Dr. Ford is a former random event. The exact date of the discontinuation is unknown.
Players Woodcutting or Mining would get hit in the head by a wood chunk or stone, respectively. Dr. Ford would appear and ask the player to identify a hand figure. If the player failed, the player is teleported to a distant place to rest (Varrock north church). If the player answered correctly, he/she would get fruit (only bananas in free-to-play) and due to a bug would still be teleported to a distant place, which enraged players who guessed it correctly.
As the number of the fingers lifted and the finger positions (up or down) were random, Jagex got a lot of reports of getting the middle finger.
Trivia[]
- Dr. Ford was discontinued for multiple reasons, such as the "middle finger incident", and because he and several others were not defined as a random event after the update.
- His appearance bore a striking resemblance to Dr. Harlow before the graphical update, the only difference being Dr. Ford is bald in the middle of his head while Dr. Harlow is not.
- Before the Dr. Ford random was removed, he was originally planned to be reworked and have players be teleported to his hospital.