American Cody Pfister became a lightning rod for condemnation after taking part in a ‘coronavirus challenge’, including from British TV personality Piers Morgan. (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
In news that proves, somehow, the world truly can get worse, British broadcaster Piers Morgan made a fisting joke Wednesday night.
The Good Morning Britain talkshow host took to Twitter to comment on the recent arrest and charging of the ‘Walmart coronavirus licker’, a Missouri man who filmed himself licking various deodorants in a supermarket.
In the video, taped March 11, Cody Pfister asks the viewer “Who’s scared of coronavirus?” before licking deodorants sticks out for purchase.
The 26-year-old was charged by the Warren County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office with a terrorist threat in the second degree, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
What did Piers Morgan say?
Morgan provided his commentary on Pfister’s actions that seized Twitter timelines, coming as paranoia mixes with anger amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Bye Cody,” he wrote.
Bye Cody.
Good luck with that surname inside when you try your licking trick. https://t.co/ly6UeSnkEn— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 25, 2020
“Good luck with that surname inside when you try your licking trick.”
His anal fisting joke proved a hit online, with many accounts cracking jokes salted with homophobia about him “licking [inmates]”, well, areas.
Yup, what the world needs right now is crude, anti-gay comments.
Who is Cody Pfister?
While the coronavirus changes daily life for citizens across the globe, ‘coronavirus challenges’ and other online mischief have become a new, really unwanted trend on social media. Often seeing participants lick surfaces such as supermarket produce or public restroom toilet seats.
The Warrenton man’s video, the latest in the trend, taunted countless people online and, as a result, police say he was contacted by people in the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
“We take these complaints very seriously and would like to thank all of those who reported the video so the issue could be addressed,” law enforcement said in the statement.
Pfister ‘knowingly caused a false belief or fear that a condition involving danger to life existed’, court documents state.
He acted ‘with reckless disregard of the risk causing the evacuation, quarantine or closure of any portion’ of Walmart.
His lengthy rap sheet has seen Pfister plead guilty to burglary and stealing a firearm in 2013, and pleaded guilty to a 2016 charge of disorderly conduct.