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Steve Rannazzisi

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Comedian

The Resume

    (July 4, 1978- )
    Born in Smithtown, New York
    Birth name is Stephen Rannazzisi
    Best known as Kevin MacArthur on FXX's 'The League' comedy series
    Acted in 'Lost Reality 2' (2004), 'For Your Consideration' (2006), 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' (2009), 'Imagine That' (2009), and 'Homewrecker' (2010)
    Former spokesperson for the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain
    Came under fire for repeatedly claiming to have escaped from the North Tower on the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th
    As late as 2009, claimed that his 'near-death experience' in the North Tower served as motivation to quit his job at Merrill Lynch and move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment
    Publicly acknowledged on Twitter that his story about surviving 9/11 was not true, profusely apologizing for his mistake in the wake of an impending New York Times investigation into his story (Sept. 16, 2015)
    Buffalo Wild Wings ads were subsequently pulled from the air following the public outcry over the news

Why he might be annoying:

    His last name is difficult to spell.
    He was regularly confused with David Boreanaz.
    He claimed to still have 'falling nightmares' related to his near-death experience.
    It was argued that he only came clean to potentially save face (and his celebrity/money).
    He also falsely claimed his wife also worked in the Towers but missed the plane hitting the tower due to subway delays (she backed both stories up).
    The main fact that did him in was that not only did Merrill Lynch not have any record of his employment, but never even had offices at the World Trade Center, let alone on the 54th floor.
    The more egregious nature of his 9/11 story obscured that he had also falsely claimed to have attended State University of New York at Purchase (he actually attended SUNY at Oneonta).
    SNL star, Pete Davidson, mockingly tweeted 'It's ok @SteveRannazzisi people make mistakes ... Can't wait to meet my dad for lunch later!'
    Rannazzisi, clearly misunderstanding, initially thanked him for his support before deleting the tweet when he Davidson clarified that his 'dad' was a firefighter who had died during the WTC attacks.
    Would you believe it; once the biggest issue people had with his Buffalo Wild Wings ads was that they encouraged passive aggressive bullying via exclusion ('Can Ellis come?' 'Ellis? Nah, no Ellis, man...')

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was discovered by Ashton Kutcher.
    He had a memorably funny role in 'Paul Blart' as a dickish, cowardly pen salesman taken hostage.
    He took responsibility for his mistake, saying 'How could I tell my children to be honest when I hadn't come clean about this?'
    He had been attempting to distance himself from his story over the last six years prior to his admission (as is often the case, the story was initially told to a few close friends and it grew over time).
    He was defended by conspiracy 'truthers' who claim that 9/11 itself was a lie (thereby cancelling out his own lie).
    The seriousness with which he recounted the non-experience led some to theorize he could be diagnosed with a certified personality disorder.
    He tweeted '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. It was profoundly disrespectful to those who perished and those who lost loved ones. The stupidity and guilt I have felt for many years has not abated.'
    At least he A) was actually in the city on the day of the attack, or B) didn't lie about one of his kids jogging around the towers to score political points.
    Pete Davidson later tweeted 'take it easy on @SteveRannazzisi ... He reached out to me and is truly sorry. We all sometimes lie and exaggerate...Its years later but he apologized n owned up 2 it like a man.'

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 13 Votes: 23.08% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 6 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 25 Votes: 36.00% Annoying