A US aquarium immortalized in the film Finding Dory on Wednesday apologized for a foray into social media in which it called a large otter a “thicc girl” and an “absolute unit” in a meme-filled tweet.
California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium said sorry for using memes with “connotations we were unaware of” on its official Twitter account.
The overzealous tweet contained a slew of Internet memes that commonly refer to amusingly large animals. However, some were more confusing, controversial and potentially insensitive than others.
“Abby is a thicc girl,” the tweet read. “What an absolute unit. She c h o n k. Look at the size of this lady. OH LAWD SHE COMIN. Another Internetism!”
Twenty-four hours later, the aquarium apologized.
“It has come to our attention that some of the references in this tweet are problematic and insensitive,” it said. “If you follow our feed, we often reference popular memes to talk about the ocean. In this case, the memes used had connotations we were unaware of until now.”
“Thicc” — a variation of “thick” — is a positive adjective for a curvy body type that originated in African-American slang.
“Absolute unit” is applied to abnormally large people or animals, usually in the formulation: “In awe of the size of this lad. Absolute unit.”
Although coined by Twitter user @mrreptoid, it was widely publicized this year in a tweet from the Museum of English Rural Life in the UK.
Also, in this year’s New Zealand Bird of the Year competition, the official announcement described the winner — the kerer pigeon — as “the absolute unit, the roundest boi.”
Finally, “She chonk” and “OH LAWD SHE COMIN” both originate from the same source — a widely shared size chart that coined new names for different levels of cat fatness.
As an example, all three large animal memes frequently appeared last month when Knickers the big cow emerged.
However, critics pointed out that many of the memes originated from African-American slang about women, and were inappropriate when applied to animals.
“Several terms referenced originated from African-American Vernacular English and specifically reference black women’s bodies,” the aquarium said. “Using them in a sea otter meme without that background makes insinuations we never intended. We need to do better.”
“We’re posting here in the thread so that people who have engaged with this tweet will join us in our learning moment,” it said.
The not-for-profit aquarium was the first in the world to reintroduce sea otter pups to the wild. Abby, the otter in question, arrived at Monterey Bay in 2012.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
RSS