Fantastic iPhone “fat fingers” hoax unveiled

A report in the North Denver News in America claiming that Denver resident Thomas Markel had had his fat thumbs surgically “whittled” to make them more condusive to iPhone usage, has been unveiled as a hoax.

On Wednesday 6th, ficticious reporter James Benfly wrote:

Thomas Martel, 28, of Bonnie Brae is a big guy. So he has a hard time using the features on ever-shrinking user interfaces on devices like his new iPhone. At least, he did, until he had his thumbs surgically altered in a revolutionary new surgical technique known as “whittling.”

 

Apparently there were several vital clues in the article that in our gullibility we missed when lapping up the hoax. Namely:

• There are no muscles in the tip of the thumb
• The iphone has not been released for long enough for the surgery to have taken place
• “Whittling” is not a medical expression!

In an editor’s note posted the next day, Guerin Lee Green writes,

“Strangely, while many readers have grasped that “Surgically alters thumbs” represents satirical social commentary, many on the internet, alas, have not. Careful reading of the piece makes it clear to any critical consumer of information that the piece is pure humor and not news or reported as fact”.

Easy tiger! I have to say I think the tone of the editor’s note is unfair. I heard the story on the radio on Saturday morning, and laughed out loud. It didn’t occur to me that it might be a hoax.

Do any of these statements ring untrue?

• Someone in America has very fat fingers
• Someone in America has undergone a ridiculous surgical operation
• IPhone hysteria has reached such an astronomical level that some idiot has undergone such an operation to be able to use it better?

If anything I’m more surprised to hear about the hoax than the original story!