Is Rand Paul Really Urging Obama To Resign Over Beyoncé Scandal? Twitter Users Fall For New Yorker Magazine’s Joke

In a joke that seems to have gone over the heads of outraged Twitter users, Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker wrote in a satirical article on Wednesday that leading GOP members including Sen. Rand Paul were calling on Obama to resign due to reports that Beyoncé lip-synced during the presidential inauguration.

Borowitz, who is known for his snarky, Onion-esque column “The Borowitz Report,” provoked a wave of anger and disbelief across Twitter on Thursday when readers mistook his humorous article for truth. In the short piece, Borowitz writes that, “A rising chorus of congressional Republicans are calling on President Obama to acknowledge that the pop singer Beyoncé lip-synched during his inaugural festivities on Monday and resign from office, effective immediately.”

He goes on to quote GOPers including Sen. Paul who are supposedly pressuring the President to tender his resignation. “By lip-synching the national anthem, Beyoncé has cast a dark cloud over the President’s second term. The only way President Obama can remove that cloud is by resigning from office at once,” Paul is quoted as saying.

“If Beyoncé lip-synched the national anthem, how do we know President Obama didn’t lip-sync his oath of office?” he supposedly adds. “If that’s the case, he’s not legally President. But just to be on the safe side, he should resign anyway.”

Borowitz has a long roster of similar pieces he has written for The New Yorker, including, “Congress Collapses From Exhaustion After Doing Job,” “TIME Names Mitt Romney Man Of The Year 1912,” and “Al Qaeda Disbands; Says Job Of Destroying U.S. Economy Now In Congress’s Hands.”

But hundreds of Twitter users evidently didn’t catch onto the intended parody, responding with remarks fervently defending Obama and chastising the Republican party for its pettiness.

“Yep, Beyonce did lip sync/fake it but it's not the President's fault. Fine Beyonce for being a fake,” @musicmaven9 tweeted.

“I really thought this was an ‘Onion’ article; Rand Paul is nuts! – ‘Obama Urged to Resign Over Beyoncé Scandal,’” tweeted user @dhutch.

“Today's Idiot Ting! A Senator thinks Obama should resign over Beyonce's lip-syncing controversy,” Canadian radio station G98.7 wrote in a message to followers.