The 'Gorilla Channel' is fake, but some Twitter users still thought Trump watched it
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A Washington D.C. bookstore sold out of copies of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House†20 minutes after its midnight release.
Buzz60
If you tweet it, some will believe it.
The parody Twitter account @pixelatedboat posted an image late Thursday of a fake excerpt from Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, claiming President Trump was a regular watcher of the fictional “gorilla channel.”
The fake tale depicts Trump in his first night at the White House, angry because he can’t find the channel, which plays exclusively “gorilla-based content.” Trump’s staff scrambled to provide an alternative of gorilla documentaries spliced together, but it didn’t suffice because “the gorillas aren’t fighting,” the fictional Trump said. After his aides edited the “boring” stuff out, Trump watched for 17 hours straight some days.
Again, this story is fake. But, needless to say, Twitter erupted.
“Gorilla Channel” was trending Friday, and pundits, journalists and everyday Twitter users alike fell for the fake excerpt.Â
Notably, liberal author Eric Garland, who is often the butt of many Twitter jokes from journalists, took the gorilla channel hoax at face value.
Garland and other verified users acknowledged their mistakes once they figured out the tale was fake.
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
Thank you to everyone who’s pointing out that the gorilla channel story is not true—it’s from a parody site, not Michael Wolff’s book.
— Touré (@Toure) January 5, 2018
After the confusion erupted, the @pixelatedboat account changed its name to “the gorilla channel thing is a joke.”
Wonder if this new display name will help. Probably not.
— the gorilla channel thing is a joke (@pixelatedboat) January 5, 2018
But the uproar continued.
Some pointed out that people believing the clearly ridiculous excerpt as an example of liberal bias in the media.
Thousands of liberal idiots retweeted a joke tweet that claimed Trump watches a fake TV channel called the “Gorilla Channel” all day. They all believed it was real and are tweeting about how crazy it is that Trump watches it. Liberalism really is a mental disorder. 😂
— Makada 🇺🇸 (@_Makada_) January 5, 2018
Others were critical, saying the joke did more to reinforce partisan divides.
Don’t tweet screenshots of fake text (of book excerpts, court transcripts, etc) even as a joke.
You’re making things worse.
The jokes just don’t work in a partisan-echo-chamber-feed world where everything is divorced from context and authorship.
Also they’re not funny
— Farhad Manjoo (feat. Drake) (@fmanjoo) January 5, 2018
However, the joke helps show which journalists and political figures blindly tweet snap reactions without working to verify information, some argued.
i think it’s good to teach people to be skeptical of what they’re seeing and if an extremely hilarious gorilla channel joke makes someone a more critical consumer in the future then god bless
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) January 5, 2018
it helps us understand which folks in the media are too hiccuping and dumb to get the obvious joke and should thusly be ignored forever
— KT NELSON (@KrangTNelson) January 5, 2018
And even though it was a joke, others thought the Gorilla Channel wasn’t the worst idea.
Admittedly, gorilla channel sounds sick and I wish it WAS real, so I could watch.
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) January 5, 2018
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