A ghostly ship, a mysterious seaside attack, a hilarious geography lesson and a Hollywood star’s homecoming — here are this week’s top trending stories on social media.
1. Nasty bites puzzle marine experts, so Global News readers weigh in
Hoping to relieve some achy feet after a football game, an Australian teen had a painful encounter instead, and his story of how mysterious sea creatures left his ankles and feet bloodied had Global News readers diving into a debate over what the mystery fish could be.
The initial story had more than 18,000 people sharing the tale and chiming in with comments ranging from: guesses about the identity of the sea creatures (sea lice; pesky aliens, lysianassid amphipods); to conspiracy theories (something fishy?); to complete panic: stop swimming, stop going to Australia, hide your kids, etc.
Some commenters were bite on, coming up with the same conclusion that researchers did, as reported in a follow-up story.
2. ‘Deadpool’ star’s charm lights up Global News social channels
Yes, he plays maniacal mutant comic book character Deadpool, but while filming Deadpool 2 in Vancouver this week, Ryan Reynolds took off his mask to meet a young superfan and disarmingly smile for the camera in a group shot with some police officers that had been patrolling the site. The Facebook video was watched more than 300,000 times.
More than 20,000 social media users interacted with this story, with many swooning over the Canadian actor’s humble character. One reader suggested Reynolds run for PM and #MCGA (make Canada great again).
3. Jimmy Kimmel finds some Americans get North Korea and Canada confused
When asked to locate the country that is threatening nuclear war against them, some Americans pointed to Canada, and naturally, this opportunity to poke fun at Americans shot this story way up on our list of most talked about stories this week. In total, more than 10,000 people commented on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Watch: Wrong. Wrong. Wrong again.
And what exactly did the choir of Canadian critics have to say about the geographical conundrum? Well, there were only a very few comments that we are willing to publish. One commenter weighed in with some common sense in light of the nuke threat:
4. Ship goes dark amid pirate threat and OMG it sounds like a movie plot
It wasn’t just mysterious flesh-eating creatures and charming movie stars that enticed the Global News audience to engage. A story of a pirate threat that forced a cruise ship into ghost mode got nearly 13,000 readers liking, commenting and sharing the post, landing it on the list of most-clicked stories this week.
Some commenters jumped on the idea to incorporate pirates into the cruise: