Shutterstock / Enessa Varnaeva
I’ve never heard the term ‘Milkshake Duck’ until last week. I have, however, seen the ‘Milkshake Duck’ phenomenon play out in the public eye countless times over the past few years.
If like me, you’ve never heard the term ‘Milkshake Duck’ then you’re not alone. The Macquarie Dictionary from Australia named it as their 2017 ‘Word of the Year’ and Twitter pretty much lost it shit. Why? Well, nobody had ever heard of it before. Also, the term ‘Milkshake Duck’ was invented by popular Twitter user @pixelatedboat back in the Summer of 2016.
The word is used to describe someone who sees overnight fame on social media before the public finds skeletons in their closet and the public turns on that person within days for actually being a sketchy person.
The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) June 12, 2016
The wait is finally over and our Word of the Year can be revealed! It's also your chance to vote for your #WordoftheYear -> https://t.co/X2BVNJjBG2 pic.twitter.com/jliasItKjL
— Macquarie Dictionary (@MacqDictionary) January 14, 2018
Word of the Year? Sure. We needed a term to describe the Ken Bone’s of the world after they become famous overnight only to find that there’s a cache of weird content and comments hidden on their Reddit account.
Twitter Moments was torn on whether or not this should’ve been the Word of the Year. Mostly because most people had never heard of it before. But some people were pretty enthusiastic about why this was the perfect choice for 2017 Word of the Year:
https://twitter.com/relsqui/status/948858370483666944
Think of the most beautiful words the English language has to offer: mellifluous, limerence, ethereal, crepuscular. Then think of Milkshake Duck.
— Smita Jamdar 💙 🇺🇦 @smitajamdar@mastodon.online (@smitajamdar) January 14, 2018
🤔 I used lots of words in 2017, but ‘milkshake duck’ wasn’t one of them. 🥛 🦆 https://t.co/dViK9kIuZ9
— Elizabeth Bardwell (@Liz_Bardwell) January 14, 2018
Aussie dictionaries are trying to outdo each other on selecting words of the year nobody has ever heard of.
Today Macquarie Dictionary has chosen 'milkshake duck.'
This follows @ozworders selecting 'kwaussie.'
Anyone heard #milkshakeduck before today?— Gary Nunn 🏳️🌈🚴🏼🇬🇧🇦🇺 (@GaryNunn1) January 14, 2018
https://twitter.com/kirstenaiken/status/952658413149863936
"We all now recognise this phenomenon which is only possible in the world of the internet where someone is picked up from obscurity and given tremendous media fame, then instantly dropped again… when they’re found to be not as desirable as they first seem." – Sue Butler
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) January 14, 2018
https://twitter.com/CaseyBriggs/status/952659737094578178
https://twitter.com/jackdawsuperfan/status/952659868212715520
Milkshake Duck is here to stay. It’s a term we needed and now we have it in the English dictionary. Anyone hating on this phrase hasn’t spent enough time watching people gain overnight fame in the media only to be discovered as closeted racists or bigots. It happens like once a month these days and Milkshake Duck is the term we needed to describe it. Shout out to @pixelatedboat for making this all happen.