If you think your Thursday was bad, just bear this in mind: someone woke up, went to their job where they pretend to be Kellogg’s Frosties’ mascot Tony the Tiger on the internet, and had to ask people to stop sending them anthropomorphic animal porn.
I’m all for showing your stripes, feathers, etc. But let’s keep things gr-r-reat – & family-friendly if you could. Cubs could be watching 🙂
— Tony the Tiger (@realtonytiger) January 28, 2016
The clearly heartfelt plea to “keep things gr-r-reat” came about after an emotional few days for the “furry” community on Twitter.
The definition of the term “furry” is contested, even among furries themselves, but it usually refers to the fandom of people who identify with, roleplay as, and usually wear fursuits to mimic, anthropomorphised cartoon animals. It’s not a sex thing. At least, it’s not always a sex thing. Basically, if the suave Disney version of Robin Hood – who is a literal fox – spoke to you on a romantic level, you may appreciate where they’re coming from.
Of course, as an anthropomorphised cartoon animal, Tony the Tiger is the daddy of all furries, and so there’s a fair amount of artwork featuring him. This artwork is not always safe for work. It also seems fair to assume that Kellogg’s does not want its brand to be associated with – say – a picture of an extremely muscly Tony, naked save for his neckerchief, masturbating on an exercise bench.
So three days ago Kellogg’s started blocking the furries en masse. Even ones who weren’t posting porn. Even, it seems, ones who hadn’t even said anything to Tony on Twitter.
Some furries gave up tweeting at Tony and found a new hero. Where Tony the Tiger was apparently hostile to their fandom, Chester Cheetah, the anthropomorphic mascot of the Cheetos brand of cheese-esque cornmeal puffs, was much more welcoming, and ended up straight-up flirting with them:
@tallfuzzball Oh, I know I am but I always appreciate the compliment. 🔥
— Chester Cheetah (@ChesterCheetah) January 26, 2016
But some stayed with Tony, and essentially ended up DDoSing the account with complaints about the blocking, requests for sex and a lot of porn.
And so, on Thursday, came the plea from Tony that: “Cubs could be watching.” The porn hasn’t fully stopped, but for the past day the rate of posting has declined somewhat.
Which is, I guess, gr-r-reat.
