It started innocent enough. Nate settled in for a showing of The Odyssey and, halfway through, got tapped to run a water errand for the guy sitting next to him because "his companion isn't here" and "Gooch bought the companion tickets." Nate's reaction was not subtle.
DONT BUY THE TICKETS FOR THE HANDICAPPED PEOPLE YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES
That tweet alone is a Barstool classic in the making — a guy convinced he's the victim of a genuine oversight, publicly dragging a coworker for supposedly sticking him with a wheelchair-adjacent babysitting job at the movies. Except it wasn't an oversight at all. Within the hour, word started spreading that the whole thing was a set-up, and Tommy Smokes was first to tip the world off that Chris Klemmer had orchestrated it.
From my understanding, one of the greatest pranks in Barstool history has just been pulled off on Nate. Take a bow @ChrisKlemmer (Video tomorrow I think explaining it)
Nate connected the dots himself not long after, admitting the guy who guilted him into a water run wasn't disabled at all — it was Klemmer's plant. The photographic evidence didn't help Nate's blood pressure either: Klemmer reportedly had a spy in the theater just to snap a shot of the fake standing ovation for the bit. Even Robbie Fox, who apparently should have seen it coming, was left wondering how he missed it.
It was Chris Klemmer all along!!!!!!
By the next afternoon the story had legs beyond just the prank reveal. KFC summed up the general office consensus, calling it a flawlessly executed bit and giving Intern Bugg — the actual performer who sold the fake-disabled-guy role — a breakout-performance shoutout. But the fallout didn't stop there. The clip resurfaced Nate's original, very public freakout, and that reopened an entirely separate argument: how did Nate actually behave the day he originally bought his Odyssey tickets? Robbie Fox says Nate's version of events doesn't match reality, and the two started going back and forth about it, with Robbie apparently digging up old texts to back his side.
Robbie Fox has found the texts between him and Nate on the day he bought his tickets
The internet, naturally, picked a side fast — Stoolies Clubhouse handed out "Viva Points" under the hashtag #NateLied, and the running joke score has Robbie Fox comfortably ahead. Nate, for his part, refuses to cede any ground and still hasn't fully let go of the original prank, either. A day later he was still stewing over the replies calling him out for the water-fetching saga, insisting anyone offended by his reaction just doesn't get that "it's just a movie."
Every reply I read I'm more astonished that they walk amongst us. It's just a movie bro. You buy your ticket. You buy your popcorn. You buy a water for the fake handicapped person in the wheelchair next to you. It's just a movie, bro. It's just a movie.
So where does this leave things? Klemmer's walked away with maybe the bit of the summer, Intern Bugg has a career-making cameo on tape, and Nate is now fighting a two-front war — one against the guy who pranked him, another against a former ally turned prime accuser in Robbie Fox. Expect the Klemmer explainer video to only pour more gas on this, and expect Nate to keep defending himself long after everyone else has moved on.