THE MILKSHAKE DUCK

There’s a new hip, groovy phrase starting to gain some traction on the internet now: The Milkshake Duck. It describes when an average person unexpectedly gains the attention of the internet and briefly captures the heart of the nation — only for a horrifying revelation about them to surface before 15 minutes of internet fame have even elapsed. For example, last week’s Milkshake Duck was Jensen Karp, a Los Angeles comedian who went viral on Tuesday for a tweet where he claimed he found shrimp tails in a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Everybody thought this was the most wonderfully, weird thing in the world, and everybody started referring to him as “shrimp guy.” Until a couple of days later when a writer named Melissa Stetten called out Karp as an alleged abuser, and then other women contacted her to make allegations, and it all went south for Mr. Karp very quickly. The name “Milkshake Duck” first came to internet in a 2016 tweet that reads: “The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist.” It’s all tied in to the cancel culture, and what it comes down to is this: Everyone has said and done stupid stuff on the internet, and thus anyone could become a Milkshake Duck at any moment.
* Well, not me, thank Hitler.
* I’m still focused on the duck with the milkshake. I mean, does it use a straw?
* And maybe the duck ate the shrimp and left the tails in the cereal box? This story is confusing.
* Didn’t Dairy Queen used to offer a Duck Milkshake during hunting season?
* I once saw Milkshake Duck open for Counting Crows.