Ted Cruz Has Surprisingly Displayed A Sense Of Humor Over The Whole Shark Photo Debacle

When a historic hurricane hit California in late August, Ted Cruz did what Ted Cruz does best and owned himself by falling for a notoriously fake viral photo of a shark. The photo has been bouncing around the internet for over a decade, but that didn’t stop Ted from retweeting Barstool Sports with the caption “Holy crap.” Apparently, the senator actually believed that a shark was swimming around Los Angeles.

Naturally, Cruz got lit up in the replies and a Community Notes was added to his tweet spelling out that the shark photo is, indeed, a viral hoax. With another natural disaster happening at Burning Man, the photo once again resurfaced, but this time, Cruz was ready.

BuzzFeed News reporter Katie Notopoulous got in on the gag this time around by tweeting the viral shark photo with the caption, “At Burning Man. Tried to drive out of here but saw this on the road. [yes I give permission for any media to use my photo]”

Referencing his previous blunder, Cruz once again wrote, “Holy crap,” but this time added the fingers crossed emoji.

The joke was a surprisingly self-aware move for the Texas senator, who routinely steps on rakes with his social media presence. For once, people were actually impressed that Cruz does have a self of humor when he’s not pretending to chug beer with his buddies in lame attempts to look like an everyman.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Ted Cruz on Twitter)