Pranksters Troll Media by Pretending to Be Twitter Employees Laid Off by Elon Musk

Tricksters troll media outside Twitter
AFP/YouTube
Lucas Nolan

Two pranksters carrying boxes near Twitter’s San Francisco building successfully fooled a number of members of the media at the HQ into believing they were Twitter engineers fired by Elon Musk. One gave his name as Rahul Ligma in reference to a common internet joke, and the other ended the interview by saying he had to “touch base with my husband and wife.” Elon Musk commented on the tricksters calling it “one of the best trolls ever.”

The Verge reports that in videos posted across social media recently, two men carrying boxes filled with office supplies near Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters successfully fooled members of the media into thinking they were engineers fired by Elon Musk following his takeover of the company.

Reporters applied little scrutiny to the two men, one of which claimed she was named “Rahul Ligma,” which is a name that does not exist in Twitter’s Slack or email system. The name is obviously fake to those familiar with internet culture, as “Ligma” is a long-running internet joke/meme designed to elicit the response “ligma balls” from the people who are in on the joke.

However, multiple outlets including CNBC and Bloomberg ran headlines on Friday that said fired Twitter employees were exiting the HQ carrying their possessions in boxes. While Musk did fire a number of top executives on Thursday, the two men seen outside the HQ are not part of the layoffs.

Musk himself commented on the trolls, complimenting them:

The Verge noted a number of comments made by the two men, including:

  • “It makes me worry about the future of our democracy… the future of celebrity conservatorship. I mean, when Britney [Spears] happened…”
  • “Michelle Obama wouldn’t have happened if Elon Musk owned Twitter. Obama in 2008 wouldn’t have happened with Elon Musk owning Twitter.”
  • “I even own a Tesla, man. I’m a big fan of clean energy, climate change, even free speech too.”
  • “Listen, I gotta touch base with my husband and wife, I gotta get outta here, thank you guys.”

Videos of the two men can be seen below:

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan

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