Ben Palmer (comedian)

For the film director, see Ben Palmer.

Benjamin Phil Palmer,[1] also known by his online alias Palmertrolls, (born 1986 or 1987) is an American comedian and internet celebrity from Atlanta, Georgia.

Early and personal life

Palmer was born in 1986 or 1987. He is a United States Air Force veteran. He also worked as a driver for Uber and Lyft.[2]

Career

He began his career on Myspace in 2006, aged 19. He shifted to Facebook in 2007.[3] He started the project Hope That Helps, in which he would create fake Facebook customer service profiles of corporations (such as IHOP, CVS Pharmacy and Olive Garden, among others), then troll users in comment sections.[4][5][6] He also sent fake emails to companies.[7]

Palmer also sued his friends multiple times in order to appear on court shows, where he would perform comedy.[8]

Notable Facebook profiles

In 2016, he created a fake Facebook profile for Home Depot, which he used to ridicule a Fox News article.[9]

In 2018, he created a fake Facebook profile for the City of Atlanta, and used it to post a Facebook event to implode Stone Mountain, the site of the Ku Klux Klan's recreation. Facebook later banned the account.[10][11][12]

In 2021, he made a fake Facebook profile for Walmart, and used it to announce that Walmart was closed on Black Friday.[13]

Congressman prank

In 2020, Palmer collaborated with a follower who had created a parody website mimicking Parler, called "parler.social". Palmer engaged in a series of prank interactions with politician Ted Yoho, who mistakenly believed he was in contact with representatives from Parler, discussing potential podcast collaborations. Over several months, Palmer, alongside other comedians, created a fake website for Yoho's podcast and recorded episodes with him, during which Yoho unknowingly confessed to controversial statements about Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The prank culminated in Palmer and his team attending a summit at Liberty University, where they continued to interact with Yoho and other notable figures such as Ghanaian President John Mahama and former Congresswomen and Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann of Minnesota before eventually revealing the ruse.[4][14]

Deportation hotline prank

In 2025, amid increasing immigration enforcement under the second Trump administration, Palmer created a satirical tip line where people could report anyone they suspected of being an undocumented immigrant, receiving nearly a hundred calls from people unaware of the ruse. Palmer would then call these tipsters back as a representative of the hotline to obtain more information, typically in a deadpan, sarcastic tone highlighting the pettiness, absurdity, or hypocrisy, in the reasons some of the people were calling. For example, one caller called to report her ex-husband's new girlfriend while another tried to report a neighbor for using the wrong trash can. Palmer would then post these calls on his social media pages. A call in which a kindergarten teacher tried to report an American-born student's foreign-born parents, based solely on that with no evidence of illegal activity, went viral on social media, accumulating over 20 million views.[15]

References

  1. ^ Ben Palmer (June 30, 2020). My friend sued me so we could get on court TV. Retrieved August 3, 2024 – via YouTube.
  2. ^ Schlosser, Kurt (August 27, 2021). "Jeff Bezos' mom did not email me: How I got a troll to apologize, and why we might be friends now". GeekWire. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  3. ^ Ray, Linda (February 16, 2023). "Ben Palmer: Trolling his way to the top". Tucson Weekly. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Olsen, Parker (October 22, 2023). "Fake accounts, real laughs". Royal Purple. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  5. ^ Berkowitz, Joe (July 14, 2015). "A Comedian's Fake Customer Service Account On Facebook Serves Up Next-Level Trolling". Fast Company. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  6. ^ Jones, Jeremy (March 16, 2015). "Atlanta Comedian Ben Palmer is a Freelance Customer Service Rep on Facebook". GAfollowers. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  7. ^ "Ben Palmer takes fake news to another level | The Spokesman-Review". www.spokesman.com. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  8. ^ "Man sued his friends so he would have a chance to be on court TV and it worked multiple times". UNILAD. December 14, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  9. ^ Mikkelson, David (May 29, 2018). "Thank You for Sharing, Fox News". Snopes. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  10. ^ Lybbert, Randy (August 10, 2018). "Fake 'City Of Atlanta' Page Shut Down After Stone Mountain Prank". WABE. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  11. ^ "Fake 'City of Atlanta' Facebook page dead after Stone Mountain prank". WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta. August 4, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  12. ^ "'City of Atlanta' parody Facebook page taken down | Page's founder says he'll be back". 11Alive.com. August 4, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  13. ^ Liles, Jordan (November 17, 2021). "Internet Troll Ben Palmer Pranks Walmart About Black Friday Hours". Snopes. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  14. ^ Ben Palmer (April 23, 2024). The Politician Story | Comedy Special. Retrieved September 12, 2024 – via YouTube.
  15. ^ Harwell, Drew (February 20, 2026). "He made a fake ICE deportation tip line. Then a kindergarten teacher called". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 26, 2026.
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