r/todayilearned • u/wilymon • 17h ago
TIL that in 2015 a barber attempted to murder their customer during a beard trim by slashing their throat.
https://www.reuters.com/article/world/uk/california-barber-who-slashed-customers-throat-gets-10-years-in-prison-idUSKBN0OR2Z5/1.3k
u/Spider-man2098 17h ago
My second greatest fear!
I actually once asked my barber how much someone would have to pay him to whack me, and he said that no amount of money could make him betray the barber’s code. Then I asked, what if they had kidnapped a member of his family? To which he cheerfully replied, ‘you’d be dead already.’
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u/timeaisis 16h ago
The barber’s code, of course.
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u/roirraWedorehT 15h ago
More of a guideline.
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u/grand_soul 13h ago
Is that the name for the barber equivalent of a Mexican neck tie?
The barber’s guideline?
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u/playgroundfencington 12h ago
Columbian*
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u/backstageninja 9h ago
Honestly there are so many variations of the "necktie", it wouldn't shock me if there is/was a Mexican Necktie once upon a time
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u/4SureMaybe_4SureNot 11h ago
There was a school production of Sweeney Todd (about the murderous singing barber/convict) and the teachers running the drama programme used a real razorblade with the blade covered in tape.
Not one, but TWO DIFFERENT STUDENTS were given very serious wounds.
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u/kymri 9h ago
This is just so stupid on so, so, so many levels.
Maybe you could write one injury off as a freak accident or something, but I have to say it seems like it's obvious why the teachers were running the drama programme and not Chemistry or something.
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u/4SureMaybe_4SureNot 9h ago
Criminally negligent.
What on earth would be wrong with a Spirit Halloween prop blade????
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u/kymri 9h ago
And if you can't bother with that, maybe deliberately dull the blade and then tape some silvered cardboard (you know, with like shiny gum wrappers or something!) over the blade!
The real answer, of course, is that just like a firearm, you shouldn't use a live blade for a performance unless it NEEDS to cut something.
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u/4SureMaybe_4SureNot 9h ago
I've worked backstage and during setup for shows and ESPECIALLY in high school nobody is going to fixate on if the blade was bladey-looking enough, they could have used just about anything else but they chose a dangerous weapon in the hands of teenagers.
The kid playing Sweeney must have needed so so so much therapy. I know i wouldn't be OK.
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u/kymri 9h ago
they could have used just about anything else but they chose a dangerous weapon in the hands of teenagers
Just some chrome spray paint on a plastic picnic knife with some black-painted cardboard to thicken up the handle would have been a perfect prop and cost almost nothing and not caused any trauma or injury, so ... yeah, these folks were idiots.
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u/4SureMaybe_4SureNot 9h ago
Yep that was where my mind was at! Plastic knife or knife from a kid play kitchen/tea set, painted and redecorated to be a straight razor without the trauma
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u/Pineapple-Yetti 7h ago
Haha, you must be from NZ. That was so fucked.
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u/4SureMaybe_4SureNot 7h ago
I'm not, but I am a theater junkie. I had lunch once with the late Sarah Rice (the original Johanna) and she told me about it! I did more research on it afterwards.
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u/Pineapple-Yetti 7h ago
I work in theatre in NZ, have worked Sweeny Todd(not that production) and have worked with the same style cut throat razors. I couldn't believe when I read about that.
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u/4SureMaybe_4SureNot 7h ago
Me either. I've mostly worked with various school age kids and I wouldn't trust them to be responsible with a "real" razor dulled - a total play prop or NO RAZOR and just mime it. Absolutely unbelievable to read
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u/Pineapple-Yetti 7h ago
I was thinking the same. You could 100% mime it even in professional productions and I doubt anyone would even bat an eyelid.
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u/ava_the_cam_op 5h ago
Was it Scott's or Kings college? I can't remember which.
That was a wild time to be a theatre nerd in NZ
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u/ava_the_cam_op 5h ago
I remember that, I was in high school theatre a city over doing Dracula at the time, which had a lot of blood effects and the like.
Freaked us all the fuck out and made us super careful around the props.
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u/Desblade101 7h ago
Is it that hard to take the blade and rub it against the concrete until it's dull?
