Two San Francisco men seemingly duped a CNBC reporter covering the alleged mass Twitter layoffs following the takeover of Elon Musk.
Both men claimed to be fired Twitter employees. One man told reporters his name was “Rahul Ligma,” while the other identified himself as “Daniel Johnson,” a video showed.
This is the funniest shit I’ve ever seen.
Yo @elonmusk, give Rahul Ligma his job back. 😂pic.twitter.com/cNxdtjrBkI
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 28, 2022
“Entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them,” a tweet from CNBC reporter Deirdra Bosa read, implying they took the men’s statements seriously.
Both men carried boxes filled with office supplies. “Rahul,” who spelled his first and last names for the reporter, held a copy of Michelle Obama’s 2018 memoir, “Becoming,” while “Johnson” said he didn’t know how he’s would make payments on his Tesla, another tweet stated. (RELATED: ‘My House Got Raided Too’: Trump And Son Eric Survive The ‘Back Off Challenge’ In Hilarious Video)
“Johnson” described Musk’s idea of free speech as “Nazis saying trans women shouldn’t use women’s locker rooms” and told reporters he needed to get home to “touch base with my husband and wife.”
The combination of the names “Johnson,” a euphemism for phallus, and “Ligma,” the setup to a crude joke, prompted many Twitter users conclude that the two were pranking the reporters.
“You got conned,” one user tweeted. “C’mon man.”
You got conned.
Name is “Rahul LIGMA”C’mon man pic.twitter.com/EdcuIk6jCP
— Dr. Randy J. Marsh ➐ (@WealthyCFO) October 28, 2022
“Friends inside Twitter tell me that Rahul Ligma’s boss, Dinesh Sukondeez has also been laid off and is walking out of the building now,” another user jested.
Bosa apparently saw the criticisms, later tweeting that she was attempting to verify the employees’ identities. “Are people being let go? Are they trolling the media? …unfortunately corp comms isn’t returning calls,” her most recent update read.
“After CNBC published details of an interview with people who claimed to be fired employees of Twitter, several reports emerged suggesting it was a hoax. CNBC could not confirm the identities of the individuals,” an update to a CNBC article on the layoffs stated.
Getty Images originally identified the two men by the names they gave to reporters but later updated their photo caption to read that the two “were likely practical jokers pretending to be laid off Twitter staff.”