Facebook profile photo prank delights Reddit
Ryan Roy has a fairly common name -- at least more so than his band mates. So he was chosen to be at the center of a Facebook prank that turned into a hit on the link-sharing site Reddit.
Two-years ago, prompted by his band mates, Roy searched Facebook for people that shared his name, and then replicated their profiles pictures. After he updated his own Facebook profile to match, Roy would add them as friends.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, the Calgary, Alberta resident decided to post the photos on the link-sharing site Reddit. Roy thought the community would get a kick out of the photos, but had no idea it would end up on the front page of the website -- with more than 4,600 votes.
As a result of the sudden rise to online popularity, Roy is shorting through a large number of friend requests, his band Georgia Sound shot up the Canadian folk music charts from No. 90 to No. 5 and the band's website got 20,000 visits when he posted a link on Reddit.
In total, there were eight men who were the target of Roy's prank. And for the most part, they took joke with a grain of salt, even if some thought the gesture was creepy. Roy told CBSNews.com over the phone that one person accepted his friend request and even thanked him for turning him into an Internet celebrity. Roy's current Facebook profile picture is of him playing the guitar.
"He's playing the guitar in his profile pic now," Roy said of the man who thanked him for the online fame. "Is he pranking me?"
