Geoff Norcott has been turned into a deepfake by the Russian propaganda machine.
The comedian bizarrely fronts an artificially manufactured video alleging to show him looking at art on display at the Blavatnik galleries in London’s Imperial War Museum.
In it, he is shown talking about Armenian artists featured there and who’s work is said to foresee ‘the destruction of Armenia’ and claiming the nation has already set out upon that path.
However, Norcott told Chortle: ‘Just to be clear, I have no firm opinions on Armenia. Which is to say I don't know anything at all about Armenia, but given the poor quality of the deepfake I suspect the opinions might have been bollocks.
‘I did go pretty hard on Putin in a recent episode of my podcast. I knew What Most People Think is an important show with international clout, but I didn't realise it was catching the eye of the Kremlin.
‘What I found particularly odd was the way I kept getting posher the longer the clip ran. It was the same as how my voice changes when I pitch sitcoms to TV execs. I start off talking about belly laughs but end up mentioning verticals and content opportunities.’
The video was a number of deepfakes on social media unearthed by Eliot Higgins, founder of the Bellingcat investigative journalism website.
Others allegedly featured Holocaust survivors, A Met police office claiming she had been sent to Armenia to teach local forces how to attack citizens, and children’s author Philip Ardagh.
Higgins wrote on BlueSky: ‘This continues a strategy of the Russian disinformation campaign to find videos of public figures from a variety of backgrounds and using deepfaked audio to promote their various causes.’
Some of the clips, including Norcott’s form part of a propaganda campaign against Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has been critical of his country’s close ties with Russia, ahead of elections next year.
The comedian did visit the galleries earlier this year to take part in the Imperial War Museum’s Conflict of Interest podcast – but did not say the words he’s depicted as saying in the video.
