A CNN International assignment editor phoned into CNN this afternoon to report she had spotted what looked like the black ISIS flag at London’s Gay Pride parade. “It’s clearly not Arabic,” said Lucy Pawle, describing the flag to anchor Suzanne Malveaux. “In fact it looks like it could be gobbledygook.”
“I seem to be the only person to have spotted this and nobody seems to be raising any questions and pointing it out,” Pawle continued. “Us Brits are known for our subtle sense of humor, but I’m not sure that everyone if they’d spotted it would find it particularly amusing.”
After the segment aired, social media quickly solved the mystery: the “gobbledygook” was sex toys. It was that subtle British sense of humor after all. Pawle seems to be taking her misunderstanding in stride, retweeting some helpful tweets:
@lucypawle the ISIS flag at the Pride parade looked like gibberish because the "text" was actually outlines of sex toys. Obviously satire.
— Jim (@jimdotsg) June 27, 2015
.@lucypawle The markings on that flag isn't Arabic. It's dildos.
— Марк Либатике (@markatique) June 27, 2015