Yeah, Twitter is great for keeping up with the news and your favorite bands or celebrities but that’s not the real reason we use Twitter. Sure, we tell everyone that’s why we use it. But really, we use Twitter to follow all of those goofy novelty accounts for their zeitgeisty humor, personification of inanimate objects, or weird and outlandish facts that will serve no purpose in the real world. And just when you think you have found them all, 10 more show up. The fun never ends!
In honor of the capture of Rusty, the National Zoo’s Red Panda, BYT’s first Novelty Twitter Account of the Week is Rusty the Red Panda (@RustyThePanda). This little dude has caused quite the stir in D.C. recently, and he knew it, tweeting all the way (which in retrospect probably only aided in his capture). During his rampage, he asked his followers for restaurant suggestions and defended his status as a species of panda (I mean come on, he looks more like a fox-raccoon hybrid, he doesn’t even resemble a panda). In response to the candid shots posted online of him scampering around Adams Morgan, he asked if his butt really looked like that (what a diva). He even gave numerous shout-outs to NBC 4’s quirky news reporter, Pat Collins, whom Rusty refers to as a “human panda.”
This isn’t the first time an escaped zoo animal entered the Twittersphere. The Bronx Zoo Cobra (@BronxZoosCobra) tweeted about his New York adventures in 2011, which is baffling due to his lack of limbs. He still tweets to this day about life in the zoo and his yearnings for mice-filled doughnuts. He even gave Rusty a shout-out:
Rusty’s Twitter account is still active after his capture but who knows for how long. I hear cellphone usage in the zoo is strictly monitored.
