Jon Hendren was supposed to talk to HLN about Edward Snowden’s decision to join Twitter, but instead referred to the fictional character

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

An internet prankster booked to talk about Edward Snowden on a US news channel instead spent the entire interview referring to Edward Scissorhands, with the anchor seemingly oblivious.

Comedian Jon Hendren was booked by US channel HLN to talk about Snowden’s decision to join Twitter, but took the opportunity to raise the plight of the character played by Johnny Depp character in Tim Burton’s 1990 film.

“Jon, Twitter shut down Isis’s account. Why do you think Snowden is any different?” host Yasmin Vossoughian asked.

“He’s been isolated for so long,” said Hendren. “We should listen to what he says.

“To say that he couldn’t harm somebody with what he did, he could, absolutely, he could,” he continued. “But to cast him out, to make him invalid in society simply because he has scissors for hands, I mean, that’s strange. People didn’t get scared until he started sculpting shrubs into dinosaur shapes and whatnot.”



The HLN host continued undaunted, and brought the conversation back to the former NSA analyst. “Now, Snowden’s living in Russia,” Vossoughian said. “Some people say it’s hypocritical that Snowden has asylum in Russia. Russia has a lot of human rights violations.”

“Casting him out is completely wrong,” Hendren replied. “We’re treating him like an animal, somebody who should be quarantined and put away. Just because he was created on top of a mountain by Vincent Price, and incomplete. With scissors for hands and no heart.”

“But what about the choice he made to live in a country like Russia?” the interviewer persisted.

“I mean, where else is he going to go? You know?” Hendren asked.

“We cast him out. We got scared when he poked a hole in a waterbed with his scissor fingers, and that was unreasonable of us.”