This video, supposedly of young Morgan Freeman doing a cigarette commercial in the early 70’s is, no – not Morgan Freeman at all, but comedian Freddy Lockhart.
The piece was apart of Freddy Lockhart’s ‘Mixed Media’ TV show he created with Rome Viharo back in 2007 for the now defunct ‘Super Deluxe’ comedy network on Turner. In addition to spoofing Morgan Freeman, this was also the team behind the nefarious ‘Barack Obama – early college years’, which went viral before Obama was even elected president.
These are obvious spoofs, but it’s surprising how many have been fooled by these videos over the years. A few years back, radio program “News from the Service Entrance” on WHPK-FM apparently took it serious as the real thing until Chuck Sudo of the Chicagoist called him out on the hoax. Barstools.com ran an article challenging its readers to ‘be more pimp’ than the young Morgan Freeman in the commercial.
So internets, more than 8 years since these videos were made they still circulate around the web. Should we have fun and share them as real or expose the hoax? It’s obvious which choice we’ve made.