Typically, the weird news that goes viral is something like this: Kangaroo captured after hopping through Fort Lauderdale streets
You have the typical ingredients–(a) Florida and (b) police–with a new twist: (c) an unusual wild animal instead of a criminal idiot. Yet I don’t see the same fervor for stories like this today.
Instead, what seems to go more viral are stories like this one.
Beautiful, right?
This is my theory: when times are good, we seek the opposite when it comes to news and entertainment.
The economy is roaring? Give us all kinds of zombie movies and Mad Max apocalyptic stuff.
Whenever times are bad–and they’re truly bad right now with the COVID pandemic and economic crash–I believe people seek feel-good stories like the piano player. Because we don’t have to search hard for weird and wacky news. You can turn on CNN or fire up Twitter and have your mind blown by the hourly nuttiness, often coming straight from the White House from the tweeting fingers of the man who possesses the codes to Earth’s largest nuclear arsenal.
So yes, give us a chimp helping a human.
And show us a bird who has different dances for each ringtone.
People need this sort of thing right now, a bit of humor or a dose of kindness.
I’m happy to see more of this style of weird news get attention and traction. It’s a good switch. We’ve had enough Florida Man nuttiness to last us decades.
The Red Pen of Doom 