The Toronto Raptors mascot knows the true holiday spirit isn’t the gift of giving but seeing how far you can chuck those gifts down a flight of stairs.
One lucky Raptors fan won a TV on Friday night when Toronto hosted the Atlanta Hawks. That TV was delivered to them by The Raptor, the team’s mascot. As The Raptor made his way down the stairs, though, he tripped and the bottom of the box falls out.
The Television—sent sprawling by The Raptor—slides down a few stairs on its face as everyone looks on in horror.
Clearly, The Raptor has no idea how to carry a TV properly. Never let gravity work against you, man. Get it together. But how did that fall out the bottom of a factory sealed box? Is it not in its original box? Where’s all the protective styrafoam? Did they buy this TV off the back of a truck? Did they replace some TVs at Air Canada Centre and try giving out the old ones for tax purposes?
The best part about this is how obvious that raptor’s shame is. It really comes through all that red fur. That anthropomorphic caricature of an extinct animal feels b-a-d about what just happened.
This is art.
Let’s call this one “A mascot looks back on its life choices with regret.”
Let’s address the dinosaur in the room: it’s pretty obvious this was a bit. It was posted by the official Raptors Instagram account and the packaging is suspicious. But I want to believe. Either they’re good sports about a screwup or they wanted to get a bit of viral love out of this for some reason. Either way, I’m game. That was funny and I’m gonna show everyone I know.
This isn’t the worst thing a mascot has ever done to a fan, but it’s up there. Thankfully, it allows us to soothe our souls by looking at one of the greatest GIFs ever giffed.
God bless the basketball franchise named after Jurassic Park. God bless us, every one.
