People think Bunny the Dog on TikTok is having an existential crisis
Instagram: what_about_bunnyBunny the Dog achieved viral fame on TikTok alongside her owner Alexis, after she supposedly learned to communicate via a huge set of buttons – but now people think the dog is tipping into an existential crisis. Strap yourselves in for this one.
Bunny and Alexis first went viral on their account what_about_bunny back in May, with a TikTok that showed the adorable sheepadoodle pressing a series of buttons to tell her mom to “come play.”
The video scored views in the millions, and people were thoroughly baffled by the apparently highly intelligent hound, and her bright spark of an owner. The duo have gone on to pair up with a scientist and an engineer to beta test a new device based on cognitive science, and now Bunny even has merch.
As their view count increased, so did the number of buttons. The colorful devices with pre-recorded messages allow Bunny to communicate a variety of emotions like “happy” and “concerned,” and can ask for things to be done for her.
But in a recent trend that’s swept through the app, many people have wondered how far Bunny’s intelligence will stretch, and wonder if the dog could possibly be at the beginning of an existential crisis.
TikTok users go viral with Bunny the dog videos
In TikTok user squirrelfreak’s video, she said that Bunny “unsettles me to my core” and asked “when do you stop adding buttons? Is she just going to keep adding them until it knows as much as the average human? I’m deeply terrified that Bunny the dog may one day learn about structural racism.”
Several videos have also gone viral of people imitating Bunny, asking philosophical questions using simple words and sounds like the ones on her buttons.
User tik.tok.nina did a scarily accurate impression of the intelligent dog, saying “what happens when Bunny one day goes ‘why, Bunny, momma, friends, if, momma, own, Bunny, hm?’”
Alexis called the trend hilarious in a new TikTok, but viewers quickly became unsettled when in response to her comment “Thank you, love you, mom,” Bunny replied with a simple press of a button: “why?” The video now has three million views and 560,000 likes.
The videos of Bunny now seemed to have tipped over into the uncanny valley. While the sheepadoodle is as cute as she’s always been, people are slightly nervous that this is the beginning of a Planet of the Apes style uprising, or perhaps a particularly unnerving episode of Black Mirror.