User, @shiohitoshi posted a before and after picture of a green duck, captioned in Japanese, “The worst really”.
However it was the second image, showing the seemingly melted, flattened duck, which kicked up a fuss.
More than half-a-million retweets later, with the post going on to trend on Twitter, many called out the image’s legitimacy.
Unable to cope: The green duck appeared to give up under heat. Source: Twitter/@shiohitoshi
Some Twitter users pointed out that the car interiors appeared to be different.
However, other users were more focused on the relatable symbolism of the two photos.
“Me with any minor inconvenience”. While another said, “this is a physical representation of how it feels to get let turned down," user @drew_ogn wrote.
While the exact location of the incident is unknown, summer in Japan can see the temperatures hover around the low thirties, and even higher in vehicles.
According to Jan Null, adjunct professor of geosciences at San Francisco State University, “the car becomes a greenhouse”.
An Australian study conducted by Russell Manning and John Ewing of the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland, showed that, with all the doors closed and a starting temperature of 19.2 degrees, the interior temperature of a car can soar to 30.4 degrees in just one-and-a-half minutes.
Despite the noise surrounding the post, @shiohitoshi said that while the photos prompted his Twitter followers to triple, it did not detract from the pain of the loss of his green friend.
