Shocking truth behind video of White House speaker who candidly announced his 'wife just died'
"Good morning everybody. I apologise for being late, my wife just died," says a deadpan bureaucrat by the name of Theodore Barrett.
Throughout the next two minutes of the recently resurfaced clip, the man goes on to provide reporters with a series of woolly soundbites about mid-2000's US foreign policy, dodging kind words of condolence better than a character on Tekken.
"I'm so sorry, about your wife," one person says, to which Ted responds: "Yeah, well, as you might expect, the pain's unlike anything I've ever experienced," before carrying on as though he'd just told reporters about the weather.
Check out the completely bizarre YouTube clip below:
Now, does anything in particular stand out to you about the video? Does the man's response to discovering his wife is dead and his children are critically injured seem a little too scripted?
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Well, that would be because the video is a hoax, cleverly crafted by a nameless actor, a generic Whitehouse backdrop and notorious online pranksters, The Onion.
Viewers were quick to share the moment the penny dropped for them, with one person commenting: "I realised it was a skit when the journalists showed empathy."
"I actually don't find it unrealistic. For people in mourning, trying to focus on something else, like their job, is a common way to deal with the pain," a second person added.
Naturally, anyone with basic media literacy would be able to quickly spot that this clip is staged. After all, it was published on The Onion of all places.
The clip also doesn't have the digital footprint you'd expect for a video of this magnitude, which should have been another red flag.
However, you would be surprised to learn that younger generations of people on the internet are falling for the hoax, with the video cropping up in various 'motivational' edits over the past couple of years.
Don't believe us, type in 'strong man not showing any emotion after his wife died' into Google, and you'll see a concerning number of clips featuring Mr. Barrett's 'admission' alongside the argument that this is how a typical strong man should be.
Although, if you truly wanted to be cynical, one could argue that our current work-centric and hustle-obsessed culture isn't far off accepting this as standard practice in years to come.
The US is known to have some of the worst labour laws in the western world, so it's not too much of a stretch to imagine a manager who would tell you to 'suck it up and get on with your job' after learning of your devastating personal tragedy.
Brenna Cooper