Get this man a pint!
‘Student’ Godfrey Elfwick pulled a classic hoax on the BBC World Service radio – live on air.
The Beeb invited him on to talk about the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer after seeing this tweet from him…
I’ve never actually seen #StarWars but the fact that the bad guy was all black and ate watermelons was unbelievably racist even for the 70’s
— Godfrey Elfwick (@GodfreyElfwick) April 17, 2015
Alarm bells should have been ringing at the BBC, but no…they got him on air. “They’re rooted in homophobia and casual racist stereotypes” he said. “The only female ends up in a space bikini chained to a horny space slug”. He called Darth Vader “Dark Raider” and told the show’s presenter it was a “bad racial stereotype”. Old Godfrey even called C3P0 a “Camp, neurotic robot.”
@GodfreyElfwick glad you pointed out the problematic issues with Dark Raider listening to rap music, it needed to be said
— Maltese Falcon (@MalteseFalconX) April 17, 2015
Not really cottoning on to the prank, the presenter replied that this was from “the 70s and 80s” and that “time had moved on.”
A BBC spokesman said: “On this occasion the Force was not with us. The guest presented himself as a 20-year-old who’s never seen Star Wars, and we put him on air under that pretence.
“Producers always do their best to check guests in a live programme that invites global discussion from listeners.”
We don’t know why you did it, or if Godfrey is your real name, but that was top drawer pranking.
(H/T The Guardian)