Thousands fall for satirical Donald Trump 'gorilla channel' tweet

  • 06/01/2018
"I think he thinks the gorillas can hear him," the joke tweet said.
"I think he thinks the gorillas can hear him," the joke tweet said. Photo credit: Twitter/ Getty

Thousands of people have fallen for a satirical "excerpt" about US President Donald Trump's penchant for watching 17 hours of a gorilla television channel each day.

Twitter user Pixelated Boat, who regularly posts jokes and satire, tweeted what he claimed was an excerpt from Fire and Fury, a new tell-all book on Mr Trump by Michael Wolff.

The tweet, which many people took seriously, said Mr Trump complained the TV in his White House bedroom was broken because it didn't have "the gorilla channel", with gorilla-based content 24 hours a day.

Staff then created their own gorilla channel to appease the President, the tweet claimed, and edited documentaries so that it only showed gorillas fighting so Mr Trump wouldn't get bored.

Piexelated Boat's tweet quoted an "insider": "He kneels in front of the TV, with his face about four inches from the screen, and says encouraging things to the gorillas like 'the way you hit that other gorilla was good'. I think he thinks the gorillas can hear him."

In an attempt at damage control after many mistook the story for fact, the anonymous Twitter user changed their username to "the gorilla channel thing is a joke".

"Wonder if this new display name will help. Probably not," they tweeted.

Newshub.