St. Petersburg, FL -- It was out of the frying pan and into the online fire.
A Florida swimmer is being compared to Hellboy after social-media footage surfaced of him bearing a horrific sunburn reminiscent of the famous scarlet superhero. The clip has since caught fire on Twitter, racking up nearly 7 million views.
The unnamed beachgoer appeared in aTwitter video posted by ABC NewsJuly 9 that depicted a swarm of stingrays swimming past oblivious bathers in Florida.
The merciless online hordes were quick to torch the sunburned soul.
“Looked like Hellboy to me,”quipped one in reference to the crimson character with devil hornsfrom Dark Horse Comics, which later spawned a successful film franchise starring Ron Perlman.
“Is that satan having a swim?”joked another.
Another took pity on the vermilion swimmer,writing: “That red man is going to have some regrets when he tries to sleep. And when he wakes up. And all the next week.”
Others took shots at ABC for neglecting to mention the sunburned man and instead focusing on the comparatively boring stingrays.
“Talk about burying the lede?!?!?!”observed one in a searing Twitter tirade. “The story here, at least the one anybody actually cares about, is the red dude! Ain’t nobody thinking about the damn stingrays! … Except maybe wondering what they thought when they encountered their 1st red human being. Who the hell is he?”
Another added,“Are we just gonna ignore the dude trying to get skin cancer?”
“We came for stingrays, we stayed for the red lobster,”wrote one Twitter wit in reference to the man’s crispy countenance.
This isn’t the first time a blazing tan has set the interwebs alight. Last year,a UK teenager shared photos of giant, ballooning blisters caused by a vicious sunburn she received while vacationing in Cuba.