Soccer fan gets fired from six-figure job after reporter calls him out for hijacking her TV segment with dumb meme
On Tuesday a video surfaced of CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt being interrupted by a group of fans, one of whom yelled, "F*** her right in the p****," a phrase from a viral Internet meme.
Hunt then turned and confronted the group - which included a Hydro One employee later identified by the Toronto Sun, Globe & Mail, and other major Canadian news outlets as Shawn Simoes - about the vulgar and disrespectful nature of the comment. When Hunt asked him about why his group was interrupting her, he called the stunt, "f****** hilarious."
A Hydro One spokesperson confirmed the firing to Business Insider.
"Hydro One is taking steps to terminate the employee for violating our Code of Conduct," the spokesperson said. "Respect for all people is engrained in the code and our values. We are committed to a work environment where discrimination or harassment of any type is not tolerated."
According to the Public Sector Salary Disclosure for 2014, Simoes made over $106,500 as an engineer last year.
Although the man identified as Simoes did not yell the actual phrase in the video, when confronted he said, "I don't care, it's f****** hilarious. It is f****** hilarious, we're not the only people, it happened in England... You're lucky there's not a f****** vibrator near here, because in England, it happened all the time, it's f****** amazing and I respect it all the time."
When Hunt asks what his mother's reaction would be to seeing him yell that on TV, he said, "My mom would die laughing eventually."
According to Toronto Star's Lauren Pelley, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns Toronto FC, is trying to identify the rest of the group so they can be banned.
Watch the video of the incident below: