Harold & Kumar comedian mistaken for a terrorist by Russian ambassador
The Russian Ambassador to the UK has been left red-faced after inadvertently tweeting a still from 2008 movie ‘Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay’, believing it to depict a genuine terrorist.
Alexander Yakovenko was trying to illustrate a political point criticising US moves to block Russian involvement in the country but unwittingly chose a screenshot depicting actor Kal Penn playing the part of Kumar Patel as an extremist arguing with an elderly female passenger on an aircraft.
US threatens to stop helping Iraq against ISIL if Baghdad asks Russia for help. The terrorists must be rejoicing pic.twitter.com/aKDaf1ae7q
— Alexander Yakovenko (@Amb_Yakovenko) October 21, 2015
Swiftly picking up on the error Penn, a former employee at the White House, tweeted back: “The Russian Federation ambassador to the UK tweeted this Harold & Kumar pic with seriousness. I can't stop laughing.”
In response to the exchange the Russian Embassy hit back, commenting: “it is rather hard to spot an actual terrorist laughing. Your performance is convincing and therefore fit to illustrate the idea.”