Yesterday Jimmy Failla, a sometimes-cabbie, released what he called a "shock video" to promote his new book. The video showed passengers getting into his cab and, once the cab was moving, being subjected to a 14-foot Burmese python slithering into the backseat. "Screams and panic attacks ensue," the press release promised. Failla's publicist, Chelsey Saatkamp, assured us that this was not a hoax—"the snake was real and nothing was scripted." She also noted that releases had to be signed after each passenger left the cab.
But was it real? As an eagle-eyed commenter pointed out yesterday, "you can see somebody else in the backseat holding the snake as the woman jumps out of the cab around 1:38":
We reached out to Saatkamp once more to question the validity of her previous statements. Goodman Media's Jennifer Marcus replied, "It was not scripted. It was a planned prank but the passengers did not know what they were getting involved with." When we asked if people knew the snake was in the cab before the cab started moving, Marcus told us, "In some cases, yes and in some, no. Some noticed sooner than others." She also sent us the following statement from Failla:
“The snake was handled with the utmost compassion and consideration by a licensed snake handler and the team took multiple shooting breaks to make sure the snake was relaxed. The prank took place in two scenarios; one in which the snake was in the backseat, held by the snake handler, and the potential passenger saw the snake before entering the cab; the second in which the snake was in front with the handler, and the passenger only saw it after sitting down. In both cases, the snake was always held by the handler and neither the snake nor the passenger was in any danger. Temperature, length of shoot, car movement, proximity to passengers, and hand movement were all managed throughout the shoot.”
But even if it was a more controlled situation than we were originally led to believe, was it okay to do this? The TLC's spokesman Allan Fromberg says, “This was monumentally poor judgment on the driver’s part, and we are clearly going to actively question this person’s suitability to continue holding a TLC license.” While Failla isn't a full-time cabbie anymore, he does "occasionally get behind the wheel every now and then for fun," Saatkamp told us yesterday.
Meanwhile, what about the snake, which was subjected to shrieks in an enclosed space over and over again? Colleen O’Brien, Senior Director of Communications at PETA, told us, "Snakes are remarkable yet frequently misunderstood animals who have an acute sense of hearing. Being bombarded by shrieking passengers, slamming car doors, and threats of violence is extremely stressful for them. If Mr. Failla's publicist insisted on contributing to the misconception that these living, feeling beings are 'frightening,' surely a rubber snake tucked underneath the seat would have garnered similar—and certainly safer—reactions from unsuspecting passengers."
Maybe everyone needs to think before they try out the whole "viral" pranking thing.
