British Sitcom Writer Starts Rumor That Osama Bin Laden Loved His Show, Twitter Freaks Out

Last week, television writer Graham Linehan decided to have a bit of fun. Around the time we were all getting shown images of Osama bin Laden chilling on the couch and watching some TV, Linehan, the creator of the hit British sitcom The IT Crowd (Which I have not seen despite constant championing from my friends. It’s on my Netflix queue, guys!), thought it would be pretty funny to start a rumor on Twitter that the Bin Laden videos show the terrorist leader watching his show. Anyone who has ever read an article with the words “rumor” and “Twitter” in the headline can probably guess what happened next. Yes, it’s time for another Crazy Twitter Rumor Round Up™!

Ok, not a full round up here. Linehan has already done that himself in a hilarious blog post from yesterday in which he runs down the entire cyclone of events. However, if you’re a busy guy and don’t have time to stuff like reading a whole blog post or catching up on sitcoms (I’ll watch it eventually, guys!), I’ll give you some of the highlights here.

It all started with this Tweet:

And then this one:

Now, typically people would see this and be able to tell that it was just a quick little joke, a writer parodying the idea of an artist so egotistical he’d forgive a mass murderer if he was a fan. However, think about the insane amount of information we’ve received these past few weeks. I mean, what would you have said a month ago if someone told you you’d now know about the kinds of porn Osama bin Laden enjoyed? So it’s not too shocking that a number of people believed the tweets. And soon the story spread. And spread. And spread.

What’s a guy to do when his little rolling snowball has become an avalanche? Give it another push, of course.

The story got bigger and bigger, with the help of Linehan friend, web design guru, and now fellow conspirator Mike Monteiro (check out the brilliance of this fake direct message that “accidentally” went public, warning slightly NSFW background image) until it had gotten picked up by the UK comedy blog Chortle (article since deleted) and then, in turn, cited by American news outlets.

Eventually, Linehan had to give up the joke. After a day, it reached its natural conclusion as Linehan pretended to live tweet his viewing of the Bin Laden home videos (given to him, supposedly, by an official from the Irish embassy in Washington). At first, he tweeted about the opening credits being different than they should be. Then the punch line:

You really should read Linehan’s full account because the whole thing is pretty damn funny.

Yeah, it really is funny. I guess I will have to finally watch The IT Crowd now. It’s just a good thing doing so won’t bring me any closer to Osama bin Laden.

(h/t On the Media)

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