Victorian MP Tim Smith's X-Rated Donut Tweet Goes Viral

What was meant to be a sassy takedown of the government’s COVID-19 response in the Australian state of Victoria has turned into a countrywide roasting of conservative politician Tim Smith. 

The Liberal MP was trolled most of Tuesday with the hashtag #donutdick, the number one trend on Twitter down under, for posting an unfortunate image of cinnamon donuts in what he thought resembled the number 800. That’s about the number of coronavirus-related deaths in Victoria. 

But the phallic shape created by the donuts turned the people of Twitter a bit, er, nuts? 

It all started when Victoria finally recorded a day of zero new coronavirus cases and zero deaths after Australia’s viral epicentre had endured more than 12 weeks of hard lockdown while the rest of the country was mostly back to normal. 

Victorians took to Twitter to celebrate zero cases and the easing of strict restrictions by posting pics of donuts. The donut is meant to represent ‘0’. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews got in on the fun Monday by posting his own donut Twit pic. 

Then on Tuesday, Andrews celebrated a second consecutive day of zero cases by tweeting, “Today’s the first time we’ve recorded two zero days since the start of March.”

Smith, the Liberal Member for Kew, blasted the premier’s “gloating” and tweeted that Andrews should reflect on the number 800 instead. 

“He should take responsibility for 800 Victorians who died in the second wave caused by his hotel quarantine fiasco,” Smith posted along with the unfortunate donut image. 

As expected, the people of the internet enjoyed the cock-up: 

Smith has been an outspoken critic of the Andrews government’s pandemic response. 

Victoria finally reopened restaurants and cafes in Melbourne at midnight on Wednesday after more than three months under a stringent lockdown. Despite case numbers dwindling and more businesses poised to reopen, however, Victoria will ease limits on social gatherings in the home only enough to allow two adults and dependents from one house to make one daily visit to one other household.

Andrews said the highest risk of spreading the virus remained in the family home, where social distancing protocols are often not applied.

“This is just about making sure that people can connect, but we can’t have a situation where people are having visitors in the morning, visitors at lunchtime, visitors in the evening,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

“What we, all of us as Victorians, have built is a precious thing, but it is fragile,” he said.

The pace at which Victoria has reopened has frustrated many, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has argued that New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, has eased restrictions despite small, single-figure outbreaks that are still often bigger than those seen in Victoria.

Australia has recorded just over 27,500 novel coronavirus infections, far fewer than many other developed countries.

Victoria, which accounts for more than 90% of the 905 deaths nationally, did not record any new deaths from the virus in the past 24 hours.

With additional files from Reuters. 

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