Twinkie, a feisty Jack Russell terrier from California, either dearly loves or desperately hates balloons. Either way, the animal has a talent for popping the inflatable playthings and has pursued this avocation with a focus and a determination that few human beings could manage to apply to any task. In fact, by virtue of popping 100 balloons in just 39.08 seconds, Twinkie is now a Guinness-certified world record holder. None of this is random or accidental. Twinkie is the four-legged protégé of professional animal trainer Doree Sitterly, who also owned and trained Anastasia, a previous record-holder in this category and (not coincidentally) Twinkie’s mother. Apparently, teaching dogs to pop balloons is a more popular pursuit than one might assume. When Guinness posted a video of Twinkie to its YouTube account, for instance, it made sure to include a clip of yet another previous record holder in this hotly contested category: Cally The Wonder Dog, who popped balloons for the benefit of Simon Cowell on Britain’s Got Talent. It took Cally 41.67 seconds to pop 100 balloons. Sitterly must have seen this and thought, “I can do better.” And she could.
World records aside, the video of Twinkie popping 100 balloons is deeply satisfying on a spiritual level. It’s like one of those simple but enjoyable video games from the Atari age. The instruction booklet might read: “You play as a dog, and the object is to pop all the balloons in that square before time runs out.” And the terrier accomplishes that goal like a true champion, except there’s no second round to advance to. Viewers may feel themselves compelled to watch the Twinkie video several times through. Under such circumstances, they might notice the odd detail of a young woman wearing clown makeup in the front row of spectators. Why? No reason at all.
All this video is missing is a killer soundtrack, and there is clearly only one song that’s appropriate for such an occasion.
Okay, maybe two songs.
[via Laughing Squid]