A lot of people may think President Trump is a blockhead, but when it comes to a tweet that went viral over the past 24 hours, it was a group of his detractors who were fooled.
On Thursday, the author of the Twitter handle @pixelatedboat posted a parody excerpt from Michael Wolff’s tell-all book about the Trump White House, “Fire and Fury.” Any longtime follower of the account would have recognized the image of faux book text — which had Trump demanding to watch “the gorilla channel” on his TV — as completely fake (and likely humorous).
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
But some people who came across the tweet, which has now been shared and liked thousands of times, thought it was legit.
https://twitter.com/TaraMehrbach/status/949113207926525957
https://twitter.com/cameobraid/status/949114515785793537
Same for me ! Once I read 17 hours I knew that it was a stretch, LOL. Anyway, how desperately sad that this insane behavior is somewhat believable ?
— DTS: Still Resists! Loyal Democrat. (@SmithTuri) January 5, 2018
At one point @pixelatedboat changed its display text to make it extra clear to those fooled by the fake excerpt that it was, indeed, not real:
Wonder if this new display name will help. Probably not.
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) January 5, 2018
People are having a good laugh about it:
https://twitter.com/janejana/status/949359336853245952
Hey @pixelatedboat the gorilla channel thing even made it to old timey ass republican talk radio pic.twitter.com/PQ7iD4bcGM
— Bill (@AnimeLiteweight) January 5, 2018
The Gorilla Channel Test: If enough people find it plausible that the president has spent multiple hours hunched in front of a television, shouting instructions to gorilla fight combatants, maybe it's time for a new president.
I propose this amendment to the constitution.
— Pat Race (@alaskarobotics) January 5, 2018
Everyone loves the Gorilla Channel, a channel in which gorillas do nothing but fight!
*five minutes later*
We regret to inform you that the possible existence of the Gorilla Channel has revealed uncomfortable things about the American electorate.— Philip Bump (@pbump) January 5, 2018
Even the Animal Planet network couldn’t help from chiming in:
What makes for a Gorilla Channel? A lot of eating, sleeping, and, of course, playtime! pic.twitter.com/cnXOSSY07z
— Animal Planet (@AnimalPlanet) January 5, 2018
And, as one user pointed out, the parody does mirror a real, on-the-record account of Trump’s TV viewing preferences:
While The Gorilla Channel is unfortunately fiction, here's a very real thing: a 1997 New Yorker excerpt where Trump turns off the movie Michael so he could put on Bloodsport, then makes Don Jr. or Eric fastforward so it was only fight scenes.https://t.co/fgI0SjIkxJ pic.twitter.com/gpBaj8BLfZ
— Tim Onion (@oneunderscore__) January 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy/status/949349300571488256
Of course, some were upset by the faux excerpt:
https://twitter.com/fmanjoo/status/949345703154745344
And although one person summed it up nicely…
https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy/status/949349300571488256
…by end of day, a whole lot of people still had The Gorilla Channel on their Wish List.
please stop calling our customer service hotline to ask if we have The Gorilla Channel
— Netflix (@netflix) January 6, 2018