All the memes A to Zebra: How a missing animal in Tennessee inspired cakes, songs, more
There's an old phrase popularized by Dr. Theodore Woodward from the University of Maryland in the 1940s that says, "if you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."
In Rutherford County, the sound of hoofbeats could actually be an escaped zebra that has been on the loose since May 31, one day after a county resident took the animal home as a pet.
Like many Middle Tennessee residents, and some beyond Middle Tennessee, Lauren Jones and her family of four have been captivated by the missing zebra, and have gotten creative on social media as the search for the animal continues.
Pictures, memes, videos and jokes about the zebra have flooded the Internet in the days since the animal's disappearance.
More: Zebras, kangaroos, giraffes: What Tennessee pet laws say residents can, can't own
While she's been glued to social media hoping for news of the animal's safe return, Jones, owner and operator of Bunny Cakes in Franklin, ditched her popcorn for a sweet treat.
"We hope he gets home ok. We're animal lovers," Jones said of herself and her family. The ongoing search gave her some baking inspiration. "Any time I see something in real life, it's just kind of an inspiration for the art of what I do. I think life's art. I think food's art."
Jones worked quickly and brought a zebra cake to life before posting a picture of it on social media.
Two 12-inch bourbon vanilla cakes were stacked atop each other and carved into the shape of zebra. They were filled with buttercream frosting. From there, homemade fondant was used to create the zebra's "hide" and a raised two-dimensional appearance of black stripes.
The bourbon vanilla flavor profile was left over from a Father's Day order she was working on involving French macaroons, Jones said.
The zebra's "fur" was created from fondant and then cut with scissors to give a ruffled appearance.
The ear is a piece of marshmallow fondant. It was shaped like a teardrop before Jones used a balling tool to hollow out its midsection, "to give the ear depth," she said. Edible food powder, similar to eyeshadow, was brushed onto the fondant to give it a pink appearance.
Jones isn't the only one to take inspiration from the zebra.
Others have used the African equine in a variety of creative ways.
The Rutherford County Sheriff's Office has not released the zebra's name, but that hasn't stopped people from speculating about it.
The zebra has inspired a song called "Ed The Zebra" by Michael Marcovich using Suno, an AI generated software.
"I've got a pet zebra, and his name is Ed. He used to be in my backyard and in my shed. He don't eat grain, he just eats hay. Well, the other night, he got away," reads one lyric.
The zebra's plight has Facebook user Diamond Shine's full attention.
In a June 1 post, Shine said the zebra has been the emotional support animal she didn't know she needed after having to put down a family dog recently.
"Somehow, this rogue zebra galloping through Murfreesboro has brought me more joy in the last 24 hours than I ever expected," she said. "The chaos. The memes. The chase. Ed."
While some are seemingly watching the zebra's every move, others are a bit more tongue-and-cheek.
There are AI-generated photos of a zebra with a Middle Tennessee State University fan at a bar, decked out in a University of Tennessee baseball uniform, recommending a spray tan at Serenity Skin and authorizing a 15% off sale all items at Love's Pizza in Murfreesboro.
The zebra's fame has also spread beyond Rutherford County.
In one photo, the zebra is having breakfast at Waffle House with the Sumner County bear. In another, he's at Café 931 in Clarksville waiting for Taco Tuesday on June 3.
"Who's joining the herd at Café 931," the restaurant asked.
In another AI photo post on Facebook, the zebra is seen being pulled from Percy Priest Lake in Nashville by the Tennessee National Guard, while another photo of a zebra on a rollercoaster is captioned, "the zebra hitched a ride with us to Dollywood. He said he had an amazing time, y'all."
The list goes on.
And as of press time for this story, so does the search for the zebra, the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office reported.
Reach reporter Craig Shoup by email at cshoup@gannett.com and on X @Craig_Shoup. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription to www.tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How zebra 'Ed,' on the run in TN, inspires memes, cakes and AI songs
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My positive, and equally impactful, reaction to the film came out amid this commotion over the embargo language, and so I went back and checked what I was originally sent. And the messaging that I received didn't have the wording that raised eyebrows. It was standard 'spoiler-free social reaction' language. Anyway, were you pretty frustrated by that miscommunication? Yeah, of course. I've been so busy with the premieres that I don't really even know much about it. I know [the miscommunication] was on [publicity's] part. The other thing I knew is that they're really not wanting to give away spoilers of any kind. There's quite a few mysteries and such, but I can't even really speak to it because I don't actually know. The road to began with . co-creator Chad Stahelski worked for you on that set? Yeah, Chad got killed [as an uncredited FBI agent and credited stuntman]. He pops up in there with a friend of mine [Brad Martin] that I grew up with; Brad was also working with that team as stunt coordinator. We shot that Baltimore sequence, and it was supposed to be the first action scene when Timothy Olyphant's character does an onslaught on McLane [Bruce Willis] and Farrell [Justin Long]. Chad and Brad are the two FBI guys that have a firefight with the helicopter gunman. So Chad's got a glorious death scene, and we've known each other for quite a long time just by coming up in the business together. You've made action films in the 2000s, 2010s and the 2020s, so you've seen trends come and go. Now that you've worked inside it, do you fully understand why the Wickian brand of action has set the bar the last 11 years? When you really can see that it's your actor doing the action, there's truly a different kind of feeling. A lot of people talk about the longer takes, and then there are longer takes that add stitches to make them even longer. Personally, that feels more like the director showing off his long take, as opposed to the longer takes in Wick that I'm a fan of. You don't give the audience a second to take a breath, and it becomes more of an investment, especially if it's actor-driven action. [Writer's Note: In