THE BBC HAS apologised and will launch an investigation after its broadcast of tonight’s FA Cup third-round replay between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool was ‘sabotaged’ by a common mobile-phone prank which repeatedly disrupted coverage in the lead-up to kick-off.
Match of the Day Live presenter Gary Lineker and pundits Paul Ince and Danny Murphy were forced to persevere with their pre-match analysis over the sound of the ‘sex-noise meme’, which rang out at regular intervals during their preview — seemingly from somewhere within the studio at Molineux.
An X-rated cousin of ‘Rickrolling’, the prank has gained infamy in the social media age. It most typically occurs in a similar bait-and-switch manner, with its intended target opening a harmless-looking video sent by a friend only to be left mortified as sounds of a sexually explicit nature immediately blast from their phone or device.
A bemused Lineker, who acknowledged the sounds on a number of occasions but persevered with his presenting duties, later revealed on Twitter that an offending phone had been found “taped to the back of the set” at Molineux.
It’s likely that the lewd sounds had been set as the phone’s ringtone.
“As sabotage goes it was quite amusing,” the presenter added with three laughing emojis.
Well, we found this taped to the back of the set. As sabotage goes it was quite amusing. 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/ikUhBJ38Je
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) January 17, 2023
In a brief statement released just before the second half of tonight’s cup replay, the BBC said:
We apologise to any viewers offended during the live coverage of the football this evening. We are investigating how this happened.
Match of the Day, its presenter and pundits, and other terms related to tonight’s FA Cup fixture almost instantly dominated Twitter’s trending topics in the UK following the pre-match interruptions.
Lineker joked that the heightened attention was “nothing to moan about”.
Nothing to moan about, I guess. pic.twitter.com/2xeBJxU3F5
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) January 17, 2023
One YouTube user has already claimed responsibilty for the prank, live-streaming an 11-minute video in which he appears to ring a phone at the same time as the noises begin to interrupt the BBC broadcast.
