Netflix insists that a “neck injury” X post the company shared on the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk “references a plot point” from a show, calling outrage over what many saw as a veiled jab at the conservative icon “ludicrous.”
“This post directly references a plot point from our UK series, The Gentlemen, which launched its second season on September 3. Suggestions that it has any link to sensitive real world events are inaccurate and ludicrous,” a Netflix spokesperson told Us Weekly.
The streaming giant was responding to an inquiry about a post from its Netflix UK & Ireland X account, which joked, “Nearly did himself a neck injury,” sharing a photo of a male character from The Gentlemen apparently craning his neck to get a better view of a woman.
Notably, the post was published on Thursday, September 10, which is none other than the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot in the neck while trying to have an open and respectful dialogue with a student at Utah Valley University.
While Netflix suggests the post is merely in reference to one of its shows, social media users publicly expressed their doubts that the timing was a coincidence.
“Netflix knows EXACTLY what they did with that post today, that’s not a coincidence by any means,” one X user asserted.
“These ‘neck injury’ references are a meme among retarded demonic leftists,” Matt Walsh pointed out. “Way too much of a coincidence that Netflix posts this today of all days. Clear what was intended. Despicable.”
“It’s definitely not random. They just get to hide behind plausible deniability,” a third said.
“They knew exactly what they were doing,” another X user echoed.
Conservative commentator Jon Root, meanwhile, advised that Netflix apologize, even if the post, was in fact happenstance.
“I don’t believe this to be a coincidence, but if it happens to be so, they need to apologize to the Kirk family publicly, at very least,” he wrote. “If they did this on the anniversary of George Floyd‘s death, there would be riots & apologies. @netflix, you should be ashamed.”
“Even if this was a complete mistake and coincidence, the fact that @netflix have not deleted this 6 hours later is very telling,” another X user noted.
“The odds of it being a coincidence are orders of magnitude lower than intentional,” another said.
“Netflix did this on purpose,” another declared. “They intentionally chose ‘neck injury’ on the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Literal demons. Short sell their stock and cancel Netflix if you haven’t already.”
“You thought that was subtle enough to pass off as a coincidence?” another asked Netflix, before adding, “You poor fools.”
“How could this be interpreted any other way?” another inquired. “That it would somehow be sheer coincidence out of all days for Netflix to use very similar phrasing to the jokes used to mock a political assassination is not believable.”
“They knew today was the day we lost Charlie,” another X user wrote, adding, “99% of Netflix employee political donations over the last 20 years of have gone to Democrats. They were just celebrating it again.”
As Breitbart News reported, droves of Netflix subscribers announced they have canceled their memberships in response to the “neck injury” quip posted to social media.
Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.