What’s the point in doing a good deed if nobody knows you did it? Photo: Rebecca Puckett // Instagram
A few weeks ago, a video of a dramatic shark rescue made the rounds on the internet. In it, diver Rebecca Puckett filmed herself and her husband rescuing a great white shark stranded on a Pensacola beach. In the Instagram post and accompanying caption, she describes an hours-long process of attempting to return the shark to deeper water – while she cried and prayed and talked to the animal the entire time.
Though it was a story that touched the hearts of many, some parts of the tale didn’t sit right with surfer and comedian Sterling Spencer, as he described in the latest episode of his podcast. “It pissed me off,” he said. “It’s a great thing she did. It’s wonderful. I’m glad she saved that shark. I just can’t stand when people film [themselves] doing good deeds. Because it took so much work to set up that tripod for her to film it. And then she wrote this long thing on how great she is for saving this shark. It’s like how much freaking juice do you want for yourself? God damn.”
So he decided to take action – by trolling her. On Puckett’s third video post about the shark encounter, Spencer commented, “Surfer was eaten two hours after this #rip Joey.”
As Spencer explained on the podcast, the story was a complete fabrication – meant to poke fun at Puckett’s performative virtue. However, it spawned a lively debate in the following comments, with at least one other account backing up the story, for some reason.
Puckett also took the bait. “RIP Joey,” she replied. “This is absolutely heartbreaking… may your soul be with the ocean. At the same time I think it’s important people understand that shark attacks are extremely RARE. Worldwide, sharks cause around 5–10 deaths a year, while mosquitoes kill around 700,000++ people.”
“So, she’s trying to like justify it’s okay for saving the shark,” continued Spencer on the podcast. “Like, we need the shark more than Joey.”
Soon after, he clarified that he didn’t actually have a problem with Puckett’s actions, but rather the way she presented them on social media. “I couldn’t help to troll, even though I’m glad she was saving that shark,” he said. “I’m not against saving sharks. I love sharks.”
“It’s fine,” he concluded. “We’re glad you saved the shark. I hope you’re really excited about how many likes it got.”
Sterling couldn’t help himself. And can you blame him? Photo: Screenshot//Like-Seeking Influencer
