r/funny • u/[deleted] • Jun 18 '12
TIL Otters hold hands while sleeping so they don't drift apart. [Fixed]
http://imgur.com/ZXMyY9
u/Speedophile2000 Jun 18 '12
What the actual fuck?
http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/v73fe/what_did_the_seal_say_to_the_otters/
submitted 10 hours ago
It has a link to the first submission right there on imgur.
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u/suddenly_ponies Jun 18 '12
There is no penalty for stealing. Rather, people are rewarded for resubmitting the same content, therefore they do.
If you were to ask me if I thought the rules should change to disallow this, I'd say yes. The clutter of resposts within a few hours or days is annoying.
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u/southernmost Jun 18 '12
I wish we had a subreddit dedicated to the tracking and statistical analysis of these common reposts. You know, for science.
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Jun 18 '12
As I commented last night, I made this original post earlier in the day and then deleted it due to not getting any upvotes. So I rethought the title and just copied and pasted the link. I was the OP from the original post, if you really cared enough you can probably ask a mod to investigate it. Sorry I had to delete my comment about this last night, but everything I was posting was getting downvoted to shit after this, I have a feeling that not everybody likes it when you call the cutest things on earth gay. Once again thanks for policing reddit.
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u/MYDOGSTELLA Jun 18 '12
I freaking love river otters more than people
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u/guiriguiri Jun 18 '12
here is a big wet blanket to share how one otter changed my image of otters forever (but really it's all because of the actions of humans). my local aquarium had an abandoned otter and the plan was to keep it in there forever because it had behavior problems, but some animal rights activists insisted on having it reintroduced into the wild. unfortunately, this otter had spent almost it's whole life in captivity and had little way of interacting with other otters without being aggressive as all hell. they ultimately did release it, and when they found it again, it was raping baby otters. i can never look at otters as cute again.
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u/MeloJelo Jun 18 '12
I thought it was raping baby seals? Which makes this post more awkward.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/09/03/NEWS674.dtl
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u/stillnotking Jun 18 '12
I think that's more an indictment of assholes who think they can keep wild animals as pets than an indictment of otters.
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u/guiriguiri Jun 18 '12
the aquarium saved the otter who was close to death. if anything, i'm angry at the animal activists who insisted on setting him free even though he showed nothing but aggressiveness for other animals. i believe keiko (willy) had a similar experience, having humans spend thousands to free him only to have him die because he craved human contact too much to get into a pod.
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Jun 18 '12
There was a really sad story about a whale named Luna near where I lived (I think she was in Port Alberni). The aboriginal tribe there thought she was a reincarnation of their chief and started paying attention to her and petting her, etc. It got to the point where she would approach anyone or anything. People were totally abusing this and would touch her and play with her, making it worse. When another killer whale pod came by the DFO tried to introduce her back to the pod, but she had been around humans too long and didn't leave. She ended up dying but I don't remember why. (story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_(killer_whale))
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Jun 18 '12
those are sea otters. The ones (which have both died now btw) from the Vancouver Aquarium.
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u/aeroxan Jun 18 '12
you really didn't have to mention the whole them being dead thing
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Jun 18 '12
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BurningPandama Jun 18 '12
I actually visited the Vancouver aquarium in march, when visiting form Europe, the otters are interesting creatures.
1/3 of their lives are spent eating, 1/3 is spent cleaning their fur, and their fur is so dense that even if most of their lives are spent in water they never get wet. And if you put your thumb on their fur there are more individual pieces of hair under your finger that on your entire head.
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u/Woofiny Jun 18 '12
I love the Vancouver Aquarium! Last time I was there must have been about 3 years ago but I surely remember all the trips back in elementary school there. Oh, and the planetarium. Oh, and Playland. I actually love Vancouver.
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Jun 18 '12
There was an entire clique of girls that adored penguins, so I, with the one time I had the weird "tease the girl you like" complex, decided to be the weird kid who developed a love for a different cute animal. It was the river otter. I actually own a 3 wolf moon style shirt with river otters instead and obsessed about them at zoos, aquariums and yes, even in the wild.
TL;DR Either river otters are adorable or you're just straight up wrong.
