After a flurry of internet excitement, fueled largely by an attempt by Donald Trump to ban the book, the publisher of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House moved the book’s release up from next week to today. Prior to its official release, though, leaked pages were floating around Twitter and they were horrifying, ranging from accounts of Trump’s deteriorating mental facilities to the details of a cruel Mean Girls-style game in which he seduces the wives of his friends and colleagues.
And then there was this:
Wow, this extract from Wolff’s book is a shocking insight into Trump’s mind: pic.twitter.com/1ZecclggSa
— the gorilla channel thing is a joke (@pixelatedboat) January 5, 2018
Keep in mind, this is the same Twitter account that introduced the term “milkshake duck” into our national discourse.
I can’t believe @pixelatedboat got to coin Milkshake Duck and Gorilla Channel and now they’re both just straight up media terms it’s not fair IT’S NOT FAIR
— Daniel Kibblesmith ⛄️⚔️ (@kibblesmith) January 5, 2018
The idea of Trump’s “Gorilla Channel” is both hilarious and depressingly believable.
The fucking insane thing about this is that you really didn’t fly too close to the sun until that final paragraph. The first two actually come across as totally believable.
— Scott Wampler™ (@ScottWamplerBMD) 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
ACTUAL footage from “The Gorilla Channel” pic.twitter.com/WjXeYui7BT
— jordan (@JordanUhl) January 5, 2018
tfw you parody a guy making up shit about Trump but people believe it so you become part of the problem
— the gorilla channel thing is a joke (@pixelatedboat) January 5, 2018
As it turns out, though, the idea is so believable that a whole lot of people actually did buy that this was a real page from Wolff’s book.
People like Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys and frequent spouter of transphobic, xenophobic, white nationalist bullshit.
he deleted it, but: pic.twitter.com/2Rm8m6lZtJ
— Jake Offenhartz (@jangelooff) January 5, 2018
Also, “game theory” Twitter figurehead Eric Garland.
I can’t believe people are actually falling for the gorilla channel thing pic.twitter.com/XuBeSXMmBC
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) January 5, 2018
It’s pretty easy to fall for fake news stories and hastily retweet misinformation on Twitter. But when that information relates to the president believing the gorillas on his television set can hear him, well, who do we judge more? The ostensible analysts who fell for it…
haha, i got fooled by an obvious joke that two seconds of critical thought would have allowed me to understand. haha, isnt that funny. anyway, heres why you should still trust me to explain massively complicated conspiracies to you
— DougExeter (@DougExeter) January 5, 2018
Or the man who made the story far too easy to believe?
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
Tough call.
(image: Shutterstock)
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