Actually, there is. See, those guys eat lunch together all the time. Because they are friends. They didn't even know they were being photographed, or who took the picture. Somebody just saw two athletes sit down with a disabled person and assumed it must have been an act of charity, because we all know wheelchair people are only permitted to hang out with non-wheelchair people if money or the X-Men are involved.
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One of the Most Iconic Photos from the Shutdown Was Total Hogwash
When the U.S. government closed its doors a few months ago, one image seemed to perfectly encapsulate its effect on the nation:
![4 Ludicrous Viral Photos You Thought Were Real]()
washingtonpost.com
A photo of a person eating ramen noodles in a studio apartment would have been much less compelling.
Just look at that. That little boy wanted to go to the zoo, but the government shutdown told him he couldn't. At least, that's what happened according to the Daily News and Metro, who snatched the photo off of Reddit with absolutely no context. The Wire, after declaring it the "defining image of the shutdown," even went on to philosophize that their complete lack of any kind of verifiable knowledge about the photograph was for "the best," like it was some mystical faerie painting that would lose its magic if we stopped believing in it.
As it turns out, that photo was originally posted on Instagram by a woman whose husband sent it to her over the phone while he was taking their son out for a walk. They just happened to be walking by the zoo (and, for some improbable reason, that kid just happened to be wearing a hood bedazzled with monkey ears), and the kid climbed on the gate. The dad saw how funny that looked and took a picture. That's it. That is literally all there is to the story. The rest of us turned it into a political statement, because a large portion of the population is still shocked to learn that people make shit up on the Internet all the time.
David Christopher Bell
