As Roy Moore's seemingly surreal Alabama Senate campaign continues to trundle along unabated by allegations of sexual assault, it was perhaps unsurprising that a comedian and film crew from the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show would show up to poke fun at the twice-removed chief justice and his fervent supporters.

It all unfolded at the Magnolia Springs Baptist Church in Theodore, Alabama, on a balmy Wednesday night of subterfuge from both the Kimmel film crew and Roy Moore staffers. The press being the victims on each occasion.

Jake Byrd, a fictional character that has appeared intermittently on Kimmel's show, played by award-winning comedian and writer Tony Barbieri, was first spotted interrupting interviews with Moore supporters in the parking lot of the church ahead of Moore's speech. Barbieri wore a pro-Moore T-shirt that had "Gimme Moore" splashed across the front.

Genuine Moore supporters asked where he'd got the T-shirt, a sure sign that Barbieri was hitting his mark as the Moore loving Byrd. Barbieri also held a Roy Moore sign in hand during the entire act.



In past appearances on the Kimmel show Barbieri has played a Trump supporter at a rally, a Michael Jackson fan, and had tried to steal a high-five from O.J. Simpson's attorney. But tonight it was Moore and his supporters turn to be lampooned by the comedian.

In an interview with an elderly female Moore supporter, Barbieri called the woman a "genius" before shouting down the camera that "Roy Moore may have been thrown out of Gadley [Gadsden] Mall but he's gonna go to the National Mall."

This guys behavior at the end of the rally was odd. He stopped being crazy, refused an interview with me and then jumped into an SUV with the same crew that filmed this woman. They pretended they didn't know each other. He said he was catching a ride. #RoyMoore pic.twitter.com/5JQTqMdUsp — Christopher Harress (@Charress) November 30, 2017



Later in the evening Barbieri interrupted Moore's speech inside the church. "That's a man's man," he shouted while facing the 200 or so bemused people that turned up to hear Moore speak. "Does that look like the face of a molester?"



Barbieri didn't stop there. After later shouting "I'm his biggest supporter. I'm his number one fan," Barbieri was led away by law enforcement.



He continued: "They're kicking out your number one fan, Judge. I'm your number one fan judge. Number one. Because I believe in the Judge. And I don't believe the ladies who are ... does that look like the face of someone who hits on teenage girls?" said Barbieri of Moore, as he was led outside.

The crew would not reveal their affiliation and on at least two occasions a member of Kimmel's team was seen talking to Barbieri between interviews. One member of the film crew told AL.com that they were just trying to "get him out of the shot."

Barbieri has repeatedly fooled newspapers and TV crews all over the country in recent years, including the New York Times on two occasions. In one interview during the 2004 Michael Jackson child abuse trial, Barbieri is quoted in the New York paper as saying "He might dance on the S.U.V. again" and ''when Michael moves, it's always a dance.'' The Times printed a correction explaining that Jake Byrd didn't really own a tropical fish store in Chino, California, but was a paid comedian and worked for Kimmel.

Roy Moore just heckled inside of church. Man interrupted his speech and asked if the whole town was lying. He was escorted out. A Moore supporter go up and yelled back "Moore is a man's man." — Tom Llamas (@TomLlamasABC) November 30, 2017

And while Barbieri was outside performing his now somewhat tried and tested 13-year old act, fooling members of the national press in the process, the Alabama Senate candidate was pulling a stunt of his own.

As reporters attempted to cover every exit that Moore could possibly leave the church from, his car acted as a decoy. A Lincoln Town Car, complete with a West Point tag frame and a 'Don't tread on me' sticker, sat at the back of the church as a four-wheeled silver lure. A suit with Kayla Moore's name on it hung in the passenger window just in case there was any uncertainty about who owned the car. Members of the press huddled at the back of the church, squashed together on a small, five-foot-wide sliver of road situated between Moore's car and a cemetery. Some reporters joked that if they didn't get the story they just had to turn around and find a grave.



After Moore finished speaking, cars pulled up from multiple directions as the church doors swung open. Like headless chickens, reporters ran in mutiple directions looking for Moore, hoping to get that viral video. Instead, a Moore staffer arrived to drive his car away. Moore had already left the building. One might call it an immaculate deception.



Meanwhile, back in the church's parking lot, Barbieri was filming one last segment for Jimmy Kimmel. Upon finishing it, AL.com asked Barbieri for an interview but he refused, telling us that he was "freaked out" by one reporter's repeated requests for an interview. He then asked the same reporter if they had read the Stephen King book "Misery," a psychological horror thriller in which a writer is taken hostage and forced to write whatever his captor tells him too.

Without saying anything else, Barbieri jumped into an SUV being driven by the same crew that filmed the female Moore supporter earlier in the evening. "They offered me a ride," shouted Barbieri just as the door of the car slammed shut.