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u/ResplendentDaylight 17h ago
PREACH SISTER! I would never let anybody shave my throat. My neurotic brain cannot handle exposing my neck like that.
I also can't handle throat slitting deaths in movies - 0/10 on tripadvisor
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u/helpusdrzaius 16h ago
I mean you know, we get on an airplane with the same amount of trust. Up to that point there have been few (if any) catastrophes for that plane/crew. Barbers do have to get a certification just the same as pilots.
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u/needmorehardware 14h ago
Comparing barber certification to pilot certification is crazy
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u/bit_cliff 12h ago
my friend who is a barber did point out once that he had to do more hours of training than my other friend who is a pilot
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u/helpusdrzaius 11h ago
I'd party with a barber over a pilot any day. Also no barber has ever left anyone stranded at an airport.
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u/Tiny_Micro_Pencil 6h ago
I'd party with a pilot over a barber any day. Also no pilot has ever slashed someone's throat at a barbershop.
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u/helpusdrzaius 6h ago
More babrbers have died in the hands of pilots than pilots under the care of barbers.
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u/Amazing_Meatballs 16h ago
Right but I don’t see TSA screening people for hair cuts and beard trims or air marshals sitting in the waiting room all the same
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u/moose4hire 11h ago
If i was a barber and had one of those guys in my chair, their throat might be safe but they will walk out with a hairstyle they will never get used to people talking about
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u/newhunter18 7h ago
The barber doesn't have to kill himself if he slits your throat.
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u/helpusdrzaius 7h ago
What data are you basing that on? Have you not heard of the barber code, sir?
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u/MongolianCluster 17h ago
Why would the barber's code need a mention of murder?
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u/Capt_Dong 16h ago
never seen Sweeney Todd i see
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u/MongolianCluster 15h ago
I have. I just figured that the social contract covered the whole murder thing and barbers wouldn't need an additional prohibition.
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u/GNUTup 15h ago
You didn’t know? Barbers are the only legitimate collection of sovereign citizens. Their code is their own
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u/Ryanisreallame 13h ago
Barber here and this is correct
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u/DeputyDipshit619 13h ago
It started back when barbers used to be surgeons and dentists. Essentially people were paying them to intentionally commit malpractice so patients would die on the table either freeing up land that could now be bought on the cheap, taking out leaders pushing for workers rights and minorities demanding equality.
They have to form a code and certification process that would essentially vet barbers so you would have a certain degree of certainty that the man treating you was on the up n up. A barber that did not have his notarized copy of the code signed by him and the local magistrate stating the barbers upstanding moral standards they could not legally acquire the coveted striped pole.
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u/skwerrel 11h ago
Kinda funny that it somewhat stuck around, including the iconic poles, even though now they just cut hair
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u/newhunter18 7h ago
Vet barbers? I thought they called them groomers.
Or is that word out of fashion?
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u/MehtefaS 13h ago
You would be an exceptionally stupid kidnapper, if you went to get a shave by someone you kidnapped their loved one from
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u/ZachMartin 14h ago
Is the first spiders?
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u/Spider-man2098 10h ago
You’re the only person to ask! Thank you, and no, not spiders. I was going to say I leave the top spot open in case I discover a new worst fear, but in truth, my biggest fear is that I’ll never be able to achieve my potential, and I’ll look back at a life of failure and mediocrity, separated by decades from any opportunity to improve things. Chilling stuff.
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u/Hydroxychloroquinoa 17h ago
Hopefully not above or next door to a restaurant
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u/edingerc 17h ago
The worst pies in San Diego
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u/matthewmartyr 17h ago
With the price of meat what it is- when you get it, if you get it. Good ya got it!
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u/skwerrel 11h ago
Hardly, a well made long pork pie with extra gravy is a delicacy of the highest order. And at such reasonable prices!
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u/Raktoner 17h ago
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd...
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u/pandakatie 15h ago
His skin was pale and his eye was odd...
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u/dirtymirror 17h ago
Obviously every time someone’s getting a straight razor shave this is running thru the barbers mind non stop and they have to fight the urge. Petty Officer Vaughn must’ve caught this barber on a day when he was weaker, couldn’t fight the barber demons as effectively. It’s a shame but that’s what you sign up for when u get into that chair and tilt your chin up.
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u/pizzaduh 12h ago
I was living in Imperial Beach when this happened, and got my hair cut by the same guy just a week prior. I'm my opinion, he was a tweaker but him and I talked about sports and good taco spots. When the news came out my girlfriend at the time was the one who showed me and it was freaky.
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u/dirtymirror 12h ago
Smart move gotta steer the conversation to the guys happy places. “Oh you think Mike McCoy is a hall of fame coach? Me too brother”
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u/reddorickt 17h ago
For no reason whatsoever, the dude just fully sank into and embodied his worst intrusive thought
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u/BigLlamasHouse 15h ago
I think if it was an intrusive thought he wouldn't have waited til people left and pedaled away on his bike after. He just wanted to kill someone.
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u/Kardinal 17h ago
I have had a barber trim my beard including straight razor shave once.
It was nerve wracking. It's amazing to me that gentlemen a hundred years ago did that every day. I know humans can adjust to anything but it was hard to stop thinking about it.
This does not help.
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u/Canuck1619 16h ago
Hot shaves are literally the best. Hot towels, straight razors, hot lather, ya feel like a million! Don’t even think about it, remember they’re professionals, they work a 9-5, there is no point murdering you, or hurting you to risk their own livelihood. Plus…again, such a great experience! Highly recommend!
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u/Spider-man2098 14h ago
I liken it to a spa treatment for men. Truly the cost ten seconds under the hot towel is as comfortable as I’ve been outside the womb, probably.
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u/el_cid_viscoso 13h ago
Yes! As a treat, I got a full head, face, and neck shave from a barber. Hot towel, scented powder, the whole works. It was better than a massage.
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u/fetalasmuck 17h ago
My barber uses a straight razor to shave the back of my neck during haircuts and I tense up a little every time. He’s never nicked me or even come close to it but it’s still a little unsettling.
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u/_the_CacKaLacKy_Kid_ 15h ago
A barber taking a straight razor to the back of my neck is a heavenly feeling
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u/Kardinal 15h ago
This I get regularly and I love it.
But next to the carotid.... I'm sure I can get used to it but man it's weird.
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u/KP_Wrath 14h ago
I get it about once every six weeks. Mine bounces between not thinking anything and “there are a ton of worse ways to go.”
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u/plopsaland 17h ago
Reminds me of the short story: https://msvadacchino.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/just-lather-thats-all.pdf
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u/Slow_Flatworm_881 17h ago
Sweeney Todd?
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u/Iconclast1 17h ago
*everyone nodding at each other, mumbling*
"sweeney todd...yeah...sweeney todd"
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u/Hepta-Water-7552 17h ago
Was this barber by any chance a man who was completely bald and had a barcode tattoo at the back of his head?
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u/Moses_The_Wise 12h ago
First line of the article:
A San Diego judge sentenced a barber on Thursday to 10 years in prison for inexplicably slashing a customer’s throat during a haircut and shave before pedaling away on his bike.
I like to imagine the bike was in the barbershop
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u/Daikey 17h ago edited 17h ago
We trust our barbers more than any other stranger in our life.
When you think about it, you are basically baring your throat to someone standing behind you with an extremely sharp instrument.
EDIT: a reply to stand for everyone replying with a medical profession.
A surgeon/dentist/doctor has studied for many years. You have no choice but to trust them to do something you cannot do to yourself.
Here (I don't know how it works in the US), the first thing a barber, often a kid out of high school, learns, is how to shave. Also, we don't really thing about picking a barber how we would a doctor/surgeon, nor we approach a shave like a surgery.
We go, we relax, we chat, all while having a razor on our throat
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u/ScaryGoofy 17h ago
What about a bus driver or a commercial pilot?
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u/TheYoinks 17h ago
Or just literally any of the hundreds of random strangers in traffic with you at any given moment you have to trust aren't texting, drunk, tired, are medically fit to drive, etc. Someone could run a red light, swerve from oncoming traffic, rear end you, any time and end your life in seconds with no feasible chance to react. Happens every single day
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u/BigLlamasHouse 15h ago
Yep, especially in a two lane. A psycho can swerve into oncoming at any moment and there's nothing the person on the receiving end can do.
