History Main / YetAnotherBabyPanda

* Discussed in Discworld/TheTruth between William de Worde and Lord Vetinari

If the story is ''literally'' a baby panda, it's also a case of PandaingToTheAudience.

*** Since that link no longer works right due to the switch from JonStewart to TrevorNoah, the segment (during Stewart's tenure) mentions MSNBC reporting an adorable bit concerning a squirrel....which proceeded with (no good segue whatsoever) breaking news of a major mass shooting.

* ''WesternAnimation/OsmosisJones'' had two microscopic reporters talk about animal crackers being shown in the digestive tract with the headline "'''Panda-monium!'''"

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Wang_and_Funi Wang Wang and Funi]] are a couple in a zoo in Australia, that have not successfully mated after even after being together for years. But during the 36 hour mating period each year, newscasters love to report on it because it combines Yet Another Baby Panda with SexSells. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzCrdFqCr6g This newscast]] had a lot off double-entendres both intentional and unintentional with the newscasters losing it, including a totally new definition for "Eats, shoots, and leaves."

* Parodied in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwSxQWEVmQg "Wind Girl"]] entry of the 3rd ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}} [[FanFic/TouhouM1GrandPrix M-1 Grand Prix]]'', a series of animated FanVid skits where the ''Touhou'' characters participate in a {{Manzai}} tournament.
--> '''[[IntrepidReporter Aya]]''': On to lighter news. \\
'''Momiji''': There's been a lot of bad news on now. \\
'''Aya''': In the bamboo thickets of Eientei, two wild baby pandas were born. \\
'''Momiji''': Wow, that's really cute! \\
'''Aya''': [[RunningGag However, they were shot to death]].

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:New Media]]
* Stories of this type routinely appear on Drew Curtis' Website/{{Fark}}, usually with a variation on the tagline "[[SarcasmMode Ugly-ass]] baby [[MadLibsCatchPhrase [noun] born in [place]]]." (The more "ugly-ass" the description, the more [[TastesLikeDiabetes pancreas-killingly adorable]] said baby critter will be.)

[[folder:Stand Up Comedy]]
* Music/BillBailey references this in his stand-up shows ("The crab that e-mails the coastguard on the impending tidal wave...") and claims that England has become so pathetic that they work as the kicker on foreign news broadcasts ("...et finalement: les anglais!")
* Creator/GeorgeCarlin used to talk about this quite a lot. Things regularly reported on the news that he didn't care about included Mickey Mouse's birthday, celebrity deaths, and "whether or not the pandas in the zoo didn't fuck again this year."

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' has a segment where you play a news correspondent reporting on location. One of the items you can report on is a dog. If you choose it, the anchor will say "I can just imagine the headline now: ''A DOG EXISTS SOMEWHERE!''". Subverted when the dog turns out to be [[spoiler:a bomb]].

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* The reporter in ''Webcomic/{{Dissonance}}'' works for a show that currently has an opening montage containing footage of labrador puppies. She plans to replace it with footage of [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Pandora]] caring for an injured rat.
[[/folder]]

* Also on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann used to show these on ''[[CountdownWithKeithOlbermann Countdown]]'' fairly regularly, in about the middle of the show. He called them "sanity breaks".

* Parodied in the Creator/WillFerrell movie ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'', which included a news broadcast concluding with a water-skiing squirrel, and ongoing coverage ([[SeriousBusiness "Panda Watch"]]) of a pregnant panda at the San Diego Zoo. The climax of the movie takes place at the birth of the pandas. ''No one'', not even Veronica Corningstone, who is annoyed about being assigned to sappy human interest stories, questions the significance of this story, and none of hordes of journalists at the zoo that day notice when several people nearly die after jumping into the grizzly enclosure.

* ''Series/TheDailyShow'' refers to it as the "Moment of Zen" -- originally it was just a piece of unrelated footage, such as a man getting sat on by an elephant, but it has evolved over recent years and is now usually an extension of something covered in the main body of the show.

* Parodied, as with most news tropes, in ''Series/TheDayToday''. One notable example has anchor Chris Morris begin to interview a woman who is organising a jam-making contest for charity... unfortunately, he doesn't turn off his usual 'hard-hitting-Jeremy-Paxman-asking-the-tough-questions' persona, reducing the poor woman to tears in the process.

* WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck, having a big ego, gets a big boost whenever a newscaster talks about a crime he solved. Unfortunately the newscast promptly switches gears to a baby panda or cute kitty, causing everyone to forget about his exploits. Subverted when the two new baby pandas are clearly fighting each other. People still find it cute.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Wang_and_Funi Wang Wang and Funi]] are a couple in a zoo in Australia, that have not successfully mated after even after being together for years. But during the 36 hour mating period each year, newscasters love to report on it because it combines Yet Another Baby Panda with SexSells. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzCrdFqCr6g This newscast]] had a lot off double-entendres both intentional and unintentional with the newscasters loosing it, including a totally new definition for "Eats, shoots, and leaves."

* A ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' letter was interrupted as it was getting too sexually stimulating and was replaced with a scene of a man with a stoat through his head.

Compare with WorstNewsJudgmentEver, when the kicker preempts more serious news stories. Compare ''and'' contrast FilmAtEleven, when a serious news story is teased as though it's a kicker.

Compare with WorstNewsJudgmentEver, when the kicker preempts more serious news stories.

