Like bae, facepalm, mic drop and many other new expressions, milkshake duck started life as an internet meme, a kind of inside joke which abruptly finds a wider audience on the web. It’s the creation of Australian cartoonist Ben Ward, who in June 2016, tweeting under the username @pixelatedboat, said ”The whole internet loves milkshake duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist”. Ward’s intention was merely to make a witty remark characterising a recent trend, but his joke caught fire on the internet to such a degree that real-life illustrations of any kind of ‘hero to zero’ scenario suddenly became labelled milkshake ducks.