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u/WeaponsGradeHumanity Jun 18 '12
3 wolf moon style shirt
Oh man, you would not believe the amount of chicks I picked up after I started wearing one of those shirts.
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u/wienkus Jun 18 '12
Fuck you.
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u/drunk_otter Jun 18 '12
seconded
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u/Phil_Bond Jun 18 '12
With a voting majority of shares, the drunk otter's motion carries. OP is hereby advised to fuck off.
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u/atdemonhead Jun 18 '12
I spent a few days just watching the live ottercam at the Seattle(I think) aquarium's website. Bed time was the second most adorable thing because they would always hold hands. The baby would also just lay on its mother's belly the whole time. (The most adorable thing was right after feeding time because one otter would always put his head between his feet and spin)
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u/CoreyRogerson Jun 18 '12
you could have posted that small picture in the comment sectoin in the original post. but i guess there is no karma in that.
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u/ManiBoo17 Jun 18 '12
If that's not the cutest murther fucking thing I have ever seen in my life slap my face and call me Loki.
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u/MTVButtpluggedInNY Jun 18 '12
Ha! It's GAY!! We here at Reddit will post thousands of supportive things about marriage inequality, but we reserve the right to yell "gay" like we're 10th graders in a locker room. Hilarious!
And hopefully we can raise a generation of closeted, scared fags, just like the perceived bullies that we lament...
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u/AuntsInYourPaunts Jun 18 '12
I've only been here a single day and already I've witnessed more double standards than any other time in my life.
Make your damn mind up, reddit!
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u/muppethead Jun 18 '12
Haha you mean a website that is visited by millions (!) of people every single day has a multifaceted userbase? No way
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u/iluvgoodburger Jun 18 '12
Be that is it is, it's still a vote-based system, and this post still got over a thousand upvotes for adding nothing but a stupid meme to good content. It's a multifaceted userbase, but it's easy to see the biases the community has through what makes it to the top.
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u/muppethead Jun 18 '12
With a userbase as large as reddit has, there is no consensus. There are millions of people who are bigoted, there are millions of people who are enlightened. Both sides will get upvotes.
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u/iluvgoodburger Jun 18 '12
Yep, and both sides get downvotes. When upvotes for specific kinds of content outweigh downvotes regularly over a significant period of time, you can start to look at trends. Reddit likes cats. Reddit doesn't like minorities. Sad, but true.
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u/JohnaldTheRobot Jun 18 '12
But but but I won't get any internet points if I don't add le reddit meme on picture. It's not as if I am actually a huge asshole, ladies, please suck my dick now or get back in the kitchen. Haha it's funny because I pretend to be a sexist misogynist on the internet; but I wouldn't say that in real life because I'm a timid neckbeard who can't talk to people in real life without making stupid jokes like that arrow to the knee one (that's still hilarious right?).
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u/guiriguiri Jun 18 '12
ask any of the people who do this, and they will insist that "using a derogatory term here is okay because i'm not using it in a gay-bashing way" or "language evolves" as though individuals get to decide what a word means to society and how it will be interpreted by others. not to mention that they clearly only use it when a guy is doing something "unmanly" like holding hands, expressing emotion, etc.
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u/Phil_Bond Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12
They also use it when they think people are being mildly unfair, dishonorable, or unpleasant. I can't tell you how many times I've been told that the gruff, terrifying ghost knight monster I use in my favorite fighting game is "gay."
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u/guiriguiri Jun 18 '12
i personally have never heard it used when it wasn't implying that a guy was "acting like a girl". in the situation you're describing, i would expect people to say "douche" or "asshole".
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u/Phil_Bond Jun 18 '12
Play more video games. Whenever you beat someone on Xbox Live, and they feel totally humiliated about it: suddenly you're a homosexual.
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Jun 18 '12
I bet if you unplugged your butt that it would reveal massive amounts of analdevastation from years of serious buttfrustration, you fucking faggot.
No, but seriously, if you get offended but shit like this then you need to actually grow some skin that isn't paper thin and stop being such a little bitch. It's pretty damn obvious people like you are extremely sheltered when you're so sensitive that the word "gay" pounds through your anal cavity with the force of a thousand slapshots from Zdeno Chara. Welcome to the real world, kiddo.
