Beyoncé pregnancy generates social media storm

By now the word is out. On February 1 – the first day of black history month – Beyonce announced to the internet that she is pregnant. She and husband Jay-Z Carter are set to welcome twins into the world, and their daughter Blue Ivy is set to become a big sister. The timing of the bombshell was thought by many to be intentional, as Beyoncé is a social activist whose advocacies, while sometimes causing loud arguments among her supporters, are guaranteed to be heard due her immense fan base, the Beyhive. It doesn’t take a genius to know that her Instagram pic showing her beautiful baby bump has generated a loud buzz everywhere, which the nature of reactions falling roughly into two camps: the ones relating to happiness in the world of the Trump administration, and the weird hard-to-classify strangeness.

Trumping Trump on Twitter

You read right. Re-tweets regarding news of Beyoncé’s pregnancy has on Wednesday momentarily eclipsed the usual Twitter traffic concerning President Donald Trump, his executive orders and opinions, and the corresponding commentary. The Beyhive went alive with congratulatory tweeting, extending their congratulations to the happy Carter family, relating (and uploading) their own reactions to the announcement, or using gifs and video grabs to let people know how they feel.

There we just had the Oprah freak-out. It and other crying or emotional images were widespread since February 1 in celebration.

Then there were tweets by fans of a more activist inclination, who expressed how Beyoncé and Jay-Z's upcoming babies were one (or two) bright rays of optimism in the still so uncertain atmosphere of 2017, for obvious reasons. Some went so far as to wager that the future Carter twins would grown to adulthood as co-leaders of an army of freedom fighters by 2039, and that's all I have to say.

Others couldn't help but speculate if the timing of the news was deliberate on the part of the couple for Black History Month, a period of commemoration.

The weird Tweets corner

And then we have the tweets that simply defy any coherent explanation, despite mentioning Beyoncé and the pregnancy. The Atlanta Police Department's official Twitter account originally posted a joke advisory against local residents participating in "celebratory gunfire" over the breaking news of the twins.

This was later removed and replaced with an apology for the "inappropriateness" of the content. Restaurant chain Denny's, which has been infamous for posting strange messages on their social media, made an off-color remark to Queen Bey's buns in the oven and asking her not to eat them. And then there's this one from Ellen DeGeneres. I'll let it speak for itself.