The BBC this week published a large, never-before-released collection of phone conversations between Bill Clinton and former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair. The chats between the world leaders took place at the tail end of the ’90s, and they run the gamut from the political to the personal. They’re occasionally revealing and occasionally funny — especially a weird in-joke about a banana. But they’re not as funny as the fake parody conversations that have been flying around Twitter.
Although the most popular spoofs are spreading without attribution on Twitter, and some people are treating them like they’re genuine transcripts from the Clinton Presidential Library, BuzzFeed reporter Jim Waterson sussed out their real author: London comedian Michael Spicer.
This is Spicer’s best joke, which — let’s be honest — is entirely believable given public perception of Bill Clinton:
It’s so real that even the former prime minister of Sweden apparently believed it and cited it as an example of the “special relationship” between the U.K. and the colonies.
And apparently some folks also believed Spicer’s other four spoofs, one of which features Clinton espousing the benefits of ham-punching — actually punching a ham with your fists until it falls apart — for stress relief.
In each joke, Spicer sets Clinton up as a friendly buffoon, with a quite proper Blair as his straight man. As you can see, it’s a winning formula:
These are all very, very good, and people on the internet are very credulous — which only makes them better.
