Tim Dillon Got Fact Checked for a Bit He Did Making Fun of the Olympic Opening Ceremony Because the World is Hot Garbage
I love Tim Dillon. Which is why I didn't deem it necessary to include the words "Comic" or "Comedy" in the headline. Because by now, if you don't know who he is, I don't feel like explaining it. That's on you.
But the reason I'm posting a week old Tweet of his isn't because it's hilarious and I want to watch it a few more times. I'm posting it because this Tweet video is only the second funniest part of the story:
USA Today - The claim: A producer at the Olympics was caught saying '60% of people in this stadium will be dead within 10 days'
After the 2020 Olympics opening ceremony took place in Tokyo, a viral video surfaced online claiming there was a hot mic incident involving an NBC producer.
"Producer at Olympics thought his Mic was off," reads the caption of a TikTok video that was shared to Facebook on July 26.
As footage from the opening ceremony plays on the screen, a man is heard saying, "60% of people in this stadium will be dead within 10 days. They’re thinking of using the swimming pool as a mass grave."
Some users in the comments pointed out the video was a joke, writing, "These pranks are getting out of hand."
But others perceived the video to be authentic and claimed the producer was fired right after he made the comment. ...
In response to the video, NBC Sports spokesperson Jamie Palatini told USA TODAY via email: "This is not authentic." ...
The video was first shared to Twitter on July 23 by stand-up comedian and actor Tim Dillon, PolitiFact reported.
Thank you, USA Today, NBC and PolitiFact, for having the courage and tenacious journalistic integrity to do the digging necessary to root out the truth in this sordid tale. So many of us were on the edge of our seats trying to sort fact from fiction, it's comforting to know we've got intrepid reporters willing to put in the time to ferret out the facts and keep the public informed.
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Or, the terminally confused could've clicked on the name at the top of the Tweet and seen the bio of the person who posted it reads, "Stand up comic. CEO of Fake Business." I mean, he put it right there. Hiding in plain sight. Impossible to miss, unless you're actually trying to. But the more information we have, the dumber we get. And the more fun someone makes of a goofy event like the Olympic Opening Ceremonies - a pretentious, pompous, ridiculous production that's crying out to be made fun of - the less some people can see the comedy forest through the obnoxious, self-important trees.
So what did we have here that needed to be fact checked anyway? Were there people going full 1938 "War of the Worlds," for fuck sake? Simple country folk watching a TikTok bit or catching it on Twitter and immediately grabbing their shotguns and running into the root cellar to protect themselves against Olympic-sized swimming pools filled with Covid corpses? Were they afraid their next California Roll would be made with infected human flesh?
I swear, the whole culture is becoming so infantile we need dying institutions like USA Today to spoon fed us obvious information that any waking adult's common sense should've picked up as a joke - a goddamned funny one - right away. If I sound like I'm making too big a deal out of it, think again. Because I think that once a civilization can't take a simple fucking joke, it is on the path to ruin.
P.S. And while we're failing badly at taking Tim Dillon jokes, someone fact check whether this is really Meghan McCain: