Comedian gets caught in a Sept. 11 lie
Comedy Central said Wednesday it is re-evaluating Steve Rannazzisi’s planned standup special this weekend after the comic apologized for lying about working in New York’s World Trade Center when terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.
Rannazzisi said he didn’t know why he told the story, which he called “a mistake that I deeply regret and for which apologies may still not be enough.”
The comedian appears in the FXX series The League. The Comedy Central special titled Breaking Dad is scheduled for Saturday at 11 p.m.
Rannazzisi told a detailed story about working for Merrill Lynch on Sept. 11 in a podcast hosted by Marc Maron. The comedian said he felt jostled when the tower next to him was struck and escaped to the street, despite hearing loudspeaker messages urging people to stay put. He said his then-girlfriend, now his wife, also worked at the World Trade Center and for several hours he didn’t know where she was.
Rannazzisi said in a statement Wednesday that he was in New York City on Sept. 11 but was working in midtown.
“I don’t know why I said this,” he said. “This was inexcusable. I am truly, truly sorry . . . It is to the victims of 9/11 and to the people that love them — and the people that love me — that I ask for forgiveness.”
Merrill Lynch has no record of Rannazzisi ever working there and the company had no offices in the World Trade Center.