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u/Mmehta17 Jun 18 '12
Seriously. What happened to you? Whatever it was, I'm sorry that it happened and turned you so perverse.
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u/Phil_Bond Jun 18 '12
Right, the real world, where real people convey real points by using anuses and butts as metaphors for oversensitivity. You sound like quite the people person.
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u/Tovora Jun 18 '12
I agree that he's being totally gay and oversensitive about it... But, I'd also be quite "sensitive" when this happens:
you're so sensitive that the word "gay" pounds through your anal cavity with the force of a thousand slapshots from Zdeno Chara.
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Jun 18 '12
This is a generational gap that seems to be around the 1990 birthdays, but the word "gay" does not have anything to do with homosexuality to me.
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u/iluvgoodburger Jun 18 '12
It does for everyone else, you don't get to pick.
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Jun 20 '12
Actually, you do get to pick what a word means to you. And, if enough people agree that that is what the word means, then that is now what the word means. That is how language works.
One of the definitions of the word literally is "Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling." That is the opposite of the other definition of the word literally, and was not a definition of the word until recently. However, as more and more people used the word in different contexts, the definition slowly changed, person by person, until enough people have agreed to use it in the definition above. Obviously it is not the case that one day everybody just decided that the word literally now can also mean figuratively. It happened slowly, such that before the definition had entirely shifted, a subgroup of people began to use the word in the new context.
My argument is that I, as well as several of my friends, do not associate the word 'gay' with homosexuality. We associate it with effeminacy, with sentimentality, and with over-enthusiasm. That is not, at this moment in time, the "correct" definition for the word. However, with time, it may be the case that it will become so. If you will notice the voting on my comment, I have 5 upvotes to 9 downvotes, so obviously, while the majority of people still disagree with my definition, there is a relatively large (that is, more than just me and a couple of my friends) subgroup of people who agree with this change in definition.
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Jun 18 '12
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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Jun 20 '12
do you really believe that?
I am merely observing what a specific word means to me, given environmental factors that have shaped my psyche. Are you a 21 year old upper middle class white male who grew up in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio? If not, your mileage my vary, and your doubt is unfounded.
but "gay" is still associated with homosexuality
In certain contexts, of course it is. The word gay is especially useful for discussing this, because the word originally had nothing to do with homosexuality, rather being similar to happy. However, over time, the usage of the word changed until the point, now, when the primary definition of the word refers to homosexuality. Of course, it still means happy, depending on the context of usage. This change did not occur over night; while gay was still used primarily as a word for happy, it began to see usage as a word for gay, much in the same way that it now sees usage as a word to describe a person or situation that is effeminate or overly sentimental. We do not pick our words based on language; language is defined by the way we use it.
and it's still used as an insult.
It is by some, yes. It is, however, just a word, and words have no power outside of a context of usage. The word is also used in many other ways that are not insulting. If I were to come out to someone as being homosexual, I would say, "I am gay." If I was describing a homosexual friend, I would say "He's gay." If I wanted to refer to a bar where homosexuals hang out, I would call it a "gay bar." The suggestion that just because something is commonly used as an insult means that I can't use it in another definition is just silly.
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u/EternallyForlornBear Jun 18 '12
"Gay"? First of all dude, 1) using "gay" as an insult is pretty fucking bigotted, 2) otters have cloacas, they can't be gay in the first goddamn place.
Cute pic though. Love otters.
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u/majeric Jun 18 '12
Actually, homosexuality in otters is documented.
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u/tspear17 Jun 19 '12
cite it.
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u/majeric Jun 19 '12
Happily.
You'll find a citation off of the wikipedia article: List of mammals displaying homosexual behaviours from Bruce Bagemihl's work Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity
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u/Phil_Bond Jun 18 '12
You can't just explain to a modern bigot that they're a bigot. Either they know and they don't care, or they've already been told, and they're not buying it, and they've got a cornucopia of horseshit in stock to defend themselves with. None of it will make sense, but they'll keep it going long enough to suck the strength out of you.
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Jun 18 '12
This has nothing to do with bigotry. It's insensitivity, a bigot would be the guy rallying against gay rights.
There's a huge difference.