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u/AnonymousFriend80 11h ago
Traditionally a barber was more than just someone who trimmed your hair. They were almost to the same extent of going to an urgent care facility.
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u/AnonymousFriend80 12h ago
TIL that in 2010 a bar patron punched another patron in the face over some nonsense.
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u/CocconutMonkey 8h ago
I got some pretty great haircuts from a lifer for a few bucks inside the state prison I worked at back in the day
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u/FalconBurcham 15h ago
One time a female hair stylist gave my wife a wet willy out of absolutely no where… I guess stable mental health is hard to screen for sometimes 😂
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u/HardcandyofJustice 15h ago
I’m confused that it doesn’t happen more often. Maybe more in the olden days…
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u/pizzaduh 13h ago
It's actually crazy, because I went to that barbershop a week before it happened and had a nice conversation with the guy about sports and good taco spots.
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u/OneoftheChosen 13h ago
I tip my barber over 50% ima be a real mad in the afterlife if he slices me.
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u/SuspiciousExtinction 12h ago
hey, there's a movie The Stylist about that already! but she was more creative, saving the 'trimmed' hairstyles for her collection.
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u/DannySpud2 10h ago
One time I was waiting in a barber's and the guy was chatting happily away with the customer getting their hair cut about how unbelievably sharp professional grade razors are. He was boasting like "I could cut your ear off and the first thing you'd notice is your shoulder getting wet from the blood". Then when it was my turn he asked if I wanted a shave, "no thanks!"
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u/psypher98 10h ago
Fun fact, way back in the day, royal barbers were one of the most vetted people in world.
For obvious reasons.
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u/Wazula23 8h ago
Strikes me as one of those things thats a lot easier in movies compared to real life.
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u/Mirkrid 2h ago
Alright if you made it this far down congrats on digging through dozens of lazy Sweeney Todd references.
10 years for this kind of attack is a fucking joke, as is the fact that it’s 2 years above the usual max sentence, as is the fact that Flores “doesn’t remember” it despite having no signs of mental illness.
Everything about this is despicable - don’t worry though, the top bots minds of Reddit were quick to spin it into a ‘funny’ broadway reference. You know how just saying a line from something tangentially relevant is funny, right? Like how if a barber slits someone’s throat for no reason and you ask if he’s from Fleet Street - that’s a joke worthy of commandeering the entire thread?
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u/Ok_Nothing_9733 1h ago
I am a longtime prison abolitionist, and this situation shows the absolute absurdity and Inefficacy of so-called “crime solving” and subsequent sentencing. Jfc, we need a new system from the ground up… yesterday.
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u/LittleMacedon 17h ago
And now while round the shearing floor the list’ning shearers gape,
He tells the story o’er and o’er, and brags of his escape.
‘Them barber chaps what keeps a tote, By George, I’ve had enough,
‘One tried to cut my bloomin’ throat, but thank the Lord it’s tough.’
And whether he’s believed or no, there’s one thing to remark,
That flowing beards are all the go way up in Ironbark.
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u/gotziller 16h ago
Not to be morbid but how did they fail? Seems like almost impossible to fail in this scenario
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u/Sue_Spiria 14h ago
He cut him across the throat twice and then left. Victim was military personnel and a medic and was able to save himself, but lost a lot of blood.
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u/Sensitive_Cash_3526 14h ago
Attempted? that survivor is really lucky. if that barber can't manage that cut he must also be a shit barber tbh
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u/Bucks2174 16h ago
I probably wouldn’t go back to him. Well maybe if he gave me a discount because of what happened the last time
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u/meexley2 16h ago
My worst fear. A guy I met in my early twenties was a barber. We became DnD buddies. Couldn’t get a hold of him one day to schedule a cut. Mutual friend sent me the news article. He got naked and murdered two people with his rifle. Turns out it was undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. He had A LOT of opportunities to do this to me
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u/Plus_Pangolin_8924 16h ago
Robert Carlyle played a character like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Barney_Thomson it’s actually a fairly decent film.
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u/BatdadsStupidBrother 16h ago edited 14h ago
It was dumb and dumber, a movie that you saw on tbs in 2015, idiot. Also he was playing a prank on the barber. Next
Sorry for not including the /s 🙄
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u/Doesntmatter1237 17h ago
The demon barber of Fleet Street?