Listen to his fake story (skip to the 24:15 mark) in video below. ***Language warning*** You won’t believe the detail comedian Stephen Rannazzisi goes into about escaping death during the attack on the twin towers on 9-11.
Comedy Central is scrambling to figure out how to move forward with its Stephen Rannazzisi special, which is set to debut Saturday, after learning he has lied for years about being in one of the World Trade Center towers at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
“We just learned about this last night,” Comedy Central said in a statement. “We are very disappointed to hear about Steve’s misrepresentations and are currently determining how we will move forward.”
FX Networks, which tonight airs Episode 2 of the seventh season of FXX’s The League, in which Rannazzisi stars, issued a statement saying, “We are disappointed to learn that Steve Rannazzisi lied about being in the World Trade Center on 9/11. It is upsetting that he would fabricate a story about having survived that horrible tragedy. It is also unfortunate that he did not admit to the truth sooner.”
FX Networks made no mention of any change in plans to continue producing episodes of comedy series The League for its current final season — they’ve produced 11 of the 13 episodes so far – or to alter its play pattern on FXX. The company did say, “We believe Steve is sincere in his apology and will do everything he can to make amends moving forward.”
In social media and elsewhere, commenters have not been so forgiving, noting Premiere Of FXX’s “The League” And “You’re The Worst”that it was only after being confronted with information refuting his account that Rannazzisi acknowledged he was nowhere near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, when two commercial airplanes hijacked by terrorists slammed into the Twin Towers, killing thousands. His fictitious recollections of his harrowing experience on that day, in which he claimed he was on the 54th floor of the south tower as the first plane struck, made for a great backstory, which helped catapult his career. That has included seven seasons starring as fantasy football league commissioner Kevin MacArthur on The League.
Buffalo Wild Wings, which is using the comedian in an ad campaign to coincide with the start of football season, said in a statement it first issued to the NYT: “We are disappointed to learn of Steve’s misrepresentations regarding the events of September 11, 2001. We are currently re-evaluating our relationship with Steve pending a review of all the facts.” Via: Deadline Hollywood
