Rahul Ligma is a fictional fired Twitter employee, a character played by one of a pair of amateur improvisational actors that pranked multiple major media outlets on October 28, 2022. The spontaneous and intentionally transparent hoax was revealed the same day, after the initial news coverage triggered debate among real Twitter employees about whether or not expected mass layoffs had already started. The Rahul Ligma character next appeared in early November as a recently unemployed FTX employee in the Bahamas. On November 15, Elon Musk, the incoming CEO of Twitter, facetiously offered Ligma and his compatriot their (fictional) old jobs back, and posted a photograph taken with them at Twitter headquarters. Although at least one journalist had publicly apologized for their failure to fact check before reporting the news, several notable media outlets were still oblivious to the running joke, and reported the duo's firing and rehiring as actual news. In social media, the follow-up stunt was widely criticized for lack of sensitivity to actual Twitter employees who had lost their jobs. On November 23, news reports surfaced once again, this time reporting that the actor playing Daniel Johnson had in fact been hired by Twitter for the first time.
Background
On October 28, 2022, many members of the press were present outside Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on the first day that Elon Musk gained control of the social media company. It had been previously reported that mass layoffs were expected in the coming weeks and months. That day, two individuals identifying as "Rahul Ligma" and "Daniel Johnson" left Twitter's building carrying large cardboard boxes, pretending to be two recently fired employees departing with their belongings. Neither had ever worked for Twitter, but the inventor of the Ligma character regularly exercised in a gymnasium in the same building, and he "thought it would be really funny" if he and a friend "walked out with a [cardboard] box and they fell for it."
The prank
Rahul Ligma, in character, acted dismayed about his firing, telling a group of reporters his concerns about the "future of their democracy... the future of celebrity conservatorship" (a Britney Spears reference) and lamenting that "this wouldn't have happened under Michelle Obama", while holding up a copy of the former first lady's autobiography. Claiming to be a Tesla owner and a software engineer with Twitter for the past three years, he also identified himself as "a big fan of clean energy, climate change, even free speech too."
"Daniel Johnson", also part of the fictional team of fired data engineers, said he had to leave the interview to "touch base with my husband and wife" using a version of the "My wife's son" meme.
Although no "Rahul Ligma" exists in Twitter's Slack or email system, nor shows up LinkedIn as an employee, multiple news networks reported the fictional names along with statements, photographs, and video of the pranksters as being of actual ex-employees of Twitter. California State Senator Melissa Melendez tweeted at the time, “This is too funny. Two guys posing as laid-off Twitter employees. They said their names were Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson. Not one reporter thought that was odd. They just ran with the story.”
CNBC technology reporter Deirdre Bosa tweeted, "It’s happening. The entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them. They are visibly shaken. Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn’t know how he will make payments" The San Francisco ABC News affiliate reported that one "was terminated during a zoom meeting." Based on the visual of the fake employees carrying boxes, two Bloomberg journalists wrote that mass layoffs were already underway at Twitter, but actually it was only top executives that had lost their jobs. Reuters was also among the major media companies fooled by the hoax.
Reactions
Among Twitter employees, the initial news reports launched a debate about whether or not layoffs had already begun. Later in the day on October 28, Twitter CEO Elon Musk, aware of the joke, continued the crude puns by tweeting about the firing that "Ligma Johnson had it coming", along with eggplant and water splash emojis.
The Times of India called the Ligma-Johnson hoax "perfectly-timed" and "one of the greatest pranks on the internet."