This Twitter Trend Is Truly Awful

Sometimes the Internet is a wonderful playground of cat pictures and GIFs of Beyoncé's hair flipping. Sometimes the Internet is a dark, twisted place where the literal worst parts of humanity can be found in 140 characters. Unfortunately, today is one of the latter web phases, because #ReplaceMovieTitleWithEbola is trending on Twitter. I have a feeling I don't need to explain why that is completely awful.

Let's run through a few of the facts, shall we? As of Sept. 26, over 1,500 people in West Africa have died from this latest outbreak, which some medical experts are calling the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

Just in case you've forgotten what happens during Ebola, let's run through it right quick and see what's so funny! It starts with flu like symptoms that hit you suddenly. You may have a fever, a headache, and feel fatigued. After a few days, you'll start to vomit and have intense diarrhea. Your own body will begin attacking its own organs. Blood vessels will burst all over you body and you will begin to bleed out of every orifice. Your pores. Your eyes. Everything. There is a slight chance that you may survive the disease, but it's unlikely. Two-thirds of all Ebola cases have been fatal.

ISN'T THAT HILARIOUS? AREN'T YOU GLAD THAT YOU CREATED A HASHTAG ABOUT THAT, TWITTER COMEDIANS?

Do you think that you might say this very, very funny joke to someone in Liberia who has seen their entire family die of the disease that you are getting *ALL* the retweets for? What about replacing a movie title with cancer for breast cancer awareness month? Wouldn't that be a laugh?

I have a feeling that this is not a trending topic in Africa. Just because this hasn't directly Western life doesn't mean that you should treat people suffering from a disease that sounds like it should be science fiction as if they don't exist.

Doesn't seem very funny anymore, does it?

Image: Flickr/NIAID