Overview

Taco Bell Vigil was a mock vigil event held in March 2020 outside a recently closed Taco Bell near Penn State University. The vigil, organized by a Facebook user and Penn State student, was well attended and documented with various pictures and videos spreading across Facebook and Twitter.

Background

On February 25th, 2020, Facebook^[1] user Prajesh Patel created a public event called "Taco Bell Vigil" which would be on March 1st in front of the recently closed Taco Bell near Penn State University. The event received a response of 530 interested and 260 confirmed.

Spread

On March 1st, 2020, Twitter user @tymiller508 shared a video of students singing at the vigil with the caption, "RIP penn state Taco Bell" (shown below). The video garnered over 1.3 million views and 140 likes in a day.

That same night, Twitter user @OnwardState^[4] shared a photo from the vigil with the caption, "Dozens of students have gathered outside Taco Bell with candles for a vigil" (shown below, left). The tweet garnered over 1,500 likes and 240 retweets in a day. Many other Twitter users criticized the joke. For example, that night, Twitter user @Freddy_Facts^[5] tweeted, "Anyone else upset that our student body can go to a vigil to support a taco bell but didn't show up to the vigil for the man who was MURDERED BY THE POLICE!" which received over 370 likes and continued in the replies saying, "Hey it’s important to remember that the anniversary of Osaze Osagie’s death, during the week of March 19th the 3.20 coalition and Black Caucus will be putting on a week of events so make sure you support those!" (shown below, right).

The Daily Collegian^[2] and local news^[3] published articles on the story.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References