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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| ‘Monopoly man' trolls former Equifax CEO Richard Smith at Senate hearing |
| 2017-10-05 |
| As Equifax's former chief executive tried to explain how the company responded to the massive data breach before a stern congressional panel, viewers couldn't help but notice the oddly dressed character hovering over his left shoulder. It was the "Monopoly man," a.k.a. Rich Uncle Pennybags. The man was actually a woman, Amanda Werner, a campaign manager for the nonprofits Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen. Werner, who sported a tuxedo, an enormous white mustache and a bulging bag of $100 bills, said her goal was to photobomb Smith as he testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Her group aims to bring attention to congressional attempts to undermine a new consumer protection rule intended to weaken the forced arbitration clauses in many contracts. To guarantee the perfect seat from which to troll Smith, one of Werner's interns from Americans for Financial Reform arrived at the Dirksen Senate Office Building at 7 a.m. to save her a spot. Werner chose a seat just behind Smith ‐ where cameras would capture her ‐ and performed live-action trolling throughout the hearing. Those included dabbing invisible sweat off her brow with ridiculously large paper money bills and using her monocle to gaze intently at Smith, with mock curiosity. (As many close observers have noted, the Monopoly man does not, in fact, wear a monocle.) "I was able to figure out, by having seen a lot of these hearings, which seat would be most visible," Werner said. "Once I got it, I went full in and just did as many visual gags as I could." Werner and her colleagues also hand-delivered "get out of jail free cards" to all 100 Senate offices on Tuesday, she said. |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #3 Hopefully with their pockets turned inside out. |
| Posted by: gorb 2017-10-05 20:49 |
| #2 Agreed. Next week: 100 monopoly men doing a silent protest of something outside the White House. Week after: monopoly man themed college football halftime show. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2017-10-05 19:00 |
| #1 This was actually pretty funny. No harm, no foul, just good trolling. |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2017-10-05 15:46 |