Fired! Shauna Hunt Heckler Who Said, ‘Lucky There’s Not A Vibrator In Your Ear’ Now Out Of Job
Shauna Hunt is a TV reporter on Toronto, Canada’s, City TV who, like far too many TV reporters — particularly women — found herself subjected to a bunch of morons shouting a popular but vulgar and obscene internet meme often known by the letters “FHRITP.”
The difference this time was that Hunt decided to do something about it. And by confronting the foul-mouthed hecklers live on the air, she had one unintended but harsh effect. One of the idiots she interviewed was quickly fired by his employer — from a job that paid him over $100,000 in Canadian currency.
The video above shows Hunt’s entire confrontation with the hecklers outside a Toronto FC Major League Soccer game, when she was attempting to interview some fans outside the stadium.
Be warned, the video contains profanity — though the worst of it is bleeped out.
In the middle of her interview, one “fan” sticks his head into the shot and recites the meme — the phrase, “F*** her right in the p****!”
For those blissfully unfamiliar with this not only sexist but obnoxious meme, it apparently began almost exactly one year ago, with a couple of YouTube videos that seemed to show a TV news reporter interrupted by a goateed man in a hoodie shouting the offensive phrase.
The videos turned out to be staged hoaxes, not actual news broadcasts. But by the time that news got out, the meme had already gone viral and was being imitated all over the world.
College football player Jameis Winston, who recently became the Number One overall selection in the 2015 NFL draft, even got in trouble for yelling the idiotic phrase while standing on a table in a student center building.
But when Hunt, who said that even though the tired meme is now a year old, she still hears it “every single day, 10 times a day,” didn’t just awkwardly let the intrusion pass. She asked the hecklers why they “would humiliate me on live television.”
The young men were totally unapologetic, explaining that they find the phrase “hilarious.”
When she asks one, later identified as Wilfrid Laurier University graduate Shawn Simoes (pictured above), why he still thinks the phrase is so funny, he gives her a belligerent answer.
“We’re not the only people … It happened in England… You’re lucky there’s not a f*****g vibrator in your ear like in England, because it happens all the time.”
Simons also told Hunt that his own mother would find the phrase funny “eventually.”
Within a day, video of Simoes conduct got back to his employer, the Toronto utility firm Hydro One, where Simoes was an assistant network management engineer — earning a healthy salary of $106,510 per year, according to the Toronto Star.
That sum is about $90,000 in United States dollars.
Hydro One didn’t like Simoes attempt at humor one bit.
“Hydro One is taking steps to terminate the employee involved for violating our Code of Conduct,” the company said in a statement. “Respect for all people is engrained in the Code of Conduct and in our Core Values and we are committed to a work environment where discrimination or harassment of any type is met with zero tolerance.” As for Shauna Hunt, she received widespread support, including from the local police.
Our media partners should not have to deal with #FHRITP. Cause Disturbance seems to apply. http://t.co/qxwek6SLnW pic.twitter.com/gqiN2oNoXH
— Kingston Police (@kingstonpolice) May 12, 2015
[Image: City TV Screen Grab]
