Animal Crossing joke goes viral, leaves fanbase divided over its source and potential theft

Animal Crossing was recently trending on Twitter, but not for any good reason. There was no update announcement, no new leak, no sequels announced, no spin-offs or anything related to the game itself. Rather, a joke went viral, which caused an uproar among some of the users.

One user tweeted out a clever joke about Animal Crossing and was subsequently called out for alleged content theft. This quickly trended and divided the community over the origins of the tweet.

---

Animal Crossing players divided over popular tweet

Stolen, or plagiarized content has been an ongoing debate since social media took off. Bigger accounts often steal content from the smaller ones, which is what allegedly took place with an Animal Crossing joke.

Content ownership is a tricky situation with no solution in sight. Regardless, a popular joke involving the title of Animal Crossing was put out on Twitter.

Many Animal Crossing players found the joke funny and relatable and had a say of their own.

Several other users were quick to allege that the tweet, or rather the joke itself, didn't originate from the bigger accounts.

The fans alleged that a smaller account came up with the joke, but with very little audience and viral recognition, it was easy to steal it and put it on a bigger account.

Villagers can often be in the way, which led to the original joke. Image via Nintendo

This quickly divided the community over the origins of the tweet and the issue of content theft. The user responded with a statement and mentioned something that is critical to the discussion over whether someone's content is really theirs and nobody else's.

It's difficult to pinpoint the origin of a joke, and that's not a new social media phenomenon. It's difficult to copyright social media content, as it's usually an idea and those are often not unique.

As the Animal Crossing player pointed out, neither she nor the smaller account in question are the first people to make a joke like that, nor will they be the last.