Internet Culture

Why don’t we have our d**ks out for Cecil the lion?

We must remember him.

Photo of Peter Bd

Peter Bd

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Love for Harambe does not seem to be waning in the slightest. After he died for our sins in May, it actually seemed that adoration for him got stronger as time went on. 

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Twitter users constantly show Harambe love as if he’s still here with us.

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Supporters on Reddit continue to pledge allegiance him.

Reddit

There are the annoying Harambe memes that show no sign of going away.

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Instagram

There’s this.

So as you can see, Harambe is probably the most famous dead animal in the world. But you know, there was another animal that died and got all the love and support before you were throwing roses at Harambe: Cecil the lion.

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https://twitter.com/I_AM_MIKEY_O/status/770988165536460800

Exactly. Everyone has Harambe’s names on their mouths like liquor, but it seems like we’ve all forgotten about the original ferocious wild animal that died at the hands of a dumb human. Cecil was everywhere before Harambe stole all the shine. 

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Cecil was basically the Tupac of deceased animals. For basically an entire year, the world was Cecil’s, and we were just living on it. But this all changed when Harambe decided that it was time to put an end to lions going viral. Harambe died such a heroic death that he made sure we’d be talking about him on social media for years to come.

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But what about Cecil? How can we just throw Cecil away when it was he who paved the way for Harambe to be put on this pedestal? How can we have our privates out for a gorilla when it was a lion who we initially had our privates out for?

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I guess the answer lies in our generally short attention spans and obsession with jumping onto the next exciting meme. Remember the Damn Daniel kid and the Arthur fist meme? Of course you don’t. News on the internet moves at the speed of light, and the thing that was hot five minutes ago will be just a memory five minutes later. Some people are even starting to ask some serious Harambe-related questions.

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reddit

So yes, while we as a human race are celebrating Harambe for the inspiring life that he lived, tomorrow there’s going to be a more relevant animal that we shed tears for. It might be Callistus the cabybara. It could be Pablo the polar bear. It very well may be Edna the zebra. And anyway, soon the animals who die of natural causes will supersede animals getting murdered, as that’s a way more authentic way to go out. The oldest living cockatoo just died the other day of natural causes.

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Your days of being part of the pop culture zeitgeist are numbered, Harambe. 

 
The Daily Dot