Well, we were well and truly hit with this one weren’t we – the Australian man who went viral defending his ‘Vietnamese’ name, Phuc Dat Bich, has revealed the whole thing was a hoax.
After SBS News contacted him with concerns about whether his name was real the man, now identifying himself as Joe Carr, posted on his now infamous Facebook page stating that his Vietnamese name gag had started out as a joke between friends.
In a response to SBS’s enquiry he said:
What started as a joke between friends, became a prank that made a fool out of the media and brought out the best in the people who reached out to me. It didn’t bring out the anger and darkness that we often see on the internet, but it brought a levity and humanity in a time we need it most.
The SBS Vietnamese program found his name was highly unlikely to be real as Bich is never used as a surname. However news organisations around the world, including SBS, the BBC, The Sydney Morning Herald, Fox News, The Daily Telegraph (and yes, us) ran the story to promote his plight.
In a final sign off, Joe/PDB said:
To those who do have culturally specific and spectacular names, ignore the ignorance in those who may try to put you down. Continue being the best person you can be and make your mark on the world in whatever way you can – even if it is a simple prank. Yours sincerely, Joe Carr aka PDB.
Nice one.
