In this era of social media, the holidays can be covered with humor to bring new life to longstanding traditions.
But a recent family holiday card that has set the internet abuzz underscores how tricky it can be to know where that line is drawn between whimsical joke and actual insult.
Controversy is surrounding Amanda Cooper, a travel and fashion influencer with over 14,000 Instagram followers.
Cooper is known for sharing glimpses of her family life and last week posted their annual holiday photo, which at first appears to be a standard family portrait.
Cooper and her siblings and their children were shown dressed in coordinated outfits in the image.
But the tradition, upheld so carefully by their mother, Melynda King, has been a highlight of their family holidays for years.
“Last year, she went to Home Depot, bought paint sample cards of the colors that we were all allowed to wear, and that’s what she did with my sweater,” Cooper said.
King’s firm dedication to capturing the perfect family snapshot was the anecdote.
But this year Cooper decided to throw a curve ball.
But However, Cooper chose to throw a curveball this year, recruiting her siblings to play along in a more subtle stunt with a smoke bomb.
She explained, ‘So right before the middle finger picture, I called out, ‘Everyone say, I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.’”
It was flawlessly orchestrated, and it was subtle enough to not be noticed—at least not for a while.
Realising that her mother was going to be pissed, Cooper sent her a preemptive text after the photoshoot.
King recalled that, ‘I get this text from Amanda and it was like, ‘I’m going to be apologizing in advance for the reel I just posted.’”
Luckily, after he saw the picture, King accepted the prank.
“I thought it was absolutely hilarious, just the sense of humour and playfulness of the joke.”
However, the internet was much more divided over the Cooper family’s laughter.
The prank went viral on TikTok, where Cooper shared the video, which has been viewed more than 2.4 million times and spawned a fierce debate.
The gesture was met with some ‘disrespectful’ and ‘immature’, the critics did not take long to join.
“As a family tradition, this would make me sad,” wrote one commenter, who found it ridiculous.
Photographers also had something to say, noting how that meant extra work in post editing.
They argued that removing the inappropriate gestures could tack on hours to an already lengthy process.
But the backlash got worse on Instagram, where the family was branded ‘rude’ and ‘attention seeking.’
“On the internet you sounded like a bunch of jerks!” One user wrote, ‘Congratulations.’
Others had more personal responses, one commenter saying, “I have never had a family portrait taken in my life. As a person who doesn’t have a ‘family,’” this hurts.
But the prank was not offensive to everyone.
Cooper’s creativity was many things, praised, as her prank was deemed harmless and funny.
One person said, “This is so funny and so justified.” “It’s time for families to have more fun!”
‘I cannot wait for when the kids are older and get in on this tradition too!’ another user wrote.
To many supporters, the image was just a fun image of the family’s close knit nature.
With the discussion going viral, it was clear that humor is a subjective and polarizing beast to tame, especially when you’re sharing it out in the open.
There are families that like traditions, and others that like to reinvent them with a modern twist.
But what caused the internet uproar?
Cooper and her siblings had discreetly pointed their middle fingers at the camera in the now viral holiday card.
The prank was a deliberate break from their mother’s tradition of perfectly polished family photos that inspired laughter from the Coopers, but split the online audience.
Melynda King laughed it off, calling it a “hilarious surprise,” but others weren’t laughing.
This incident just epitomizes what is happening with family traditions in the digital age.
Family may see what one family sees as harmless fun but others may see it as disrespectful or inappropriate.
Amanda Cooper and her siblings played it all in good spirits, a simple way to ‘shake things up’ during the holidays.
But for the internet, it did lead to debates of what’s funny, what’s proper and what’s acceptable in a viral world.
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