A jovial Greek cabbie thought he’d have some fun with TV broadcasters when interviewed regarding Melbourne’s current taxi protests.

The jolly bald fellow – who was interviewed for Seven’s Sunrise and Nine’s Today – gave an erudite and emotional interview while giving his name as Tsim Booky.

Check out the video of the Today interview (courtesy of Daily Mail Australia) below:

Sunrise bravely uploaded the video to its Twitter account:

Melbourne taxi drivers are set to cause traffic chaos in Melbourne this morning, blocking the Bolte Bridge in a peak hour. Thoughts? #sun7 pic.twitter.com/BkxAVajeqa

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) February 12, 2017

However, Melbourne’s Greek community was quick to point out the name was clearly fake and actually meant fellatio in Greek!

Reactions to Mr Booky’s prank have ranged from “legend” right through to horror for trivialising – the taxi protests – which is an important matter for many working people. The Victorian government wants to buy back taxi licenses under new reforms, but will apparently shortchange a number of plate holders, leaving them with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.

Many Greek-speaking Melburnians said it highlighted a lack of ethnicity among TV networks who clearly didn’t employ any multilingual Greek-speakers.

Many have also taken to social media to express their disdain at Mr Booky’s attempt at humour. “How can cabbies get support when you have clowns representing them on public television. Either take yourselves seriously cabbies or you will disappear by progress and technology,” one wrote.

While another penned: “It would be funny under different, more relaxed circumstances but we are talking about the financial future of many Victoria families.”