In one of the most shocking and bizarre news stories in recent memory, an elephant in India has trampled the same woman twice in a span of days, and in the most fittingly morbid way, TikTok cannot get enough of it.
The city of Odisha has seen worldwide attention, but not for its local beauty, craftmanship, sport, or any other normal reason. Instead, people are experiencing a journey of discovery over a Kill Bill-esque elephant thanks to a story from the Times of India.
Maya Murmu, 68, of the Raipal village had left her forest home on June 9 to collect some water but met with an untimely fate as a herd of elephants came for her. Unable to flee in time, the woman was chased and tragically killed by the tusked creature. After she was discovered and a post-mortem was performed, the unthinkable occurred.
The body was at the cremation ground before the same herd of elephants reportedly charged and trampled the body again with one picking it up and throwing it, before it continued to smash through her house. Several more houses were flattened by the herd.
Villagers eventually performed the rites of passage for Murmu, albeit a day late thanks to the fear of another attack. Murmu’s family will be seeking compensation for their damaged house according to the assistant conservator for forests.
But, in spite of this being a truly morbid, confronting, and horrific situation: the internet has still found room for memes. TikTok is abuzz with elephant-based posts, with a begrudging respect for the immensely petty pachyderm.
The meme has very much become that the woman deserved her grueling end, and justifying the elephant in bizarre ways. This is the internet at its most ironically misanthropic.
A lot of the TikToks do fail to get the story 100 percent right, with many believing the elephant went to the funeral to stamp her again when in reality, they did it during the funeral preparation. Semantics!
We’ll never find out the reason why the elephant did what it did, perhaps we’re due for a grueling A24 film that adds a human layer to the story. Or we all forget about this story in a week until the next tragic event gets spun for memes.
