Fact check: Man buns intact despite claims of haircutting vigilante
The claim: A man cut off 37 man buns
A Feb. 17 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shares an image of a headline.
“Criminal Caught After Cutting Off 37 Man Buns In One Day, Claims He ‘Was Doing The Lord’s Work,’” the headline says.
The post was shared more than 100 times in less than a day.
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Our rating: False
The article originated on a satirical website, but a screenshot was cropped to remove the name of the publication and a disclaimer.
Headline is stolen satire
The headline in question comes from a Feb. 10 article on Daily News Reported, which says at the top of every page, “Not Quite Daily. Not Quite News.”
The screenshot, however, crops off the website’s name and the slogan that indicates it is satirical.
Daily News Reported also says on its “About Us” page that it is not a real news source.
"Daily News Reported is a fabricated satirical newspaper and comedy website,” it reads. “Daily News Reported uses invented names in all its stories, except in cases when public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.”
The mugshot in the satirical story is of a man arrested in 2017 after jumping on stage during a Britney Spears concert in Las Vegas.
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The claim is an example of "stolen satire," in which made-up claims published and labeled as satire are captured via screenshot and reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.
Paste BN reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment.
PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Daily News Reported, Feb. 10, Criminal Caught After Cutting Off 37 Man Buns In One Day, Claims He “Was Doing The Lord’s Work”
- Daily News Reported, accessed Feb. 20, About Us
- Paste BN, Aug. 10, 2017, Man arrested for rushing stage at Britney Spears’ Las Vegas show
- PolitiFact, Feb. 17, No man buns were harmed as fake news about a vigilante cutting them off spread on social media
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