Universal Orlando has reportedly fired one of their actors, who was playing Despicable Me’s Gru, for making an “OK” sign in a guest’s photo opportunity. The report comes out of Fox 5 New York by the Associated Press.
The photo in question sees the actor playing Gru resting his hand on a 6-year old girls shoulder giving the “OK” sign. The photo was taken during a Despicable Me themed Universal Orlando breakfast event at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort back in March.
After USA TODAY contacted Universal Orlando, the company said the employee playing the “Despicable Me” character had been fired.
https://t.co/ws0pPeKxho— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 1, 2019
The girl’s mother, Tiffiney Zinger, tells USA Today, “We just wanted to take them to see the minions. Do something special for our family and this person ruined that special warm feeling.” The father, Richard Zinger, added, “It’s more than the ‘OK’ sign. A lot of people don’t understand what that sign means.”
You can see their son making what appears to be the ‘OK’ sign as he poses in front of the Minion in a photo given to USA Today from Richard Zinger.
Tiffiney added, “I’ve been emotionally distraught about it. I’m still pretty upset that someone felt they needed to do this to children. “It can cause emotional stress on my child and her development.”
The Zingers contacted Universal about the photo in August after they were going through their vacation photos. Upon initial contact, Universal told them they were investigating the situation. A month later they would follow up, and Universal would respond by telling them it was “proprietary information” and offered them a gift card and free tickets.
The family claim they do not want to seek financial compensation, but they have hired a lawyer. Richard Zinger stated, “I just want somebody to take responsibility for it because nobody is taking responsibility for anything.”
Tiffiney had a different outlook, “I want to cause change. I hope this doesn’t happen to another family again, and I pray that this doesn’t happen to another kid.”
Universal Orlando spokesman Tom Schroder apologized to the family and indicated the employee was no longer working at the park.
“We never want our guests to experience what this family did. This is not acceptable and we are sorry – and we are taking steps to make sure nothing like this happens again. We can’t discuss specifics about this incident, but we can confirm that the actor no longer works here. We remain in contact with the family and will work with them privately to make this right.”
The media and radical left organizations have attempted to demonize the “OK” hand gesture after the New Zealand shooter used it. However, as The Washington Examiner reported, the shooter wanted “to create conflict in the U.S. over gun control and the Second Amendment, deepening geographic, political, cultural, and racial fault lines that would lead to a civil war, setting up a worldwide conflict over race and reduce U.S. influence globally while ensuring the future of whites in North America.”
Related: Mortal Kombat 11’s Daanish Syed Explains Why Johnny Cage’s ‘Okay’ Sign Was Changed
In fact, the Anti-Defamation League actually admits the idea of the “OK” sign being used as a symbol for white supremacy is a hoax, “The “OK” hand gesture originated as one of these hoaxes in February 2017.”
They also note that “the ‘OK’ gesture is a nearly universal hand gesture and most usage of it is completely innocuous. Even when used as described here, the fact that white supremacists, the alt lite and many Trump supporters all use the symbol means that one cannot assume that anyone who poses with such a gesture is intending or exhibiting an association with white supremacy.”
Not only is the ‘OK’ gesture a nearly universal hand gesture, but it’s also been a common schoolyard prank symbol. The ‘OK’ sign is used in the Circle Game. As Urban Dictionary notes:
“The game starts out when the Offensive Player creates a circle with their thumb and forefinger, not unlike an “A-Okay” signal, somewhere below his waist.
His goal is to trick another person into looking at his hand. If the Victim looks at the hand, he has lost the game, and is subsequently hit on the bicep with a closed fist, by the offensive player.”
Nevertheless, this has not stopped weak-willed companies from caving to idiotic demands to censor the ‘OK’ symbol. Blizzard and Activision infamously banned the symbol from their Overwatch League Arena after a fan threw up the ‘OK’ symbol on TV. They did this despite using the symbol in their character designs as well as multiple times on social media to promote their game and the league.
After Blizzard made their decision, TheScore promoted a video from Daniel Rosen, who applauded Blizzard for the decision and continued the false narrative that the symbol is somehow a white supremacist symbol.
NetherRealm Studios and Mortal Kombat 11 would follow in Blizzard’s weak-willed wake. They would change Johnny Cage’s “Got em” okay hand gesture because they claimed they believed the sign represented Nazis.
But it gets even worse. A former Fox News and MTV Finland reporter actually threatened to try and cancel one man’s career because he used the ‘OK’ sign.
Hi Iisak – Do you have a job? I wonder what your employers think of you making a sign that has been co-opted by white supremacists and racists? Would be interesting to find out. Or maybe a future employer is interested…
— David Mac Dougall (@davidmacdougall) May 17, 2019
Related: V for Vendetta Actor Stephen Fry Associated With “White Supremacists” For Using “Okay Sign”
A Twitter mob even went after V for Vendetta actor Stephen Fry who posted a photo of himself using the symbol saying, “PS: I really will not allow the simple ‘OK’ gesture to belong to the moronic dogwhistling catsfishing foghorning frogmarching pigsticking dickwaving few who attempt to appropriate it for their own fatuous fantasies.”
PS: I really will not allow the simple 👌 gesture to belong to the moronic dogwhistling catfishing foghorning frogmarching pigsticking dickwaving few who attempt to appropriate it for their own fatuous fantasies. T
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) May 13, 2019
The ‘OK’ hand gesture is not a hate symbol. It’s a common prank symbol, used by deep sea divers to indicate that everything is okay, and commonly used in the United States to signal understanding, approval, or agreement.