Russell Brand mercilessly mocked after sharing hoax file saying British star killed JFK
Russell Brand‘s attempt to pedal a JFK conspiracy theory backfired after he shared a hoax post claiming British star Penelope Keith assassinated the president.
Brand posted the fake document believing it was a part of the newly released files about the assassination, which have been classified since President John F Kennedy was shot in Dallas in 1963. Their release was ordered by President Donald Trump.
Historians, journalists and amateur sleuths have been scouring the pages looking for a scrap of anything new, but Brand’s investigation backfired when he posted a fake file that “named the assassin” as Keith, 84, who played Margo Leadbetter in British sitcom The Good Life.
Brand shared a screenshot of the bogus file on social media, pedalling the conspiracy theory that gunman Lee Harvey Oswald “or any member of any organised crime syndicate” did not kill JFK.
What Brand had failed to spot, though, was the line that read: “The lone shooter in Dallas Texas on 22 November 1963 was Miss Penelope Keith, star of the BBC television program The Good Life.”
Realising he had been duped by the fake, which had the same typeface as the words in the actual files, Brand swiftly deleted the social media post – but not before his blunder caught the attention of numerous X/Twitter users.
The gaffe has now gone viral, with the comedian being branded a “global embarrassment” while being mercilessly mocked online.
BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh wrote: “Russell Brand posted and then deleted a completely fake document which he thought was from the newly released JFK files and proved British actress Penelope Keith, not Lee Harvey Oswald, killed JFK.”
This led to a flurry of comedic tweets, with one person writing: “If Russell Brand thinks Penelope Keith killed JFK then wait until he hears what Felicity Kendall did to Lord Lucan.”
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
“Margo Leadbetter is an anagram of ‘targeted mob real’, adding further incontrovertible evidence to the picture of what happened there on the grassy knoll,” another chimed in.
An additional commenter posted: “Russell Brand is now investigating whether Joanna Lumley assisted Penelope Keith in the JFK assassination, or whether she was just a Patsy.”
Others declared the error as one of the wittiest things to have happened on X/Twitter, with one user writing: “We have finally reached peak internet, and Twitter has justified itself unto the ages. It is impossible that this will ever be surpassed.”
The Independent has contacted Keith for comment.
Last week, it was revealed that Brand is being sued for £220,000 by publishing house Pan Macmillan after reportedly failing to write and deliver two non-fiction books.
The first book was due by May 2021 and the second before the end of that year, but neither had been delivered by September 2023 when the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into a string of sexual assault allegations made against Brand. The comedian has vehemently denied the allegations and said all of his relationships have been “consensual”.