* Stories of this type routinely appear on Drew Curtis' {{Fark}}, usually with a variation on the tagline "[[SarcasmMode Ugly-ass]] baby [[MadLibsCatchPhrase [noun] born in [place]]]." (The more "ugly-ass" the description, the more [[TastesLikeDiabetes pancreas-killingly adorable]] said baby critter will be.)

[[caption-width-right:349:Animal segments will never jump the shark...\\

[[caption-width-right:349:Animal segments will never jump the shark...but the animals might.]]

* Parodied in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwSxQWEVmQg "Wind Girl"]] entry of the 3rd ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}} [[FanFic/TouhouM1GrandPrix M-1 Grand Prix]]'', a series of animated FanVid skits where the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' characters participate in a {{Manzai}} tournament.

* Parodied in the Creator/WillFerrell movie ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'', which included a news broadcast concluding with a waterskiing squirrel, and ongoing coverage ([[SeriousBusiness "Panda Watch"]]) of a pregnant panda at the San Diego Zoo. The climax of the movie takes place at the birth of the pandas. ''No one'', not even Veronica Corningstone, who is annoyed about being assigned to sappy human interest stories, questions the significance of this story, and none of hordes of journalists at the zoo that day notice when several people nearly die after jumping into the grizzly enclosure.

-->'''Vetinari:''' So... we have what the people are interested in, and human interest stories, which is what humans are interested in, and the public interest, which no one is interested in.
-->'''William:''' Except the public sir.
-->'''Vetinari:''' Which isn't the same as people and humans?
-->'''William:''' I think it's more complicated than that sir.

---> '''Kent Brockman:''' ''[serious tone]'' And the fluffy kitten played with that ball of string all through the night. ''[brightening up]'' On a lighter note, a Kwik-E-Mart clerk was brutally murdered last night.

* ''OsmosisJones'' had two microscopic reporters talk about animal crackers being shown in the digestive tract with the headline "'''Panda-monium!'''"

* A newscast in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'' had a segment with a waterskiing squirrel that was interrupted for breaking news about a bank robbery.

[[quoteright:318:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pandas_1.jpg]]

Part of a NewsBroadcast, usually the last segment, in which clips of stories involving footage of [[Literature/HarryPotter waterskiing budgies]], squirrels adopted by mother dogs, [[CatUpATree cats rescued by firemen]], [[InvertedTrope firemen rescued by cats]], or otherwise [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter crowd-pleasing cute 'n' sappy animals]] are shown to boost [[RatingsStunt ratings]]. In the event of a lack of fuzzy critters, the [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged Special Olympics]] or [[BabiesMakeEverythingBetter large litters of human babies can sometimes fill this role]]. Often (incorrectly) referred to as [[HumanInterestStory "Human Interest" stories]], despite the general lack of anything interesting (or human).

* BillBailey references this in his stand-up shows ("The crab that e-mails the coastguard on the impending tidal wave...") and claims that England has become so pathetic that they work as the kicker on foreign news broadcasts ("...et finalement: les anglais!")

** Spoofed in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E4TreehouseOfHorrorIX "Treehouse of Horror IX]]:

** Spoofed in one of the Hallowe'en specials:

** One episode has Bart and Lisa becoming reporters at their school news station. When Bart records a series of highly successful (and highly insubstantial) "human-interest" stories, Lisa tries to compete with him by doing a story on (among other things) the "Crazy Cat Lady." It doesn't go well. Then she tries a train story, standing next to some railroad tracks: "The old Union Pacific doesn't come by here much anymore..." Cue heavily labelled 'Union Pacific' train going by [[OverlyLongGag for a very long time]]. Followed by [[RuleOfFunny another attack from the Crazy Cat Lady.]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Now lost to the annals of broadcasting, the stars and script aligned for one day at MSNBC in 2007. The day featured ongoing commentary about a policy speech by Vice President Dick Cheney. By some miracle, this was always placed in rotation right after a story about Chinese zookeepers using panda-porn to induce mating in their charges. Every hour on the hour another seasoned anchor was reduced to giggle-fits trying to segue from one to the other.
** MSNBC [[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-26-2004/squirrelly-situation have had bad luck in the past with this.]]
* We Germans don't mention [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knut_%28polar_bear%29 Knut.]] See also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flocke Flocke.]] [[BearsAreBadNews Knut ain't cute anymore,]] which probably explains why all the coverage of him has dropped off. Or maybe it's because he died.
* The two Chinese pandas coming to a Belgian zoo and all the news coverage thereof, including a visit by the Chinese president. You'd almost forget it is a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panda_diplomacy diplomatic trick.]]
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Wang_and_Funi Wang Wang and Funi]] are a couple in a zoo in Australia, that have not successfully mated after even after being together for years. But during the 36 hour mating period each year, newscasters love to report on it because it combines Yet Another Baby Panda with SexSells. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzCrdFqCr6g This newscast]] had a lot off double-entendres both intentional and unintentional with the newscasters loosing it, including a totally new definition for "Eats, shoots, and leaves."
[[/folder]]

* ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' has a segment where you play a news correspondent reporting on location. One of the items you can report on is a dog. If you choose it, the anchor will say "I can just imagine the headline now: ''A DOG EXISTS SOMEWHERE!''".

* WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck, having a big ego, gets a big boost whenever a newscaster talks about a crime he solved. Unfortunately the newscast promptly switches gears to a baby panda or cute kitty, causing everyone to forget about his exploits.
** Subverted slightly when the two new baby pandas are clearly fighting each other. People still find it cute.

* The episode "Girth" of ''PushingDaisies'' concluded a CoincidentalBroadcast with "Next up: Kittens On Parade!"