KTLA reporter Mary Beth McDade is the latest victim of the explicit “F–k her right in the p—y” live TV prank that has been popularized over the last year.
McDade was reporting live from David Bowie‘s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the wake of the singer’s death on Sunday when a man in a gray hoodie jumped into the shot and yelled the infamous line into the camera.
The cameraman quickly panned away from McDade, but landed back on the perpetrator as he ran away from the scene.
In June, TheWrap reported on the growing number of TV news reporters who say there has been an increase in the incidence of sexually explicit taunts they face while reporting from the street over the past year.
“The acronym ‘F her in the P’ is constant,” NBC4 Southern California reporter Beverly White told TheWrap. “Total strangers, typically young men, shout that profanity like they have a right, and I beg to differ. It is deeply offensive and it’s infuriating.”
The obscene interruptions started to gain notoriety in May 2014. The first known incident was initially thought to have been the work of a heckler during a live broadcast in Cincinnati, Ohio. The footage went viral, but the stunt turned out to be a hoax. Still, the copycat incidents are all too real.
According to experts, the problem stems from a generation of young men who grew up consuming prank-based shows like “Jackass” and “Punk’d” and feel emboldened to act out in public and film themselves doing so. Factor in the Internet and the ability to share antics online, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
While the insults are usually hurled at female reporters, women aren’t the sole targets.
Sébastien Vuagnat, a freelance reporter-photographer who covers the western U.S. for French TV networks France 24 and M6, had hecklers shout “FHRITP” at him during a recent shoot in Las Vegas.
KTLA has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.