A story being widely circulated online Saturday about the Russian man responsible for the Olympic rings malfunction during the opening ceremony on Friday in Sochi being found dead is just a hoax.
Though Friday’s opening ceremony for the Winter Games was pretty spectacular, there was one noticeable blunder — one of the five lights that were supposed to change from snowflakes into Olympic rings malfunctioned, leaving an incomplete view.
Our buddy Brad Evans quickly joked that the person responsible for the mistake would lose a body part for the mistake, which was a play on the notoriously harsh reputation of the Russian government.
A snowflake didn't open to create the critical fifth Olympic ring? Dear god, someone probably just lost a vital appendage. #OpeningCeremony
— Brad Evans (@YahooNoise) February 8, 2014
Apparently a satire site felt the same way and decided to seize the moment.
The Daily Courant, which is a satire site, wrote a story saying the guy who was responsible for the mistake was found dead. The story went viral because so many people believed it was true (stereotypes die hard, don’t they?). But if you look at the story or were aware of The Courant, you’d know right away it were just a satirical piece.
Seriously, could you pick a more cliche Russian name than Borris? Nice try, fellas.
