I still hold that I have a shred of humanity, or a soul, because my first thought was "Oh no! Bunny!", but then I opened the article and read it. I was still sad when I saw his photo; such a cute little bunny. The first sentence threw me. Really? You compare him to James Dean? And then by the fourth paragraph I noticed an evil smirk on my face. By the fifth paragraph I was stifling snorts of laughter and had lost all control. By the time I got to "has been frozen and may be stuffed and put on display" there were tears.
I did pull myself together, and remind myself this was an awful story. I regained composure while I told myself if I had smooshed a bunny, or seen one squished on the road I would be sad. Then I started to read the comments to the story, and there were two camps of people; first the people railing that this was not real news and what was NPR doing, and the second was people genuinely upset and explaining that this story had ruined their day.
And then I burst out laughing all over again.
I don't know why. I tried to rationalize my reaction to the story of an ear-less bunny being smooshed and immediately this came to mind.
From Jack Handy:
The king threw back his head and laughed. He enjoyed a good laugh, and so did his wife, the queen. When she saw the king laughing she let out a big laugh too. In fact, she laughed so hard she broke her throne. This made them both laugh harder. Then they got serious when they remembered they had the plague. "The plague," said the king, but the way he said it made them both burst out laughing again.
My attempt to justify myself is thus - sometimes when things are really shitty - you have to laugh, or else you'd cry. Now - I don't know where an ear-less zoo bunny being squashed falls on continuum of "Pretty Shitty to REALLY Shitty". I just know that inappropriate laughter can be a form of coping. (Or that could just be me).
As to the two camps of commentators, NPR is a news source like any other. They are not a gold standard and above all types of news. Why people hold them up as such a sterling untouchable journalistic strong-hold I'm not sure. As to the people who had their day "ruined" by a dead bunny story, REALLY?! REALLY! can I borrow your life? Where the most awful thing you have to face in a day is a news article that was clearly labeled that it was not going to end well for the rabbit? REALLY?!
But it is kind of funny to picture this giant lumbering German photographer (mine was named Claus and he vas vearing a trench coat) among a small group of people in a zoo. There are gasps and coos of delight at the ear-less wonder, and then there is a gasp of horror and Claus looks up confused - why is everyone staring at him? Hey where is the bunny?
COMEDY GOLD!
Anyway - I can smell the sulfur from here. I am going to hell. I won't argue with you if you call my a heartless bitch.
In other hellacious news - I have purchased Cards Against Humanity. You know, in case my handbasket wasn't already secured. It's a good day to not be an ear-less bunny in Germany, just remember that kids.
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