Culture

To Prove How Easy It Is To Get Things Trending On Twitter, This Comedian Sent Cat Poop Viral

#Catpoop quickly overtook hashtags associated with 'Big Brother' and 'Masterchef'.

by Joseph Earp  17 June 2020
Australian Twitter trend cat poop

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Australian Twitter is a strange place.

Actually, maybe it’s better to call it a bunch of strange places. After all, there are so many different groups and subcultures that use the site, all of them in such vastly different ways, that on most days it feels like about 12 websites shoved into one.

There’s “water drop Twitter”, those Labor supporters who spend their time non-stop sharing Scott Morrison memes. Then there’s “AusPol” Twitter. There’s journalist Twitter, shitpost Twitter, greyhound Twitter… And last night, for one brief, shining moment, there was “cat poop” Twitter.

See, noticing how easy it was to get things trending on Australian Twitter, comedian Nina Oyama joked that all it would take to create a trending topic was “10 people” tweeting the words cat poop.

Almost instantly, Twitter users decided to prove Oyama’s point. The reply to that first tweet became clogged (no pun intended) with people tweeting the hashtag #catpoop.

And within 10 minutes, the trending began.

The internet moved so fast, in fact, that soon illustrators were creating their own cat poop mascots…

…And informative folks were using the hashtag to share studies about the diet of feral cats.

And still #catpoop wouldn’t stop rising in the trending ranks. Before too long, it had hit second place, trailing only Big Brother.

And then, finally, it happened.

Moreover, once the hashtag had hit the top spot, Oyama decided to use it to do some good, sharing a series of links through which users could donate to charity.

It was proof positive that despite all of Twitter’s claims that it is an informative means of receiving an unfettered stream of news and entertainment, most of the time the social media site is very, very silly.

Of course, it’s also an inspirational story for anyone else who wants to send something viral in this country. Turns out all you need is about ten minutes worth of hashtag spamming, and there you are — internet glory.