The British Army faced a storm of mockery after posting a photo of one of the last living soldiers who participated in the 1944 Normandy landings, with the internet crowd finding it strikingly similar to a popular porn meme.
The ill-fated picture emerged on Twitter earlier this week. The photo, taken in Cornwall on the 77th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Western Europe, shows 96-year-old former Royal Engineer Harry Billinge sitting on a red sofa in the middle of the field. Six active-duty sappers from 24 Commando Royal Engineers are seen standing behind.
One does not have to be a seasoned porn connoisseur to find the picture set-up strikingly familiar, and the Twitter crowd swiftly flocked to the Army’s feed to mock it. The veteran photo was compared to a popular ‘Piper Perri surrounded’ meme, showing the porn actress on a couch with five black men in the background.
Having been given such a head start, the comment section was instantly flooded with assorted D-Day jokes of varying degrees of obscenity, with only a handful of users showing up to pay their respects to the veteran and thank the military for commemorating the landings anniversary.
Some users suggested the unfortunate set-up showed the Army’s social media team was not spending enough time on the internet, or they might have predicted how the photo would be received.
Others, however, believed the person behind the photo shoot knew exactly what he was doing and the porn meme reference had been made on purpose.
Some even deemed one of the sappers to be looking way too gleeful for the event, suggesting he might have been in on what was going on.
Also on rt.com UK’s pricey new tanks are so loud that they’ve caused health problems among troops – mediaThink your friends would be interested? Share this story!