Viral video of 'hungry' Ron DeSantis features fake audio

"Mmm hungry," the 2024 presidential hopeful appears to say as he receives a plate in the short clip, which generated tens of thousands of interactions on Twitter and other platforms.

Numerous posts mocked the Republican candidate, who launched his campaign to considerable fanfare but trails in polls to Donald Trump.

"It’s awesome that a one second video is going to tank an entire presidential campaign lol," one widely shared July 16, 2023 tweet says.

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But despite what the video suggests, DeSantis did not welcome his food by saying, "mmm hungry."

The clip originated with a July 14 YouTube video (archived here) from "Bad Lip Reading," which is known for creating spoof content that matches made-up dialogue to footage of politicians, athletes and other celebrities -- as though their lips were being read incorrectly.

"I created the audio," the owner of the channel told AFP in a July 17 email. "The fact that anyone would believe he actually said 'mmm hungry' is hilarious."

The "Bad Lip Reading" video layers its faked audio over b-roll featured in an August 19, 2022 YouTube video from DeSantis (archived here).

The "Bad Lip Reading" video includes a watermark for the channel in the upper-right corner that was cropped out of the version being misrepresented online as a real expression from DeSantis.

AFP contacted the DeSantis campaign for comment, but no response was forthcoming.

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about DeSantis, including here, here and here.