Jackson Barnes | Facebook
By now, everyone’s heard of the crazy plot to storm Area 51 this September. It’s been trending all over the place, there are countless memes, and even a bunch of celebrities have become involved.
The plan, however, started as a joke on Facebook and wasn’t really meant to be taken seriously.
Now, the man who started the original Facebook event is starting to freak out. Little did he know that over half a million people would sign up for the raid. Much less did he realize that an innocuous prank would lead to nationwide media attention.
It’s clear the page was created in jest. It suggests they should get to “see them aliens,” and mentions “naruto runners” being able to move faster than bullets. On the offensive, they also planned to employ folks simply throwing rocks.
However, the event has gone viral. As of Friday, July 19, it shows 1.7 million people planning to attend, and another 1.3 million that are “interested.”
Once it took off, creator Matty Roberts began to worry that perhaps the FBI would soon come knocking. So far, however, it seems like it’s mostly been members of the media that want to speak to Roberts.
Though he doesn’t actually expect a raid to form, interest has certainly been piqued. With this in mind, he told NPR he’d talked “with some pretty great people” about planning some sort of alternative event.
