FHK SitRep 12.06.07: The Legend of Oolong, the “Pancake Bunny”

So I saw this cute little bunny with a pancake on his head the other day on the web. Then I saw him somewhere else, and somewhere else, and pretty soon the pictures were multiplying like…well…bunnies with pancakes on their heads. So I had to find out what was going on. As it turns out, this phenomenon is a resurrection of an old one (from 2001-2003), known as the “Pancake Bunny.”

Syberpunk:

“The rabbit of this day was observed this way.” And so begins each entry in Oolong’s photo diary.

According to Oolong’s Wikipedia entry, Oolong (named after the tea) lived in Japan with his owner, and had a knack for “balancing” items on his head. His owner would take photos of him with various things on his head in different places, and post them to the internet, as a “photo journey“.

Oolong was even in the New York Times.

He became internationally famous on the web through e-mail and in discussion forums (see internet meme and viral), as people used his photo with the phrase, “I have no idea what you’re talking about…so here’s a bunny with a pancake on his head,” began circulating on the web as a way way to respond when you didn’t know what to say. How did it start? It seems no one knows for sure, but Urban Dictionary tells the story like this:

Patron saint of silence. During the apocalyse in which Clock Spider and limecat fought, the masses continued shouting praise and insults to the two until none of it made any sense. One defiant person shouted “I have no idea what you’re talking about so here’s a bunny with a pancake on its head.” Pancake bunny appeared, and the masses went silent. The war raged on…

Oolong died in 2003, but his legacy lives on in his inspirational photos.

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