Save Toby (2005)

added Sep 03, 2009 at 03:28AM UTC

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This entry has been rejected from inclusion in the Internet Meme Database due to incompleteness or lack of notability.
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About

Save Toby is website made by two East coast college students, who have threatened to eat a small rabbit named Toby unless they receive $50,000.

“On June 30, 2005, Toby will die. I am going to eat him. God as my witness, I will devour this little guy unless I receive $50,000 into my account.”

Apparently, the two webmasters found an injured rabbit outside of their home, and nursed it back to health. Unable to pay for the care for the rabbit, they formed Savetoby.com. The website gained attention from animal lovers and On 2005-04-11, NBC Nightly News made a report about the unfortunate situation.

It gained so much attention, that the owners of the rabbit were able to sign a book deal with Kensington Publishing.

Hoax

There are pieces of evidence that show that Save Toby was a hoax. The donations counter at the bottom of the page was an imitation, and was altered to give the appearance that money was being sent. While there is actual merchandise, the site never gained as much money as projected.

Elsewhere

Snopes

Save Toby

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10 Comments

Jostin Asuncion
Sep 03, 2009 at 03:41AM UTC , Jostin Asuncion wrote:

What a story…

Are there any forms of derivatives, though? I don’t think this is memetic enough as is. It needs more info about its memetic spread and examples of mutations.

Frketson
Sep 03, 2009 at 03:50AM UTC , Frketson wrote:

Classic Toby, always getting himself into crazy situations.

Chris Menning
Sep 03, 2009 at 04:36AM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

You forgot to mention the part about the site being a hoax and that the rabbit was never in any real danger, and that no one actually donated any money.
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/savetoby.asp

Cooper Smith
Sep 03, 2009 at 11:44AM UTC , Cooper Smith wrote:

Woah! I completely missed that!

Rofle Coptere
Sep 03, 2009 at 03:06PM UTC , Rofle Coptere wrote:

There are a couple of other “save the rabbit” sites, like Save Bernd and Save Fluffy,

Cooper Smith
Sep 03, 2009 at 09:01PM UTC , Cooper Smith wrote:

Did a little rewrite. Better?

Chris Menning
Sep 04, 2009 at 01:22AM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

Yes this is better. But I’m not quite sure that we can call this a meme just yet.

I noticed in the Snopes article that the bunny involved in this hoax has gone by a few different names over the years.

Let’s try to gather some information about the other instances of this hoax. If it turns out that different people were pulling the same hoax, then it’s a definite meme. If it turns out that it was the same person pulling the prank multiple times, then we’ll have to look for other kinds of derivatives in order to classify it as a meme.

Chris Menning
Sep 04, 2009 at 07:10AM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

Here’s the original Save Bernd page, from the year prior.
http://www.krohm.net/bernd.htm
This one was created by a photographer named Chris Kohm who made no effort to hide his identity. The anonymous guys behind the Save Toby site basically took this guy’s idea. They also created Save Fluffy at the same time.

Keyboard Cat
Oct 05, 2009 at 07:07PM UTC , Keyboard Cat wrote:

Cooper Smith
Dec 05, 2009 at 10:59PM UTC , Cooper Smith wrote:

Oops. I’m a little unobservant. I just noticed this article was deadpooled, and that there might have been more info on it.

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