Comedian Busted for Falsified 9/11 Escape Stories: What You Should Know

Up until last week, Long Island native Steve Rannazzisi was known as a standup comedian, as star of FX’s “The League” and as the face of a Buffalo Wild Wings campaign.

Now, Rannazzisi is known as that guy, as in that the guy who boosted his career by lying about 9/11.

In interviews soon after the 2001 attacks and in talks a decade later, Rannazzisi told the world how he narrowly escaped death while working for Merrill Lynch in the south tower of the World Trade Center. He was high in the building, he said, when the planes struck.

That day changed his life profoundly, he’d said. It convinced him to quit his mundane job and live. To really live.

At least three big problems:

1. He never worked for Merrill Lynch;
2. If he was ever in either of the Trade Towers, he wasn’t the day they got hit;
3. Thousands of families were mourning those who really were killed in the attacks while Rannazzisi was blathering on for personal gain about how his narrow escape had given him such a valuable perspective.

Rannazzisi admitted to his fabrications in a story published Wednesday in The New York Times. Then he followed that oops with a nine-tweet apology.

Which, of course, only inspired all types of responses, making for a huge mess on so many levels.

Here’s the real story, sorted out:

His original story was actually pretty inspiring

“I worked on the 54th floor of the second tower,” he told Marc Maron in December 2009. “I was there, and then the first tower got hit and we were jostled all over the place. … So I went downstairs, walked outside, saw all the pandemonium, and then five or six minutes later, bang.”

From there, he says, he was inspired to live life to the fullest, so he quit his day job and became a comedian.

Touching, right?

It eventually started to unravel

It turns out there were many, many discrepancies to his story.

For starters, Merrill Lynch did not have an office in the World Trade Center. Second, Rannazzisi never even worked for Merrill Lynch, according to the Times.

In some versions of his story, he added that his girlfriend (and now wife) worked on the 24th floor of the south tower but was delayed by her commute.

Rannazzisi’s publicist, Matthew Labov, told the Times that she was supposed to work as a temp that day but in the World Financial Center.

In an interview with Tiki Barber, Rannazzisi said only that he was working “downtown” when the planes hit. It appears he knew his story was unravelling.

This could affect him in more ways than one

Rannazzisi’s career doesn’t look as bright today as it did yesterday.

Comedy Central, which is scheduled to air a Rannazzisi standup special Saturday night, is “currently determining how we will move forward,” the network told Patch in an email.

Rannazzisi could also lose his Buffalo Wild Wings endorsement, where he starred in commercials for March Madness and fantasy football.

BWW told Patch it is currently re-evaluating its relationship with Rannazzisi.

One thing he won’t lose is his spot at FX.

“We are disappointed to learn that Steve Rannazzisi lied about being in the World Trade Center on 9/11,” FX spokesman John Soldberg said in an emailed statement to Patch. “It is upsetting that he would fabricate a story about having survived that horrible tragedy. It is also unfortunate that he did not admit to the truth sooner. That said we believe Steve is sincere in his apology and will do everything he can to make amends moving forward.”

Among the reaction, some devastating sarcasm — which was lost on Rannazzisi

Some came to his side:

But many more did not:

Davidson’s dad was a firefighter who died on 9/11.