This Guy Went Viral For Finding A Rubber Duck On His Jeep & Canadians Might Get It
Here's what it means! 🦆
A rubber duck on a Jeep. Right: Dan Machholz next to a Jeep with a duck.
A rubber ducky and a Jeep might seem like a random pairing, but there's a good story behind it.
Okay so, it's actually still random, but leaving the yellow toy on a Jeep is actually a popular thing that started in Canada. One B.C. man wasn't in the know about the quirky (and quacky?) trend though, so took to Twitter to help solve the mystery of the rubber duck on his car.
Dan Machholz posted a picture of the mystery duck sitting on his Jeep mirror, clearly confused.
\u201cSo I was at the beach this afternoon and when I got back to my Jeep I saw this\u2026does anyone know if this means something? Did I just get invited to an underground club?\u201d— Dan Machholz (@Dan Machholz) 1684113732
The tweet has amassed over 48,000 views in just a few days, and some pretty solid replies.
\u201c@DanMachholz First rule of Duck Club....\ud83d\udc24\u201d— Dan Machholz (@Dan Machholz) 1684113732
While some people just told Machholz it's just "a Jeep thing," others provided a bit more clarity.
\u201c@DanMachholz You\u2019ve been ducked, Jeep ducking was kicked off by Canadian woman Allison Parliament back in 2020. After a bad encounter with an angry stranger left her feeling down, she decided to cheer herself up by buying a bag of rubber ducks and leaving one with a note on a stranger's Jeep\u201d— Dan Machholz (@Dan Machholz) 1684113732
People replying to Machholz referred to it as getting "ducked," and it turns out the rumour of it starting in Canada has some legs to it.
The Official Ducking Jeep Est2020 Facebook group has 73,600 members and tells the story of Canadian ducking.
"Creator Allison Parliament founded Duck Duck Jeep in Ontario Canada after a crazy experience left her wanting to spread kindness, because the world was on fire and not in a good way," the group description says.
"She took a tiny rubber duck, left it on a Jeep and got caught doing it. We’ve taken the kindness we’ve created and turned it into something amazing."
From Canadian roots, the rubber ducking has spread.
In 2020, CTV News reported that the trend had made it to at least 14 countries. Allison Parliament told the news outlet that she was in awe over how many people were playing.
Parliament echoed the story told on The Official Ducking Jeep Facebook group page and said that she was harassed when she came home to Canada in 2020, from where she lived in the U.S., because of her American license plates.
In response, she planted a yellow rubber duck on the stranger's car, who was a fellow Jeep owner. After posting a photo with the hashtag, #duckduckjeep, the rest was history!
Machholz isn't about to let this trend die either. He said on Twitter that he was "excited about finding a Jeep to duck now."
It looks like he kept his promise!
\u201cBoom \ud83d\udca5 - consider yourself \u201cDucked\u201d #Jeep #Ducklife #wedoNOTtalkaboutducklife #Penticton\u201d— Dan Machholz (@Dan Machholz) 1684200170