This is Dom LeMorta, a college basketball player at Alfred University in western New York.
On Halloween morning, LeMorta woke early and walked into his Sociology classroom to see his teacher, Dr. Greil, dressed up as Papa Smurf. It was something else, so Dom tweeted about it.
Do you imagine waking up for an 8 a.m. and this is what you walk in and see... 🤦🏻♂️
What followed was thousands of retweets and likes, and hundreds of comments about the professor.
"My Twitter has been frozen for the longest time because of all the notifications," LeMorta told BuzzFeed News. "But a lot of people were coming at me for the most part."
This mornin at the end of practice my coach goes get on the line, "we have a Twitter policy" and we was shook and he go "no anti-smurfism" 😂
That's right. Turns out people took issue with the way LeMorta reacted to the efforts of his professor — and boy did they let him know.
Imagine being so excited to make ur classes day u stay up all night making yourself look like a smurf to go unappre… https://t.co/vS25AGR9RM
Why ppl trying to come at my guy @iam_dtliv like he was disrespectful in the tweet, did I miss something 🤔 https://t.co/y0qZ7xp5Lb
he is doing absolutely amazing and I’d be LIVING to see him with this look. Leave these teachers who are having f… https://t.co/3kZH8eL7rs
Don’t be mean 😢 he was just dressing up for Halloween https://t.co/GR4Gl228cA
Don’t disrespect his holiday spirit just because you don’t have it, fuck you https://t.co/EQUV1qiXlh
That’s genuinely broke my heart every time I’ve seen it today how much effort tht wee mans went to just to get ripp… https://t.co/JgUM4zVjAL
The Papa Smurf professor's name is Larry Greil, and he's actually been putting on his Smurf costume for the last five years, after students began calling him Papa Smurf.
Online, people were absolutely going nuts for Dr. Greil. He even got a "fan" message from a student in North Carolina and has since received several other messages. "I did it the first time because I thought it would be fun; by now, students would be disappointed if I stop," said Greil.
@iam_dtliv Educators are sooooooo undervalued and this tweet proves it
"I always do it kind of deadpan. I come to class and start lecturing. Students do a double-take, smile, and start taking notes (and pictures). This is the first year it went viral."
@iam_dtliv