Revelations from Michael Wolff's new book on Trump, Fire and Fury, have been dominating headlines all week as reporters sift through its dysfunctional, bizarre portrait of the White House. Ahead of its release Friday, @pixelatedboat—a parody Twitter account—posted a fake excerpt from the book all about the president's unquenchable desire to watch "the gorilla channel."
The joke, of course, went viral. It's one of @pixelatedboat's go-to bits: writing fake, goofy-ass tirades and posting them as if celebrities actually said them. But next to all the other bizarre stories from Wolff's book, the excerpt apparently didn't seem too unbelievable for some Twitter users.
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Wolff dredged up a lot of absurd stuff that he claims he witnessed over a year at the White House. Apparently Trump doesn't let his maids touch his toothbrush for fear of being poisoned. Jared Kushner reportedly offered to marry Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, claiming he was an "internet Unitarian minister." And once, when an aide was trying to explain the Constitution to Trump, he allegedly got too bored to make it past the Fourth Amendment. That's probably why many thought the gorilla channel spoof came straight out of Fire and Fury's pages.
After way too many people started taking @pixelatedboat's tweet at face value, the account changed its name to "the gorilla channel thing is a joke" in an effort to clear things up.
Maybe it's time we all get off the internet, check out a copy of Fire and Fury, and try to separate fact from fiction ourselves—a task that might not be so easy, considering the thing is selling out faster than you can say "the way you hit that other gorilla was good."Update 01/05/2018: VICE News made the fake gorilla channel a reality. Enjoy.Follow Drew Schwartz on Twitter.