Overview

*Kelly Townsend's Furry Tweet refers to a tweet posted Arizona state Representative Kelly Townsend asking for a definition of what a "furry" is, which inspired various jokes and furry-themed fan art of Townsend on the social media platform in early May 2018.

Background

On May 4th, 2018, Townsend posted a tweet asking Twitter user @andreus wolf to "please educate me as to what a furry is" (shown below, left).

Developments

Online Reaction

On May 4th, Redditor Kitana37 submitted a post titled "Arizona Lawmaker Kelly Townsend Wants to Know What a Furry Is" to /r/politics.^[4]

The following day, Redditor Minifig81 submitted an article about the furry tweet to /r/nottheonion, ^[1] where it received upwards of 16,600 points (92% upvoted) and 1,400 comments within 48 hours.

Facebook Profile Picture

On May 5th, Twitter user @Meta_Artist tweeted an illustrated fursona of Townsend (shown below, left). That day, the Representative Kelly Townsend Facebook^[3] page changed its profile picture to the illustration of Townsend (shown below, right). Within 48 hours, the picture gained over 1,400 reactions, 1,300 shares and 660 comments. That day, a screenshot of the Facebook picture was submitted to the /r/arizona^[2] subreddit.

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the online reaction to the tweet, including AZcentral,^[5] Teen Vogue^[6] and HelloGiggles.^[7] The story was also covered by the brony news blog Horse News^[8] due to @Meta_Artist's affiliation with the brony community.

Search Interest

External References