Sometimes, when making jokes, we don’t think that it could come back to haunt us in any way. It seems that it’s a simple joke that everyone will laugh at and then forget. But sometimes the jokes turn out to be not so fun, especially when people take it seriously.
Around 5 years ago, a man made a joke that seemed harmless. But when people around him took it seriously, he was consumed by guilt and the joke still haunts him to this day. Recently, he came to the r/tifu community to talk about it.
More info: Reddit
Sometimes, the jokes that might seem harmless at first end up torturing you for many years
Image credits: Katerina Holmes (not the actual photo)
A few years ago, a man made a restaurant reservation under the name Zach Galifianakis as a joke, but soon his joke came back to bite him
Image credits: Kevin Curtis (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Zakkattack86
Fortunately, the restaurant staff had a good sense of humor and didn't take the joke as an insult
The man and his wife were in Buffalo, NY. They decided to get dinner at Morton's Steakhouse, which was attached to their hotel. The OP decided to make an online reservation. When asked for the first name, he put in 'Zach'. When it came to putting in a last name, he decided to be funny and wrote 'Galifianakis'.
For those who are not aware of who Zach Galifianakis is, don’t worry, Bored Panda has you covered!
Zach Galifianakis is an American comedian and actor. One of his most, if not the most, notable roles was in The Hangover trilogy (2009–2013). In it, he played a character named Alan. He is also quite well known for his online talk show “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis” (2008–2018).
Image credits: CleftClips (the actual photo (of Zach Galifianakis, not OP))
Coming back to the story, when the couple headed down to the restaurant later on, the wife approached the hostess and told her that the reservation was under the name Zach. The second the hostess heard the name, a huge smile appeared on her face. That’s when the OP understood what he had done and that the restaurant thought that the actual Zach Galifianakis was going to show up.
The hostess told the couple that the restaurant had arranged a private table for them. At this point, the wife understood that something was up. When they were led to their private table, the OP could feel all eyes on them from every employee there. Even the cooks in the kitchen stopped what they were doing to see them!
When the hostess handed over a couple of their menus, a very pregnant waitress showed up. This is where the story bubble bursts. The OP confessed to not being Zach Galifianakis. The waitress answered that she had already understood that. The man apologized to the waitress saying he was just trying to be funny.
The waitress admitted that she was a big fan of Zach's. And so, when the reservation came in, she was given the table because everyone knew she was a big fan. Luckily, the waitress had a great sense of humor and accepted the OP’s genuine apology.
The story ended with the restaurant taking a picture, which the OP signed. He also left a waitress a $100 tip and signed her credit card slip.
Bored Panda reached out to the original poster - u/Zakkattack86. And he agreed to share some additional information about this situation.
When asked if he thought his joke was the first impersonation attempt at that restaurant, he stated that he thought it was not.
We also asked the OP if he had told this story to anyone before posting on Reddit. And he did - he told his family and close friends. He also added that they laughed at the situation and said that this was typical behavior for him.
The last question of ours was what would Zach advise others who might be tempted to use impersonation similarly. He answered, “If your intentions aren't nefarious, I think it's a harmless joke but just be ready for things to not go according to plan.”
Lastly, he addressed some commentators’ claims: “Some think I was hustled by the staff from the jump but either way, I think everyone had a nice laugh and the world (especially today) needs that energy.”
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)
The OP isn’t the only Zach Galifianakis impersonator that exists! There’s quite a famous Zach impersonator. His name is Thaddeus Kalinoski.
It all started when after his divorce and losing a job, Thaddeus gained around 9 kg (or 20 pounds) and grew out his beard and hair. And when he put on huge, dark sunglasses, he looked just the same as Zach Galifianakis’ character Alan in The Hangover movies. Until this point, the man had never noticed the possible resemblance.
With this appearance, the man was able to make money in such places as Atlantic City or Las Vegas by posing as the character Alan. The impersonation was so successful that at one point the man could not remember the last time he had bought a drink for himself.
Bored Panda also reached out to him. And he shared some updates and stories about this adventure.
He said that he is no longer impersonating Alan. In fact, he stopped doing it back in 2016 due to that kind of lifestyle being too crazy. In the last year, his anxiety before every appearance was way too bad to enjoy the job.
“There were many times where partygoers would cross the line with me. I would be pressured into hardcore drug use or they would try to get me involved in their sexual acts, so I would have to pretend to use the restroom and escape out a back door… even as the crazy party guy, I had my limits.” Until then, he has impersonated Alan for 5 years.
But before things turned bad, this was Thaddeus’ dream job. Because of it, he got a chance to party with beautiful women and a bunch of celebrities. Also, when he was living in Las Vegas, where he used to work as an impersonator, he had a big house with a three-car garage with 3 cars, a swimming pool, and even a hot tub.
The possibilities did not end with materialistic things. He said “I was also given the opportunity to be on the set of the last Hangover film as Zach Galifianakis’ photo double and stand-in… Even on the set, I had people starting conversations with me because they thought I was him.”
But even a dream job has its downsides. As an example, he said “I had to be the life of every party, even if I was having a bad day. Or during the last year when I was completely burnt out from doing the same movie quotes day after day. I also became sober towards the end and it made it impossible to be genuinely crazy like Alan.”
Then he added “I also had relations with a lot of sketchy characters that walked the streets every day I was on the strip. I would witness and sometimes be involved in physical altercations. There are definitely a lot of bad people out there that I had to keep relations with just so I could keep the area where I took my photos.”
So, as we can see, there are people out there who are taking the impersonation way more seriously than the man from the Reddit story. For him, it was a joke that he regrets to this day, while for others it is a way to make quite a lot of money.
Briefly coming back to the Reddit story, let’s look at how people reacted to it. Some commentators were sure that the restaurant kind of ripped off the man. According to them, they knew that it was likely not the actor who made the reservation and just made the man feel guilty over doing it. And the waitress got a huge tip because of that guilt! Some others were not that harsh towards the restaurant and just shared similar incidents that happened to them or that they are aware of.
Some people online were sure that the restaurant employees played the man by making him feel guilty
Image credits: Alex Urezkov (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Jay Wennington (not the actual photo)
