Like students teetering on the brink of giggling during a serious school lecture, people on the internet can’t seem to contain themselves over a seemingly innocuous detail from a serious news update regarding the well-being of Chinese Olympic tennis athlete Peng Shuai.
It all seems to stem from a post made by CNN on Twitter Wednesday declaring that “Long-time International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound has said that the ‘unanimous conclusion’ by those on a call with Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai is that she is ‘fine.'”
The very serious and mature people who haunt Twitter surprisingly didn’t make Peng herself trending on the social media site. Instead, people were obsessed with the schoolyard-level humor found in the Olympic Committee member’s name: Dick Pound.
Despite all the roasting on Twitter, the story itself is quite serious. It revolves around worry among the international community over the well-being of Peng, who has accused former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. Peng made the accusation against Zhang that he coerced her into sex at his home in a now-deleted social media post with accompanying screenshots.
She seemingly disappeared from public view following the accusation, prompting many to wonder about her well-being using the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai. The matter became so serious that the European Union even demanded that China release verifiable proof that Peng is safe and also conduct a thorough investigation into the accusations.
We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on all the latest Twitter trends when and as they come.