The Facebook user behind the viral "Flying Lotus copypasta" post about Mon Confiado has apologized to the actor, saying that he thought it was just going to be a "harmless joke."
In a social media post, the manager of FB page Illead began by saying he initially saw it as "just another meme that no one will remember in 10 days, or 10 weeks, or maybe even 10 years."
"But this time, I don't think that will be the case," Illead said.
"I thought it would be a harmless joke because I know my followers won't take it seriously and would even be 'in' with the joke (Note: This post was only exclusive to the Philippines, so no one outside the country saw it, until now), but somehow the man himself caught wind of it," Illead wrote.
He then sent his apologies to Confiado. "Sir Confiado, I know we got off the wrong foot here and I sincerely apologize. You're right that not everyone will understand the copypasta and will take it as a real story, which is not," the user said. "This was a big misunderstanding and it was never my intention to paint you in a negative light or taunt you."
Illead said he will take a social media break after what happened and expressed his hope that "everything simmers down."
"Once again, Mon, I'm sorry. You're a hardworking actor and I have no ill will against you," the user continued, noting that he's simply a fan of Confiado "who made a dumb joke."
"I know I'm in the wrong here. None of this changes how I see you as a person and as an actor," Illead concluded.
What the viral 'copypasta' post said
This comes after Confiado called out Illead for writing the now-deleted post about him with his portrait. It talks about the poster supposedly meeting Confiado at a grocery store in Marikina, noting how "cool it was to meet him in person." But the poster got taken aback because Confiado was supposedly rude to him. The user said he also supposedly saw Confiado trying to leave the supermarket with "fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying," pertaining to the chocolate bar.
Confiado commented on the post: "This is not funny! You are ruining my name. Kahit 'Copypasta' ito! Not everyone will understand this. This never happened. Not funny! Don't drag my name!"
The actor, in his post's caption, said he didn't want to make a fuss out of it but had to, questioning whether it was right for Ileiad to do such a thing. "Gumawa ng story using my name & my photo," he said, as he enumerated the supposed actions he did in the story.
Confiado also noted how he reprimanded the user, who defended the post as a "joke" and a "copypasta." He said, "[B]iglang nilagyan ng 'disclaimer' ang post nya pero huli na. Joke at my expense? Joke pero nakakasira ng tao? Bakit ka magjo joke sakin? Close ba tayo?"
He questioned why there are people who do such things in the name of likes despite hurting others. "Ang daming nag message sa akin at tinatanong kung totoo ba ito? Of course, Sabi ko hindi yan totoo. Never happened. At hindi ako ganung tao."
"At may pagka mayabang pa itong Ileiad na ito… nung sinabi ko idedemanda ko sya dahil ayaw pa nya tanggalin ang post nya. Threat daw ba ito? Grabe itong taong ito!" he continued.
Know Your Meme, a website dedicated to documenting internet phenomena, defines copypasta as "any block of text that gets copied and pasted over and over again, typically disseminated by individuals through online discussion forums and social networking sites."
Merriam-Webster Dictionaryalso has an entry for copypasta:"data (such as a block of text) that has been copied and spread widely online."
The post, as it turned out, is a derivative of the "I Saw Flying Lotus in a Grocery Store..." copypasta. (Flying Lotus is an American record producer.)
According to Know Your Meme, it is a "popular copypasta in which the poster tells a story of a famous person acting like a jerk in a grocery store. The subject of the copypasta is usually a very well-liked celebrity, thus pranking people into thinking someone they really like is actually rude."
It traced the origins of the entry to the imageboard website 4chan's messageboard "/mu/" dated June 29, 2012.
Know Your Meme noted that it spread on Sept. 1 of that year, and later on, Flying Lotus' name got replaced with celebrities like Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Gosling, Anthony Fantano, Kendrick Lamar, Masahiro Sakurai, and more.
