Britain Is Going Crazy for This Puddle of Water in Newcastle

Today in Britain, a new Internet sensation was born. The new star is not a skateboarding cat, a swearing baby, a blooping newscaster, or a drunk person breaking a hip. It’s a puddle of water.

Yes, that’s right. Thousands of people have tuned in to watch a live feed of people trying to navigate their way across a pool that’s collected on a rain-flooded pathway in Newcastle, Northern England. As I write, the hashtag #drummondpuddlewatch is the number one trend on U.K. Twitter, and the puddle has even reached news bulletins. In a country that’s utterly in love with the banal—our top TV show features people baking cakes—people seem to have fallen for the sight of ordinary people making a modest effort to avoid getting their feet damp.