“Close enough, welcome back Mulan,” one meme account wrote. Credit: @TheVeriPost

A story purporting that a San Antonio woman was arrested for winning an all-male barbecue contest while disguised as a man has gone viral on Instagram and X.

The online yarn even included a photo depicting the San Antonio cook, Leticia “Letty” Ramirez.

While the tale is hilarious, it’s sadly a fake. But that didn’t stop the internet from having a field day.

According to the Twitter rumor machine, Ramirez embodied the male alter ego “L.J. Ramirez” to win the fictional Lone Star Men’s Smoke-Off in the Texas ‘cue capital of Lockhart. The viral story even alleges she took home $7,500 for the succulence of her brisket, ribs, and sausage before getting busted.

Busted for what crime, you may ask?

The original tweet circulated by @Theveripost just says “Texas woman arrested for ‘Disguised as a Man.'” Last we checked, that wasn’t a crime. However, that cheap Party City mustache might be.

The story racked up millions of views, eliciting comments like “free my man” and “close enough, welcome back Mulan.”

“Controversial opinion but I don’t think people should go to jail for objectively funny crimes,” one commenter posted.

Only a few in the thread actually thought to question what the crime in fact was — or whether the story was even true.

Both the image and the story are AI-generated.

But how we wish Letty was real so she could continue to smoke the brisket and the competition.


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Stephanie Koithan is the Digital Content Editor of the San Antonio Current. In her role, she writes about politics, music, art, culture and food. Send her a tip at skoithan@sacurrent.com.