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Funny Story: Offbeat News From Around the Globe

A selection of the most amusing headlines of late, including a bird election scandal and a Kentucky dog that was elected mayor.

A voting scandal has rocked the avian world as almost 1,500 votes were fraudulently cast for the little spotted kiwi in New Zealand’s Bird of the Year competition. The votes were cast from multiple email addresses tracing back to the same IP address in Auckland, New Zealand.
In a statement, competition spokesperson Laura Keown said, “It's lucky we spotted this little Kiwi trying to sneak in an extra 1,500 votes under the cover of darkness. But they'll have to play by the rules like all of the other birds to win the competition.”
The fraudulent votes briefly pushed the little kiwi to top place, but were later discounted. "We don't condone the illegal votes cast towards our cute little bird,” said campaign manager Emma Rawson. “As Aotearoa's national emblem, Little-Spotted Kiwi represents New Zealanders' values of democracy, fairness, equality, and honesty.”
The German Federal Fiscal Court recently ruled that techno is music so that techno clubs could benefit from the reduced sales tax rate concert halls enjoy. On Oct. 29, the court found that visitors at techno clubs were there mainly for the music and the DJs, which made club nights “similar to concerts,” even if no artists were performing live. According to the judges, the work DJs do consists of more than playing tracks as "they perform their own new pieces of music using instruments in the broader sense, to create new sound sequences that have their own character.” Techno clubs in Germany can now enjoy a lower rate of seven percent VAT on ticket sales.
Rabbit Hash, a small town in Kentucky, United States, recently elected a French Bulldog named Wilbur as their mayor. “The town was always filled with dogs so it was the natural solution and it took away all of the human aspects of politics, which was important to the town,” said Wilbur’s spokesperson and handler, Amy Noland.
Wilbur wasn’t the only non-human mayor-candidate as his opponents included a therapy dog called Jack Rabbit, a donkey named Higgins and an unnamed rooster. Wilbur won the election, which had the town’s highest turnout ever, with 13,143 votes. Jack Rabbit the therapy dog and Poppy the golden retriever came in second and third.
According to Noland, when news of Wilbur’s victory broke, “he rolled over with excitement!”
GameStop, as part of its annual conference for employees, hosted an “unnerving” TikTok challenge: make the best dance video and your store can win extra work hours on Black Friday.
According to The Verge, a now-defunct GameStop webpage stated that store leaders would have to upload a video to TikTok depicting them dancing to a short song. “Be creative, rope in your team, and have fun with it!” the page allegedly read. The winner would receive two Amazon Echo devices, a $100 Visa gift card, and “10 additional labor hours” for use during Black Friday week.
Kotaku has explained that winning the additional labour hours would allow a store to assign its employees extra paid shifts during the busy week of Black Friday. “Imagine what you could do with all those prizes!” the GameStop page read before it was taken down.
A young driver who would drive around Gosport, United Kingdom, early in the morning and yell “wakey wakey” has been issued a warning by the police. The 21-year-old and his passengers would shout “many unnecessary things,” “annoying residents who were trying to sleep,” which resulted in the police receiving “many complaints of a male causing a nuisance.” The man would also turn his lights off and shout, "You can't call the police because you can't see us.”
"How wrong he was," police officers observed. The driver has been warned that his car will be seized if he repeats his actions.
Naeema Mohammed Sageer is Deputy News Editor. Email her at feedback@thegazelle.org,
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