Look, we’re going to be as frank as possible here: the news is a real downer sometimes. Everyday we are presented with death, controversy, and threats to our nation's security. That’s what makes it so wonderful when, every so often, we are able to find something on the news that makes our sides split with laughter. In discussing Edward Snowden, one man was able to make an entire news program shift to a hilarious defense of the Tim Burton creation Edward Scissorhands. Check the video out for yourself below.
Jon Hendren –a DevOps Thought Leader– went on HLN’s The Daily Share to have an earnest and frank discussion about Edward Snowden. As many know, Snowden is a former CIA employee who leaked classified information regarding United States government surveillance programs, and has since fled to Russia. What the host of The Daily Share obviously didn’t know about Hendren is that he’s a well-known Twitter troll – his Twitter handle is @fart, in case you were wondering. Every single time the host asks him a question about the controversial Snowden, Hendren responds with a statement that completely skirts the issue and defends fictional Johnny Depp character Edward Scissorhands. The references begin slowly and vaguely, as the host of The Daily Share asks Hendren about how Snowden differs from ISIS.
He's a hero, he's doing what any one of us should've done in that situation… He's got a voice, he's been isolated for so long. He's got valid things to say, we should listen to what he says.
Ambiguous to say the least; the host doesn’t seem to notice and continues her line of questioning with Hendren. She plays a clip from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, explaining that Snowden’s actions could have had potentially dangerous effects for numerous people around the world. With a stone cold, straight face, Hendren replies:
I think to cast him out, to make him invalid in society, simply because he has scissors for hands, I mean that's strange… I mean people didn't get scared until he started sculpting shrubs into dinosaur shapes and whatnot.
Perhaps the host of the show is a consummate professional, or perhaps she really never bothered to listen to Hendren’s answers to the questions. Either way, it’s brilliant how hard he managed to troll an entire news program. It’s even better knowing that Hendren himself actually does support the actions of Edward Snowden, however, and rather than engage the 24-hour news cycle as yet another talking head voicing an opinion on a polarizing topic, Hendren opts to transcend the medium in which the debate takes place. As juvenile as the stunt may seem on the surface, it really is satire at its finest; someone make that man an offer to work at The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
If more talking heads on news networks pulled stunts like this, we’re sure more people would want to tune in. Edward Snowden’s leak of confidential information was important – and it deserved the headlines it received – but Jon Hendren managed to perfectly mock the media’s fixation on certain key issues.