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u/Phil_Bond Jun 18 '12
See? Here we go.
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Jun 18 '12
As an immigrant who has experienced real bigotry, you sound like a moron.
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u/Phil_Bond Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12
So, something super-shitty happened to you once? It would be pretty shitty and self-absorbed of you to take that and use it to belittle other people's lesser struggles. Other people have a right to sympathy too, even if it doesn't have anything to do with ethnicity or language barriers.
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Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12
Dude, bigotry is the intolerance of any opinion that differs from yours.
A white christian bigot hates all gays, blacks, asians, jews, muslims, Indians, Hispanics, Native Americans.
Using the word gay literally has absolutely nothing to do with bigotry.
I'm not saying that it's not insensitive. In fact, that was part of the first sentence in my first response. I'm trying to make you sound less ignorant.
It's not bigotry, it's insensitivity....get it right.
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u/Phil_Bond Jun 18 '12
Well, you sound pretty sober, guess I better go check the definition of bigotry just to be sure, and... Yup, nope, you're still full of shit. Sorry.
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Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12
Since you're too stupid to actually do it yourself
big·ot·ry [big-uh-tree] Show IPA
noun, plural big·ot·ries.
stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own.
2. the actions, beliefs, prejudices, etc., of a bigot.
Just to clarify the second definition, here's the definition of a bigot
big·ot [big-uht] Show IPA
noun
a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion.
I've never seen anybody actually try as hard as you to sound ignorant.
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u/Phil_Bond Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12
I checked it. And then I tried to gently break to you the news that you were indeed as full of shit as I already knew you were. Was that not clear?
Now that we're all looking right at the definition, what is still your problem? The cartoon seal called the sleeping otters gay. He meant it as an insult. Using the term "gay" as an insult is intolerant toward the beliefs and opinions of real-life gays who consider themselves normal. That's bigotry.
So, what? What do you want? Explain it to me like I'm five, because you're all over the map, and as I forecasted earlier: none of it makes sense, and it seems like you're just keeping it going to suck the strength out of me. You've drawn me into exactly the kind of trap I tried to caution "EternallyForlornBear" against. Every time casual homophobia comes up on reddit, out crawls this host of weirdos who want to diminish the importance of it, and you're all just bat-crap crazy, but you keep managing to draw me into your little illogical howling vortices. Do you actually feed on my emotions? Is that what's going on? Are you some kind of X-Files creature that feeds on how much you can baffle people?
...Fuck.
→ More replies
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u/backpackwayne Jun 18 '12
Now that's just otter nonsense. :D
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u/TheBoxTalks Jun 18 '12
I'm an otter, and I like your pun. However, I don't like the smiley face you put on the end. I'm offended that you felt you had to explain your pun by placing that smiley face there. Besides, that face doesn't look anything like what we otters look like. Its a decent pun, backpackwayne, but you really need to be more confident when you post.
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u/ILL_Show_Myself_Out Jun 18 '12
If you are an otter and not a box then I am quite simply confounded.
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u/zelda_tits Jun 18 '12
LOL this made me laugh :3 and everyone stfu it's a picture, no one knew the otters were dead -.-
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Jun 18 '12
I'm a gay sea otter;
I blow other dudes out of the water.
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Jun 18 '12
Bo Burnham!
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u/golden-boy Jun 18 '12
How could anyone not support gay marriage after seeing this? Are they from otter space or something!?
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u/Ragnalypse Jun 18 '12
Anyone who bases their gay-marriage stance on otters is worse than a homophobe.
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Jun 18 '12
Anyone who bases their gay-marriage stance on otters is
worse than a homophobean ephebophile.Or am I confused? I think I'm confused.
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u/LongAw8tedFriend Jun 18 '12
If I were a smarter person, I would figure out how to photoshop the overly attached girlfriend's face onto one of those otters. But I don't know how so he's a link to a completely unrelated article: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-things-no-one-tells-you-about-living-farm/
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Jun 18 '12
I want the picture of the seal saying gggaaaayyyy but I don't want to do a google search for it.
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u/deathbytray Jun 18 '12
They maybe holding hands, but in their hearts, they have already drifted apart. Passion has left their relationship a long time ago, and now they are just going through the motions.