when they realized their mistake.
In an odd twist, Netflix entered the fray to plead with people to stop calling them and asking for the Gorilla Channel.
please stop calling our customer service hotline to ask if we have The Gorilla Channel
— Netflix US (@netflix) January 6, 2018
Vice created a Gorilla Channel, but it doesn’t feature fighting gorillas, so it failed to serve its purpose.
We just made the fake Trump Gorilla Channel a reality. Go bananas watching it here. https://t.co/0fokgdkUri
— VICE News (@vicenews) January 5, 2018
Esquire did better.
We now return to…The Gorilla Channel pic.twitter.com/RqwgTbsjjm
— Esquire (@esquire) January 5, 2018
Of course, some notorious Twitter personalities had to weigh in on the matter as well:
My favorite excuse for being such an idiot that you believe a "gorilla channel" tweet from a known comedy account is "Trump is so nuts that it COULD have been real!"
Yeah, no. You were just an idiot. That's the only reason this happened.
— neontaster (@neontaster) January 5, 2018
The amazing thing about the Gorilla Channel story is that the gorilla turned out to be Trump and the stupid gorilla-obsessed Trump turned out to be the media
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 5, 2018
This Weekly Standard reporter had the best take of all:
imagine spending more than a year writing a book about the Trump White House and all anyone can talk about on the day of its release is a parody meme of your book involving something called the gorilla channel
— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) January 5, 2018
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