two of our previous chats, Stahelski has also railed against stitched oners.] So there's many reasons why I think John Wick set the bar in terms of choreography, but its very specific tone of action is really important too. You never want to laugh in the face of the character action that's happening because then the stakes are gone. It could be a really fun sequence and tone, but if the action doesn't have stakes and danger to it — and the characters are cracking jokes within the danger — as an audience member, you go, 'If you're not going to be afraid, then I'm not going to be afraid for you.' So there's many levels, but if I had to really boil it down, it's actor-based action that's really had an impact. That's what Keanu and Chad together brought to it. There's something about staying in the shot with the actor. There's a difference between watching a cool action scene and watching a cool action scene and going, 'Holy shit, that's him,' or, 'That's her.' It gives you a different kind of reaction. Did essentially serve as Ana de Armas' audition for Eve Macarro? No, not at all, but that sequence was absolutely fantastic. I would love to see that character show up again; it was just too brief. We had already gotten involved with Ana. I had Ana in mind for quite a while before that. I went and saw a private screening of No Time to Die, and that confirmed her casting even more. So I was excited when I saw that cool moment, but she was already involved in the whole process. takes place between the third and fourth films. You revisit the events of, using a Rashomon-type approach to show Eve's point of view on John's return to Ruska Roma. How challenging was it to expand and maintain continuity? It was definitely a challenge and an excitement. I love a challenge. It gives me fuel to be creative. So I had a really fun time taking a different perspective on certain elements of Chapter 3, and I was really into it. Early on, the moment that I thought would resonate and people would remember is when John comes to meet the Director [Anjelica Huston]. We're now looking at it from Eve's point of view before he mentions, 'It wasn't just a puppy.' It took a lot of time to recreate the sets exactly. I wanted to really recreate those moments from a different perspective so that we weren't just using footage from the existing film. I watched the scene again for the timing and spacing, and there's a little detail when John and the Director walk down the stairs. John looked [to his left] in that moment where they stop on the stairs, and so there was space to add a piece where he looks up slightly and sees Eve. And so we got to see that moment from her side. I love that stuff. I've done sequels and remakes, and Ballerina just doesn't feel that way. In fact, I actually think the word spinoff is misleading for this. John meets Eve before she goes on to complete her first contract, and then you jump ahead two months. Does that mean John returns to the movie Winston (Ian McShane) shot him off the roof at the end of ? Yes. So it's after he's recovered a little bit? I just want to get the timeline right. Yes. Did Keanu's days on set have the same electricity that his mythical boogeyman character has in the story? He really does have that effect. It's such a contradiction too because he's one of the nicest, most generous — forget actors — humans that we have. So there is a reverence when he walks on set in the suit. He is John Wick, even when he's just walking around on set. It's similar to when Harrison Ford puts on the hat and carries the whip. It's pretty awesome, and it gives you chills. 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Everything that we did is very important to the film. Everything that we shot is in there, and it's in there for the story and the movie. I'm so happy that I got the chance to actually work with him and have him in this film. Lance would say this, but there aren't really any good guys in the Wick universe. It's a universe of all bad guys in a sense, but I do believe that Lance's character, Charon, is the heart and soul of the series. I love that you perpetuated the running gag involving the Continental. Every movie introduces a new room or wing that we didn't know was there previously, and the dimensions never align with the exterior of the building. (Laughs.) I remember talking to Chad about it. He showed me the production designer's side view of all the Continental's levels and what could be underground. But they decided to just keep it as a running gag, like you said. If you look at that building, it's the tallest, skinniest structure. 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If you get on a helicopter, it feels dangerous, especially when it's doing stunts that are coming in low to your cameras and everything. The flamethrowers have that same effect, and I've never utilized a weapon that had that much of a dangerous vibe about it. But it's unlike anything that I've seen, and that's the goal of every sequence. [Note: The following section contains very mild spoilers, primarily who did not appear and what did not happen in .] The movie ends with the audience wanting to know what's next for Eve. Do you know what's next for her? In fantasy-type thinking, yes, but I really just concentrated on this film. I wanted this film to be the best that it could possibly be, but it's hard not to wonder. Often, when I am asked that, I'll say, 'No, I want to wait and see what happens.' And that's true to a point, but when you're developing something and you get so immersed in a character, you have to build out what their story is before and after the movie you're making. 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In the scene where Eve first arrives at the Continental, you'd see a bunch of motorcycles speeding in the background of the city on the bridge. You always have to make the timeline work, but that would've been cool for anyone who's really paying attention to detail. 'There's the samurai and John on motorcycles [from Chapter 3].' That would've been cool. Yeah, at one point, before the timeline became exactly what it is, there was another idea that I liked at the end. Right after Eve talks to Winston and checks into the Continental, she'd go up to her room, and we'd see a view of the hotel to where we think the movie is ending. Then we'd hear a screech, and the camera pans down just in time to catch two motorcycles [John and Mark Dacascos' Zero] crashing at the base of the Continental. Fucking cool, right? You should add those details to your special edition of in ten years. I know! I love stuff like that. Some people might go, 'What's going on?' 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