Everything you need to know about Cinnamon Toast Shrimp Tails and Milkshake Ducks
A new word was coined in 2016 - and I'm just finding out about it
Greetings, friends!
I’m coming to your inbox a day early this week, because today’s story feels more appropriate for April Fool’s Day than Good Friday.
And though this story may seem like an April Fool’s Day joke, I assure you, it’s not.
This story is about the evolving English language, and how quickly people can get 15 minutes of fame - and a lifetime of infamy.
If you’re asking yourself what the heck cinnamon toast shrimp tails and milkshake ducks are, sit back as I share what I learned when I followed my curiosity…
Last Wednesday I sat down with a cup of coffee to read the morning news. I checked in with The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Times, BBC and then – the curator of so much of what’s happening in the world – twitter.
I am not much of a twitter user, but I do find out a surprising amount of breaking news (both serious and silly) from a site full of 280 character posts.
And this day provided me with a real gem of a story.
“The Curious Case of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Box” was the headline accompanying The New York Times story.
The story described how a 41-year-old comedian and writer in Los Angeles named Jensen Karp was pouring himself a bowl of his favorite cereal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, when ‘something plopped out of the box.’
“I picked it up,” he said, “and I was like, ‘This is clearly a shrimp tail.’”
This story started out strange, sure, but then it got weirder.
Karp shared a series of tweets, where he documented his correspondence with General Mills (maker of said breakfast cereal) and their responses – which told him he was wrong about the contents of the box. This led to a hilarious exchange of photos and messages, and the twitterverse jumped in with pictures framing Cap’n Crunch and suggesting a new cereal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch with shrimp.
Then a carcinologist (that’s a crustacean researcher) offered to help by running tests of the cereal contents. A lab then offered to run the tests for free. Karp shared photos of his box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch buckled up in the car on their way to the lab. It was fun and silly, and I laughed out loud reading some of the tweets made by Karp and others.
The story amused me so much I did something I rarely do – I tweeted about it – saying directly to Karp that I was sorry it happened to him, and that perhaps the consolation was how much entertainment his story was giving others.
Then the next morning, I was reminded why I don’t tweet.
I saw my tweet had a few likes – and one comment. It read:
“Wait until you start finding out about the way he’s been treating women all his life.
Maybe then you’ll feel less sorry for him.”
Uh-oh.
When I read Karp’s story I wanted him to be a sweet guy living out some Nancy Drew detective story of the sugar-coated shrimp. Instead, I discovered multiple posts from people who’ve dated or worked with Karp, accusing him of manipulative and emotionally abusive behavior.
One minute, the internet and I were celebrating the wackiness of Karp’s story, and the next minute...they were proclaiming him the latest milkshake duck.
Wait...what’s a milkshake duck?
The term ‘milkshake duck’ dates back to 2016, when Ben Ward, an Australian cartoonist who tweets from the handle @pixelatedboat, wrote:
Ward’s tweet went viral and the term ‘Milkshake Duck’ became a neologism that Oxford Dictionaries shortlisted for 2017’s Word of the Year. They defined ‘Milkshake Duck’ as:
A person or thing that initially inspires delight on social media but is soon revealed to have a distasteful or repugnant past.
One of the earliest examples of getting milkshake ducked (it can be used as a verb as well as a noun) was Ken Bone, whose offensive Reddit history overshadowed the human meme he and his red sweater became. Recent Milkshake Duck examples from 2021 include January’s Bean Dad and February’s Zoom cat lawyer.
Of course, the danger here is that any of us could be Milkshake Ducks. We may not have a history of offensive tweets or embarrassing social media posts, but who doesn’t have a former classmate, partner, or work colleague that would say something negative about them?
And what does this say about us as a society – that we hurry to lift people up, and then hurry just as quickly to pull them back down?
Even Ward recognized the danger of the term he created, writing in June 2017:
Is Jensen Karp a creep?
Did he make up the story of the cinnamon toast shrimp?
Will we ever find out what was in the cereal box?
He may not deserve any fame or notoriety from a box of cereal, but his story has certainly made me think…
And reminded me why I don’t tweet.
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To learn more about how I help people strengthen their communication, creativity, and leadership skills, check out my website.
Until next time!
-Beth