Earlier this week, Edward Snowden, the former CIA analyst who leaked classified documents to a number of media organisations to expose the US spy agency’s scrutiny of the public, joined Twitter, immediately garnering more than a million followers and almost as many headlines.
Today @Snowden joined Twitter, and here's the world's response. pic.twitter.com/d6HgVvdRsf
— Twitter (@twitter) September 29, 2015
As op-eds and think pieces offered the hottest take on Snowden’s newest social-media foray, on the US TV channel HLN, The Daily Share host Yasmin Vossoughian entered into a debate as to why Snowden’s account should be allowed to remain on Twitter. And to discuss the breaking story, the show invited Jon Hendren, a comedian who tweets as @fart to offer his opinion. Which mostly revolved around Edward Scissorhands.
Upon being asked whether he agreed that Snowden's actions potentially placed US citizens in danger, Hendren replied by outlining the plot to the 1991 Tim Burton movie starring Johnny Depp as man with shears in place of hands.
"Well, you know, to say that he couldn't harm somebody with what he did – he could, absolutely, he could, but to cast him out, to make him invalid in society simply because he has scissors for hands – I mean, that's strange," Hendren said.
"People didn't get scared until he started sculpting shrubs into dinosaur shapes and whatnot."
via GIPHY
Despite this rather unlikely description of one of the best-known whistleblowers in the world, host Vossoughian continued with her line of questioning, asking Hendren why Snowden would seek asylum in Russia, a country noted for its human-rights violations.
"Just because he was created on top of a mountain by Vincent Price, and incomplete, with scissors for hands and no heart... Edward Scissorhands is a complete hero to me."
Ignoring his response, the show's host continued to probe, asking the question again.
"We cast him out," Hendren said. "We got scared when he poked a hole in a waterbed with his scissor fingers, and that was unreasonable of us."
Vossoughian then wrapped up the segment, thanking her guest for his contribution, and has since become a viral butt of a journalistic joke. Speaking to Esquire, Hendren believes he was asked to speak on the show off the back of a message he tweeted in 2013 in support of Snowden.
#TeenQuotes #SoRelatable edward snowden is being hunted by the government while bankers who sabotaged the economy are free #DamnItsTrue
— jon hendren (@fart) June 21, 2013
You can watch the full video of the report below:
