Behind the Viral Rant: Our Interview With Baratunde, Who Told Donald Trump To Shut Up

URL copied to clipboard.
  • by Shira Lazar

    Baratunde Thurston is the director of digital for The Onion and the co-founder of Jack & Jill Politics. On April 27, he discovered over Twitter that President Obama would be releasing his birth certificate proving to the country and naysayers that he was indeed American. Thurston then stumbled on this video of Donald Trump, who has been going on a PR rampage recently, reacting to Obama and further pushing his own Presidential candidacy.

    An angered and saddened Thurston decided to do what he does best online. Instead of tweeting or posting a simple blog, he uploaded an emotional rant to YouTube. The description pretty much says it all: “I’m full of rage and sadness over the president’s release of his birth certificate and Donald Trump’s white supremacist gloating.”

    I spoke to him over Skype about the video and why he thinks his remarks have sparked conversation and attention online:

  • In just 24 hours his original video got over 80,000 views and quickly got picked up by major news outlets and famous faces online from comedian Patton Oswalt to Roger Ebert.

    In just 24 hours his original video got over 80,000 views and quickly got picked up by major news outlets and famous faces online from comedian Patton Oswalt to Roger Ebert.

    Notice something trending in your world? Do you have questions for the people behind viral videos, memes and online stories?

More headlines