Relationship With Humans
They are considered pests by some South Africans, and held in high regard by others. They are most visibly prevalent after rain during summer, which is when they are most likely to be found indoors. Parktown prawns seem to be more active at night.
The Parktown prawn is capable of large jumps when threatened, often ejecting an offensive black fecal liquid.
A popular urban legend, fuelled by April Fools' Day articles published by the Johannesburg newspaper The Star, tells that the Parktown prawn was actually the result of an escaped genetic experiment by students from the University of the Witwatersrand in the 1960s (thus explaining the insects' sudden arrival in Johannesburg at that time). The insect's unusual strength, vivid orange colouring and size are seen to 'confirm' this urban legend.
The resilience and strength of the Parktown prawn allowed two cartoon versions to become objects of humour in the well known South African cartoon strip Madam & Eve, inspiring fear in Gwen Anderson and Eve Sisulu. In the cartoons, the Parktown prawns get 'high' on insecticide (in reference to their size and how much poison is required to kill them), and produce two cricket-shaped indentations on the bottom of a frying pan with which they are swatted, in reference to their hard exoskeletons.
In the 1980s, Andrew Buckland's acclaimed play The Ugly Noo Noo used Parktown prawns as part of an extended parody of South African politics of the time.
Neill Blomkamp's film District 9 features an alien race some humans disparagingly refer to as prawns. Some film critics have speculated that the appearance of the aliens was inspired by the Parktown prawn.
Die Antwoord's video Fatty Boom Boom, featuring a "Prawn Star", was released in October 2012. Artwork for the video features a Parktown prawn covered in vaginal mucus.
Read more about this topic: Parktown Prawn
Famous quotes containing the words relationship with, relationship and/or humans:
“Henry David Thoreau, who never earned much of a living or sustained a relationship with any woman that wasn’t brotherly—who lived mostly under his parents’ roof ... who advocated one day’s work and six days “off” as the weekly round and was considered a bit of a fool in his hometown ... is probably the American writer who tells us best how to live comfortably with our most constant companion, ourselves.”
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“It was a real treat when he’d read me Daisy Miller out loud. But we’d reached the point in our relationship when, in a straight choice between him and Henry James, I’d have taken Henry James any day even if Henry James were dead and not much of a one for the girls when living, either.”
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“As humans have a prior right to existence over dogs by virtue of being more highly evolved and having a superior consciousness, so women have a prior right to existence over men. The elimination of any male is, therefore, a righteous and good act, an act highly beneficial to women as well as an act of mercy.”
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