Walrus or Fairy Debate

Submission 16,222

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About

The Walrus or Fairy Debate is a viral debate started by Tumblr user baddywronglegs that asks whether you would be more surprised to find a walrus or a fairy at your doorstep. The debate was started in mid-February 2024 via a viral poll asking which participants would be more surprised by, with "walrus" winning out by a substantial margin. The debate inspired numerous responses, as well as memes and fan art, including artwork depicting walrus-fairy hybrids.

Origin

On February 19th, 2024, Tumblr^[1] user baddywronglegs posted a poll asking users whether they would be more surprised to find a walrus or a fairy on their doorstep, writing, "It is the middle of a Sunday afternoon. You have nothing on, and aren't expecting visitors, deliveries or post. Unexpectedly, there is a knock at the door." The poll gained over 110,000 notes and 165,000 responses in around two weeks, with "walrus" winning at roughly 80 percent of the vote (shown below).

Spread

The debate continued on Tumblr over the following weeks, also inspiring fan art and content. On February 25th, 2024, Tumblr^[2] user cycas posted a piece of artwork showing a person opening the door for both a fairy and a walrus, garnering over 3,900 notes in five days (shown below).

That same day, Tumblr^[3] user curiositypolling posted a new poll asking the same question but with more options, asking users whether or not they believe in fairies or magic and if that would alter their choice (shown below, left). The poll garnered over 48,000 responses and the walrus option won in both scenarios, whether the recipient believed in fairies and magic or not. The results of the chart were broken down into pie charts by baddywronglegs as a response to the post (shown below, right).

On February 26th, Tumblr^[4] user prokopetz posted his opinion on the debate, claiming he'd be more surprised by the walrus regardless of his beliefs because "a fairy knocking on my door means I’ve made one bad assumption about how the world works; a walrus knocking on my door – in Saskatchewan, in February – means I’m wrong about a great many things," garnering over 14,000 notes in four days (shown below, left). Later that day, Tumblr^[5] user yaldabaothadeez posted a poem about the debate in the style of Edgar Allan Poe, garnering over 50,000 notes in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On February 27th, 2024, Redditor u/NightmareChameleon made two posts to /r/CuratedTumblr^[6]^[7] sharing long-form screenshots of the debate, garnering over 6,000 upvotes and 900 upvotes respectively in three days. On February 28th, Redditor u/AngstyUchiha posted the Poe-style poem to /r/CuratedTumblr,^[8] garnering over 2,100 upvotes in two days.

That day, Tumblr^[9] user icarus-suraki posted a meme about the scenario that gained over 14,000 notes in two days (shown below).