The nation is still reeling from a pair of mass shootings within a 24 hour period over the weekend that left a combined 29 people dead in two states. As everyone from musicians to pro athletes called for gun control in response to the loss of life, some have pushed back against calls for gun control.
It’s a depressing cycle of normalization that comes when the same kinds of violence are met with the same excuses, and it can be hard to cope with the continuous wave of grief, anger and frustration. But if there’s truly nothing we can do to fix the gun crisis in this country, and congress and the president refuse to act (let alone get the locations right), the least concerned denizens of Twitter dot com can do is ridicule a ridiculous anti-gun control argument.
One popped up on Monday when a man hopped into musician Jason Isbell’s mentions to argue that he needed assault weapons to keep his family safe from feral hogs. Isbell tweeted a rebuttal of anti-gun control arguments and was met by a man who claimed he needed to kill dozens of wild animals in a few minutes.
Legit question for rural Americans – How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?
— Willie McNabb 🐗 (@WillieMcNabb) August 4, 2019
The tweet actually was sent on Sunday, but on Monday that ridiculous logic went viral online. Willie here is claiming that he needs to mow down “30-50” feral hogs to keep his children safe, which was quickly derided. When you feel helpless and things are bleak, it’s often gallows humor that gets you through. Which is why Twitter quickly filled with references to 30-50 feral hogs.
https://twitter.com/JonIsAwesomest/status/1158445217621540864
— marvin hoopster (@Hegelbon) August 5, 2019
This is just to say
I have eaten
The 3 to 5 small childrenThat were in your yard
And you were probably saving
For adulthoodForgive me
They were delicious
— a poem by 30 to 50 feral hogs— Jamie Roberts (@jroberts548) August 5, 2019
Me preparing my rural American house for the untimely invasion of 30-50 feral hogs pic.twitter.com/5U9vZo1goD
— quack the planet! (@Webster_Duck) August 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/armystrang/status/1158485575814582273?s=21
LETTERMAN: You hear about this one Paul, you hear about the feral hogs?
SHAFFER: That's right Dave, those hogs sure are feral!
LETTERMAN: And there are 30-50 of them!
SHAFFER: The feral hogs, everybody!
(band starts playing "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath)— the tortured sports fans department (@VT_Ben) August 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/antoniodramsci/status/1158454518826319873?s=21
It may even become a talking point in the 2020 election if this keeps up.
as president, i'll establish a student loan debt forgiveness program for small kids in yards attacked within 3-5 minutes by 30-50 feral hogs
— TORMABLAS PARODYIACKLELALES (@Tormny_Pickeals) August 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/PodsidePete/status/1158465090502438912
The math is really the weirdest part of it all, as it implies that he needs to kill a LOT of hogs in a short amount of time. Because, keep in mind, feral hogs are a problem in some rural places. There’s even a whole reality show about it. But needing to maim that many hogs in that amount of time makes it seem like a full-blown crisis.
30-50 feral hogs. 10 hogs per minute after the original 30. 10 hogs per 60 sixty seconds run into your yard. but only when your small kids play. how long would it take for 420 hogs to run into your yard if your small children play for 2 hours a day? Make sure to show your work
— cogy in the wild (@pumpkinheadguy) August 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/alicegoldfuss/status/1158505562172207105
Changelog: fixed an issue where 30-50 feral hogs appearing in a window of 3-5 minutes would cause the application to crash. The application should now support up to 100 feral hogs per minute.
— Brian Terlson (@bterlson) August 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/MisterRatt/status/1158468999103037445
The meme inside of a meme was also pretty great, too.
my (38m) feral hogs (1m, 2f, 1m, 2m, 1f, 4f, 2m, 3f, 1f, 5m, 3f, 4m, 5m, 2f, 1m, 3m, 4f, 2f, 4m, 4m, 1m, 2f, 1m, 2m, 1f, 4f, 7m, 2f, 5f, 2f, 1m, 1f, 4f, 2m, 3f, 1f, 5m, 4m, 2f, 1m, 4f, 2m, 3f, 4m, 1m, 4m, 2f, 4m, 2f, 1m, 2f, 3f, 4m, 5m, 2f, 1m, 3m, 4f, 2f, 4m, 4m) have unionised
— David East (@davideastUK) August 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/jayasax/status/1158477421001289732?s=19
It did bring up a serious question, though: what if this man is truly our last line of defense keeping us from disaster?
https://twitter.com/DangOlWill/status/1158485893088305152
There were a lot of very specific references made, as happens with all memes, but somehow these all felt funnier on Monday.
https://twitter.com/DavidKlion/status/1158503727860539396
This one references a tweet about how America far and away leads the world in mass shooting tragedies, while other nations with gun control have far fewer.
https://twitter.com/QDaragh/status/1158470457747824640
There was a musical section of this meme as well.
It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from youuuuuu!
There’s nothing that 30-50 feral hogs could ever doooo!— JPF (@JoannePistonFan) August 5, 2019
Hey baby, I hear the hogs a-callin',
They’re feral & have 4 legsAnd maybe I seem a bit confused,
They won’t leave, but I even begged!Hahahaha!
But I don't know what to do with those 30-50 feral hogs
They're callin' again…Feral hogs all over my yard. What is a boy to do? pic.twitter.com/4mWFXCXlIR
— Mike Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) August 5, 2019
This is an outstanding pun.
30-50 Merril Hoge pic.twitter.com/XuObapwu2e
— weeniehead (@essbeeay) August 5, 2019
None of this solves the peril that faces the nation each and every day, nor does it quell the real fear that many feel. But one extremely dumb tweet was a distraction from the horrors of reality we’re often left with when we log off, so at least it wasted a few hours of the workday.