{"id":685,"date":"2016-08-01T19:27:35","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T18:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/?p=685"},"modified":"2020-12-17T09:50:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T09:50:27","slug":"tony-the-tiger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/tony-the-tiger\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony the Tiger has the strangest Twitter page imaginable."},"content":{"rendered":"

2020 update: Tony the Tiger no longer has a Twitter account. That’s not great. For more info, see this HuffPost article: “Was Tony The Tiger Driven Off Twitter By Unbelievably Horny Furries?<\/a>“<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tony the Tiger is a cultural icon. His raw animal ferocity exceeds the confines of the cereal box he appears on. His presence transcends mere association with the sugared corn flakes of which he was conceived.\"tony-the-tiger\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More accessible than Shere Khan. More renowned than The Tiger Who Came To Tea. Less annoying than Tigger. Sure, he’s looked different<\/a>\u00a0over the years, but he’s always been there for us, with his can-do attitude towards eating Frosties (Frosted Flakes in the US). Tony is the Tiger we deserve.<\/p>\n

So of course he has a Twitter account.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Tony the Tiger in the age of Twitter is a strange CGI creature who loves to play sports and eat cereals. Its content is\u00a0a weird mix\u00a0of healthy living advice and smashing back as many Frosties as possible at all times. But the account itself is decent: a solid\u00a0following-followers ratio, frequent tweets, he’s even verified. Yup, Twitter itself has given TtT a ringing endorsement: this tiger is the real deal.<\/p>\n

Here’s a recent tweet:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/realtonytiger\/status\/760108971462168576<\/p>\n

Ah, cleverly getting around IOC guidelines in advertising by saying “Summer Games” in place of “Olympics.” Tony, you savvy social marketer you. Prima facie, it appears that Tony is doing everything right.<\/p>\n

What a shame that Tony has an absolutely bizarre online following. Yup, we’re talking about frickin’ furries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yup, furries<\/a>. People who dress up as big furry creatures. The kind of people who went to go see Zootopia about ten times, even though they’re in their thirties. The kind of people who go to conventions with names like ANTHROCON and FURFEST. The kind of people who still go on DeviantArt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to be too harsh about them though. It’s just a lifestyle choice. To them, my heteronormative non-fursuit-centric exploits are probably some kind of freakish nightmare. We’re all just different. Only,\u00a0I<\/span> don’t sexualise a CGI tiger that sells cereal.<\/p>\n

You see, as detailed in gruelling detail by Gawker (RIP) in this<\/a>\u00a0article, furries have a strange attraction to Tony, sending him lurid messages on Twitter than can only be described as… NSFW. I\u00a0really<\/em> don’t want to put any\u00a0of them in this blog, just go check out the @realtonytiger<\/a> replies on Twitter if you really must see, but for illustrative purposes here’s one from the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n

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Squeeze my ass Daddy<\/p>\n

— iKonicArts Shitposts (@ikonicart55) July 31, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n