| GiRTh |
07-03-2014 09:15 PM |
'Our president... Barraco Barner':
Our president... Barraco Barner': Lancashire beautician sparks worldwide Twitter ridicule after getting Obama's name spectacularly wrong in tweet about Ukraine crisis
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When a young British beautician realised relations between Russia and Ukraine were at crisis point, she decided to share her feelings on Twitter.
Without pausing to check her facts, or her spelling, Gemma Worrall, 20, wrote: 'If barraco barner is our president, why is he getting involved with Russia, scary.'
Within hours, Miss Worrall, from Blackpool, was trending in countries around the world as her message was retweeted thousands of times.
By the time she had realised her mistakes, and deleted the tweet, it had already been screengrabbed and shown on television programmes in Australia and Belgium, among others.
The hashtag #barracobarner was trending around the world, and new spoof accounts @BarracoBarner (UK prez, chilling at Number 10) and Michelleo Barner (First Lady of the United States of Britain) were set up.
Meanwhile the beautician, who works in a salon in Blackpool, was being invited onto TV and radio chat shows and having to fend off unkind comments calling her 'stupid', '****' and 'dumb' on the social media site that made her name.
The youngster tried to correct the situation, writing a tweet saying : 'Right, I get it, I'm no good with politics I'll just shh now'.
And she pleaded with people to stop retweeting her original message, adding: 'CAN'T BREATHE, wtf is going on, phone's blowing up - retweets.'
She eventually signed off: 'Feel tight on my nan. She’s going to have a heart attack when she sees me in the paper.'
Today she described the reaction to her tweet as 'unbelievable', and said she had received bullying threats from around the world.
Miss Worrall added: said: 'The response I have had from people has been awful - I have had messages from strangers calling me a "stupid cow" and an "oxygen thief."
'Some of the comments I was getting were funny and I could have a good laugh at myself, but others were just brutal and extreme.
'Luckily I see the funny side, but I can now see how cyber bullying can really affect people.
'I might have had a bit of a ditzy moment but I don’t deserve to be called such horrible names - I am harmless, and didn’t mean to offend anyone with my tweet.'
The beautician, who said her parents were 'fuming and embarrassed’, said: 'The tweet was just a spelling mistake. I was watching the news and tried to act clever but it back-fired.
'I have an English GCSE but I admit I don’t take much interest in politics and stuff like that. Maybe I should stay out of politics.'
But this afternoon, as her fame spread, Miss Worrall was on the receiving end of a raft of supportive tweets and comments, with people congratulating her on taking an interest in politics and thanking her for cheering them up.
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Bless her. At least she was taking an interest in politics. :laugh:
I think we might have a future Celeb BB contestant here. |
