--- title: President Obama Confuses James Franco, Joe Flacco in Speech description: The confusion creates a parody Twitter account @JamesFlacco canonical: https://time.com/3642783/obama-confuses-franco-flacco/ author: Sports Illustrated article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-19T22:49:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:02:02.247Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Confuses James Franco, Joe Flacco in Speech og:description: The confusion creates a parody Twitter account @JamesFlacco og:url: https://time.com/3642783/obama-confuses-franco-flacco/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9610bebbc0d1d814/69877036e20a87822fa842b1/president-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. President Barack Obama during a news conference at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 19, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Confuses James Franco, Joe Flacco in Speech twitter:description: The confusion creates a parody Twitter account @JamesFlacco twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9610bebbc0d1d814/69877036e20a87822fa842b1/president-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Confuses James Franco, Joe Flacco in Speech by [Brendan Maloy / Sports Illustrated](https://time.com/author/sports-illustrated/) ## Brendan Maloy / Sports Illustrated Dec 19, 2014 10:49 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama during a news conference at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 19, 2014. U.S. President Barack Obama during a news conference at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 19, 2014.Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Brendan Maloy / Sports Illustrated](https://time.com/author/sports-illustrated/) ## Brendan Maloy / Sports Illustrated Dec 19, 2014 10:49 PM UTC President Obama addressed the nation Friday regarding Sony’s decision to cancel the release of _The Interview_ following repeated cyber-attacks on the studio, but when he spoke about the film’s stars he accidentally conflated James Franco and Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco into “James Flacco.” > [](https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/546019304555442176) Only moments after the slip up occurred someone had already snatched up the Twitter handle James Flacco and started a parody account. > [](https://twitter.com/JamesFlacco/status/546020250735869952) > [](https://twitter.com/JamesFlacco/status/546021763084472320) The slip of the tongue was so talked about that even the Ravens quarterback got in on the fun, tweeting a quick correction to the President, and reaching out to Franco. > [](https://twitter.com/TeamFlacco/status/546027238253027328) > [](https://twitter.com/TeamFlacco/status/546032192262914048) [_This article originally appeared on SI.com_](http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2014/12/19/president-obama-confuses-james-franco-joe-flacco?xid=IFT-Trending) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3642783/obama-confuses-franco-flacco/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3642783/obama-confuses-franco-flacco/"},"headline":"President Obama Confuses James Franco, Joe Flacco in Speech","datePublished":"2014-12-19T22:49:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:02:02.247Z","description":"The confusion creates a parody Twitter account @JamesFlacco","url":"https://time.com/3642783/obama-confuses-franco-flacco/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","james franco","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9610bebbc0d1d814/69877036e20a87822fa842b1/president-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brendan Maloy / Sports Illustrated"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9610bebbc0d1d814/69877036e20a87822fa842b1/president-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Barack Obama during a news conference at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 19, 2014.","caption":"U.S. President Barack Obama during a news conference at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 19, 2014.","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3642783/obama-confuses-franco-flacco/","name":"President Obama Confuses James Franco, Joe Flacco in Speech"}}]}] ```