![Bar owner]()
An
attempted assassination on a former president is no laughing matter.
In the modern, hypersensitive age we live in, there's a fine line between what's funny and what's offensive. You obviously have to draw the line somewhere, and we've all found out that in the past couple of days that there's a distinct line that makes presidential assassination jokes off limits.
Some people on X/Twitter haven't gotten that memo.
But one bar in Florida - Harry’s Banana Farm - has gotten the message loud and clear, only after the general manager of the establishment landed his own business in hot water. Lou De Stout, the GM of the long-running Florida tavern, likes to put topical signage up to help draw attention to his bar. But he went a step too far when he displayed a sign that distastefully read:
"How do you miss a head that's that inflated?"
The sign was put up within 24 hours of the attack on Trump's life, and it quickly became an issue in the Lake Worth Beach, Florida area. De Stout told
WPTV that Harry's Banana Farm received a number of requests to take the sign down, as well as a number of threats of arson and other forms of violence.
Despite all of the negative feedback, the general manager initially stood by his decision to put up the controversial message:
"You know, that sign is meant to be humorous, and I thought it was just another humorous sign, but, apparently, it struck a nerve. I go (with) whatever is the hot topic, and as soon as that happened to Trump, I knew that’s all that everybody was going to be talking about for the next two weeks."
He added that he mocked Biden with a different sign a few weeks back.
He's not wrong about it being the hot topic, but De Stout quickly found out that his signage was negatively affecting his business. Negative reviews came flooding in, with many of them telling the GM of Harry's Banana Farm to close his doors. De Stout's business profile was even shut down because of the review bombing.
So he eventually caved, for the betterment of his business and his employees:
"After a while, I thought, 'I can’t have my staff being threatened for the things that I do. It’s not fair to them.' Some of them are young girls. They have young kids, and it’s a great staff here. And I didn’t want to put them in harm’s way."
That being said, Lou De Stout really just replaced the Trump message with another, less divisive one. It even included a shoutout to all of the people that were calling out the Florida bar online:
"Yeah, for Trump, so happy for him. You crazy bastards happy?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6itWeRq0aI
