Is it any surprise that Simpsons fans are cheeky pranksters who gain satisfaction from trolling local news stations? We thought not.
A group of Australians, spurred on by a local podcast’s initial joke, started sending “crime reports” to their local news’ tip lines as if they were true events. Then, when the station asked for more details and possible photo evidence of the crimes, they got screen shots of classic Simpsons episodes instead. Although the joke began when one person decided it would be fun, the major inundation got underway when a podcast called “Four Finger Discount” got in on the fun.
According to The Daily Dot’s reporting:
Brendan Dando, co-host of the podcast, told The Daily Dot via email that a fan sent them the first screengrab featuring Snake overnight. Dando wondered if 7 News’ falling for the prank was a fluke, and asked a co-worker to submit a false report again. “Success again,” he said.
“After posting our screenshot and urging others to try it out, a dull day at work suddenly became a lot more entertaining.”
Thankfully, after being duped over and over and over (and over and over) again, 7 News Australia finally got the gist of what was going on and had some fun of their own, sending a screen shot from the show in response to a “tip” before the jokester could do it first. It’s probably not the best thing that a major news station fell for the same joke so many times in a row, but we’ll forgive them because they’re Australian and played along eventually. As long as no real news was missed because of the ongoing prank, it’s all in good fun. No word yet on whether a certain Jeopardy contestant is also an Australian podcast listener.
(via The Daily Dot)
