“Black llama in custody; white lama still on the loose” was among the captions Fox used to update viewers who just joined the surreal broadcast, which included Shepherd Smith deftly narrating the action.
— Mashable (@mashable) February 26, 2015
“Now that black llama and white llama are separated, black llama seems to have calmed down a bit,” Smith said during his play-by-play coverage.
“Uh oh,” he squeeled as a llama darted away from a would-be captor. “Doesn’t want to be caught. Does not want to be caught.”
— FrancescoFrancavilla (@f_francavilla) February 26, 2015
Then Smith answered a question many people must have posed:
“Why are we doing this, you may ask. Well, because we have live pictures of llamas. What would you do? I mean, we got through the ISIS stuff and there are other things, and we’ll make time for them. We’ll kill the commercials if we have to.”
Other networks, including CBS and ABC, are guilty of broadcasting the chase live online.
— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) February 26, 2015
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) February 26, 2015
And the Internet, as expected, went batty.
— Steve McPherson (@steventurous) February 26, 2015
— Douglas Pack (@PackDouglas) February 26, 2015
— BFF (@YrBFF) February 26, 2015
All around the globe, people could not get enough llama drama.
— Trendsmap (@Trendsmap) February 26, 2015
Even suspended NBC News anchor Brian Williams and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly weren't spared.
— Dave Zorn (@davezorn72) February 26, 2015
— Jamie Oberdick (@JamieOber8590) February 26, 2015
TIME magazine posted an online list of the best memes from the chase.
The Washington Post jokingly reported the chase as breaking news, and published a map of the United States showing where the country’s 76,000 llamas lived as of 2012.
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 26, 2015
Both llamas had been captured by 3:30 p.m. Thursday, stemming the massive revenue losses that began when employees quit working to watching the chase instead.
— Roberto Baldwin (@strngwys) February 26, 2015
— John Herrman (@jwherrman) February 26, 2015
A news chopper covering the chase of a white llama brings to mind June 17, 1994, when Al Cowlings was at the reins – er, wheel – of OJ Simpson’s white Ford Bronco as it led California Highway Patrol cruisers along Los Angeles freeways.
That chase, which had people glued to their television sets, could not have been as widely watched as Thursday’s boondoggle.
Thanks, Obama.
