An image of Mark Zuckerberg on an electric hydrofoil surfboard waving a US flag.
Mark Zuckerberg/Instagram
Not sure where to begin with this one so I guess the facts will have to do. On July 4 billionaire Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a video to his Instagram account. The video shows Mark Zuckerberg on what appears to be an electric hydrofoil surfboard just as the sun sets, American flag blowing in the breeze, while John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” plays.
Here’s the video for you to… enjoy?
I feel like social media has been collectively experiencing the four stages of grief as the video begins going viral — with over 500,000 views on both Instagram and Facebook within hours.
Denial came quickly: Zuckerberg must just be trolling us, surely? We’re all falling for it. He’s got us. (And he truly might, the meme potential of this image is so high that no billionaire social media mogul could post it without knowing there’d be thousands of articles discussing it — including this one.)
Many quickly moved on to the anger: Open up Twitter and you’ll find it has been relentlessly pilloried. It’s reaching “Zuckerberg with a face full of sunscreen” levels.
“I saw it, so now you have to see it too. I’m sorry,” wrote one user.
“This is the worst thing that has ever existed,” wrote another.
Another: “Do billionaires become incredibly weird because of the money, or do they become billionaires because they’re incredibly weird? Because what the hell is this?”
One user suggested the ocean would want to be set on fire, referring to the gas pipeline leak in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.
And “peak cringe,” probably sums it up.
Next, bargaining: What if this video is a deepfake? What if this is simply a robot in the image of Mark Zuckerberg?
Ultimately though, the stages of grief end in acceptance. We’ve come to that place quickly.
Happy Fourth of July!