Although it isn’t even March yet, a strong contender for 2020's best news blooper has just arrived. While the video in question doesn’t feature anything quite as strong as people realizing they’re probably too stoned to be on-air or falling over while they try to do their job, it does give us yet another example of a classic feature of the blooper genre: A professional reporter obliviously doing serious reporter-voice while silly shit happens all around them.
The journalist in this case is Justin Hinton, a guy who was just trying to report on North Carolina’s weather conditions for WLOS ABC 13 last week while the Facebook Live broadcast slapped a series of cartoon effects over him. Over the course of about a minute, Hinton describes the snowfall while the filter turns him into a resident of goddamn Toontown. Little barbells are lifted by gloved hands in front of him, a wizard’s hat and beard pops up on his head and face, he’s given a purple mustache, googly eyes, and a fedora and sunglasses. He continues to report on the weather throughout until, just before the clip ends, Hinton notices viewer comments and asks what was happening to his face.
According to the network’s own story, Hinton “somehow accidentally activated a filter generator on the phone being used” for the broadcast. As the clip spread, cementing the reporter’s status as the latest news blooper star, Hinton wrote a Facebook post basically just saying he thinks the whole thing’s funny.
This kind of accepting response is the privilege of those whose bloopers revolve, like Hinton’s, around not-all-that embarrassing stuff like being turned into a cartoon character. We can only wonder if he’d feel the same way if the clip involved farts, dick jokes, or him wiping out on-air to the amusement of millions.
[via Digg]
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