German graffiti of Golum from the film "Lord of the Rings" holding a roll of in-demand toilet paper.
Topline: As more people stay home to slow the spread of coronavirus, a nine second video of a quarantined sock puppet pretending to eat cars passing by its window received the most likes and retweets on Twitter this week, according to data compiled by the social media tracking firm NewsWhip.
- Wisconsin resident Jamie Gagnon, aka @gnuman1979, posted the tweet March 16: “Quarantine day 6” Gagnon wrote, with the video showing a PacMan-like sock puppet pretending to gobble the cars driving by.
- As of Sunday afternoon, the tweet had racked up over 3 million likes and 840,000 retweets, and was the most liked and RT’ed from the previous week.
- Gagnon told Forbes that he didn’t create the video, but found it on a European meme site; the identity of the video’s creator remains unclear.
- Gagnon called the reaction to the video “overwhelming,” and said “it made me happy that people all over the world got nine seconds of joy out of it.”
- “I talked with people from Turkey and Jakarta,” Gagnon said, adding, “For an old guy from Wisconsin, it was truly an amazing experience.”
- NewsWhip’s Twitter engagement data comes from its database of influential users, which tracks around 350,000 accounts.
Surprising fact: Among the replies to Gagnon’s tweet are more videos of sock puppets. One is also pretending to eat cars, while another puppet sings the 1985 charity single “We Are The World.” Multiple other users replied with comedy videos expressing their feelings of boredom and frustration while remaining quarantined.
Big number: 82 million. That’s how many people—just in the states of California, New York, Illinois and Connecticut—are being told to remain at home as much as possible to stem the spread of coronavirus, according to the New York Times.
Key background: The coronavirus pandemic has ground life to a halt for millions across the world. In the U.S., people are working from home—or being laid off—as most travel ceases and businesses shutter their physical locations. Markets have wiped out all of the gains made during President Trump’s election, and the White House and Congress are working on a stimulus bill that could be worth more than $2 trillion. A separate coronavirus relief bill with measures including free testing and paid sick leave has already been signed into law. A proven treatment for coronavirus does not exist, however. Clinical drug trials are kicking off in the U.S. this week, but their effectiveness against the disease is “anecdotal,” according to the country’s top infectious diseases expert. A vaccine trial began last week, but it will take at least a year to 18 months, if successful, for that kind of treatment to become available. Meanwhile, stay-at-home orders could last four to nine months for New York residents, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a Sunday press conference, while it could be at least two months for Californians.
