Stephen Colbert's animated Comedy Central spoof news show Toon Out the News has done it again.
After two legendary stunts in which they duped Rudy Giuliani into coming on the show twice, the animated parody was able to get Georgia Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker on the phone.
How did they do it?
By leveraging the now infamous incident in which Walker flashed an honorary sheriff's deputy badge during his debate with Democratic opponent Senator Raphael Warnock and claimed to be a member of law enforcement. This is not the first time Walker made this claim.
It's unclear if Walker believes the honorary badge allows him to be a sheriff's deputy without any training, background checks or any of the other steps taken while hiring law enforcement officers.
The Comedy Central show's host character James Smartwood and his compatriots told Walker they needed him to help them solve a crime and... well you can probably imagine how it went.
See the segment below.
Big News Calls Sheriff Herschel Walker To Report A Crimeyoutu.be
Armed with a story about his laptop having been stolen the night before, Smartwood rang up Walker and when a man answered the phone who definitely sounded like Walker, the pranksters were off and running.
After Walker asked what paper Smartwood was from, he quickly answered with the very official-sounding "Big News" before launching into his bit.
“Basically, what I wanted to do is I wanted to report a crime."
"I left my window down in my car last night, someone stole my laptop out of the passenger seat, and so I’m just trying to figure out if there’s any way in your—as someone who’s a law enforcement person—if there’s any way you can take a look at it.”
"Law enforcement person" Walker didn't even miss a beat.
He replied:
“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do is we’ll report your thing, and all that and stuff."
"That’ll be great. What we’ll do is, you got a number I can call?”
Walker then offered to "get some fingerprints" of the crime scene, but he seemed put off when Smartwood asked Walker to up the drama a bit.
“Is there any chance you can hop in the squad car, you know, flick on the sirens, come down here or, maybe like go undercover or something?”
Walker responded:
“Uh, what can you do, can you do anything?”
Smartwood responded that no, he can't, because he's not a cop. In any case, Walker demurred by saying he'd call Smartwood back.
But that was all the time the show needed to get yet another equal parts hilarious and disturbing video with an actual member of the GOP.
On Twitter, people were equal parts tickled and horrified.
\u201c@SuperDuperSJW02 @duty2warn The joke is that Walker\u2019s a candidate \ud83e\udd26\u200d\u2640\ufe0f OMG!\u201d— Duty To Warn \ud83d\udd09 (@Duty To Warn \ud83d\udd09) 1666266896
\u201c@duty2warn Can you imagine him on the Senate floor trying to make his point on a bill? Good grief!\u201d— Duty To Warn \ud83d\udd09 (@Duty To Warn \ud83d\udd09) 1666266896
\u201cNothing to see here, just a US Senate candidate falling for a TV Show crank call. Jesus, this man is an embarrassment.\u201d— justinhintz (@justinhintz) 1666230237
\u201cOmg LITERALLY THE MOST HILARIOUS THING EVER! NOT FAKE \n\nhttps://t.co/IkDJYqrim3\u201d— Chon-c (@Chon-c) 1666253957
\u201c@duty2warn Well I guess we Dems better go vote and do the thing and that and stuff \ud83d\ude44\u201d— Duty To Warn \ud83d\udd09 (@Duty To Warn \ud83d\udd09) 1666266896
\u201cGeorgia Republicans are just fine with Herschel Walker: https://t.co/GGY61H1OYo\u201d— Howie Klein (@Howie Klein) 1666275120
\u201c@duty2warn Oh no is Herschel going to arrest them for making a false report to the police??\u201d— Duty To Warn \ud83d\udd09 (@Duty To Warn \ud83d\udd09) 1666266896
\u201c\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23 Stephen Colbert calling Walker to report a crime. \nhttps://t.co/DEG0TW8RAb\u201d— Sybil\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc99 (@Sybil\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc99) 1666281001
\u201cYes, this really is @HerschelWalker on the phone with an animated news anchor from @tooningout as both @paramountplus and the show\u2019s creator @rjfried just confirmed to me.\n\nhttps://t.co/6bfn5MlBm7\u201d— Matt Wilstein (@Matt Wilstein) 1666229080
Lest you question whether it actually was Walker on the phone, both Paramount and the series' creator RJ Fried, who also voices Smartwood, confirmed to The Daily Beast it was in fact the candidate on the line.
Fried quipped:
“It’s really Herschel Walker. I’ll ask James Smartwood, but I’m pretty sure Smartwood just dialed 9-1-1 and that’s who picked up.”
What a time to be alive.
