A house cat has become a social media phenomenon, after a local news network had been reporting about a large cougar on the prowl.
On Fox 13 last week (Friday, October 13), reporter Scott Madaus was out in the field attempting to spot a cougar. It had been sighted roaming near the town of Hernando, Mississippi, obviously a cause for concern.
However, as the news cut to Madaus, he hilariously appeared to suggest a common house cat in the grass nearby was the cougar. The mad man!
“I'm Scott Madaus, live in Hernando, Mississippi, where there have been spottings of a cougar," he said. "And that's not it, that looks like a house cat."
Here’s the Pulitzer-winning moment in all its glory.
The Internet’s reaction was to go nuts. People were lapping up the fact that it said “LARGE CAT SPOTTED” under the cat (which was just regularly sized!), and also loved the delivery of Madaus.
Here are some of those reactions.
Okay, it was kind of funny. But, gasp, there’s a twist. Because while it looks like this may have been one of those accidental comedic timing things that never happen always happen, it was actually scripted. No! Say it ain’t so.
Yes, speaking to BuzzFeed News, Madaus said he had spotted the cat while preparing to go live with a segment on the cougar. He called his producer and said to cut to him quickly, so that he could tease the story to the viewers.
“It had come out from this brush from underneath a tree and it was just standing there, staring at me, and I thought how ironic is this that we're doing a story about a 100-pound-plus possible cougar and here's this small, little house cat," he said.
As for what happened to the actual cougar, well, that’s not too clear. There doesn’t seem to have been any reports of it going on any sort of killing spree, however, so that’s good.
If anything, this story just serves as a reminder that everything funny is fake. Except for Trump being President. That is very real.
Bet you didn’t think I could get a Trump dig in this story, eh.
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