2016·The platform era·funny
Milkshake Duck
An imaginary duck that named a real pattern, and then the pattern happened to everybody.
You might remember it as lovely duck that drinks milkshakes
A saying
This Moment began as a post on social media, not as a video upload. Originally published on Twitter.
- SourceNot an upload originally
- MediaNot held by ViralWorld
What this was
On 12 June 2016 the Australian cartoonist Ben Ward, posting as pixelatedboat, wrote a tweet in the form of a news cycle compressed to two sentences: the whole internet loves a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes, and then, five seconds later, we regret to inform you the duck is racist. There is no duck. There was never a duck.
It first appeared in 2016, during the platform era.
It named something that had no name and immediately became the only available word for it: the ordinary person elevated to universal affection by a viral post and then, within days, found to have a history that ends the affection. Ward has said the joke was partly prompted by watching it happen to the Chewbacca Mask Lady.
Milkshake Duck became a verb, was shortlisted by Australia's Macquarie Dictionary as its word of the year for 2017, and is now standard vocabulary in writing about online fame and the machinery around it. Its author remains best known for a bird that does not exist.
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Grouped by explicit relationships where evidence exists, and by shared theme otherwise.
Behind the recordWhere it came from
There is no original upload to identify: this Moment did not begin as one. ViralWorld holds no copy of it either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is the record.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This Moment began as a post on social media, not as a video upload. Originally published on Twitter.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
- What happens
- On 12 June 2016 the Australian cartoonist Ben Ward, posting as pixelatedboat, wrote a tweet in the form of a news cycle compressed to two sentences: the whole internet loves a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes, and then, five seconds later, we regret to inform you the duck is racist. There is no duck. There was never a duck.
- When
- The sources below date the original to 2016-06-12. ViralWorld records this as a cited claim rather than an established publication date, because it holds no copy to check it against.