US Army St. Patrick’s Day Video Baffles Twitter

The U.S. Army posted a promotional video on Twitter to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and social media users were confused about what sort of message it was meant to send.

The video showed a series of guns, missiles and cannons firing, with small cartoon shamrocks photoshopped in as if they were the bullets.

Earth-shaking explosions had the lucky clovers imposed over them, scattering across the ground, and a machine gun could be seen emitting the symbols instead of spent shells.

The video also cut back frequently to a soldier in fatigues dancing in the halls of a military facility. He performed several trendy dances, and some, Twitter noted, that were just a little out of fashion. The soldier was copied three times side-by-side, and filtered with the colors of the Irish flag.

“We appreciate how everyone wears a little green like us today,” the army wrote alongside the video.

People on Twitter were confused and unimpressed by the video, wondering what it was meant to say and why it was made. The reactions were also sprinkled with allusions to the fact that St. Patrick’s Day is mostly an American holiday, and people in Ireland don’t take it quite as seriously.

The Irish Times made note of this as well, tweeting the headline, “Has the US army just posted the weirdest St Patrick’s Day tweet?”

“HOW IS THIS REAL” questioned one user.

“What the f— is this?” asked another.

As the video circulated, many began imagining the conversations that led to the video’s production.

“‘Hey Tyrone’s hitting a mean nae nae in the hallway again quick record him on your phone and we’ll throw some filters on him and pop some funsy shamrocks on bombs and missiles and other such deadly weapons that’s a smart and cool holiday idea that ppl will like,’” one wrote.

“Ugh, people in Ireland and those of Irish heritage anywhere who are celebrating deserve so much better my goodness,” she added later.

Other people marvelled that the surrealistic video was not posted ironically, with one person writing “we really are living in a simulation.”

“This is accidentally some kind of genius comedy writing for a video,” remarked another, “some eric andre or adult swim s—.”